S P E C I A L I S T I N S I G H T
While they ’ re expensive to train and retain , they played a massive role during the pandemic in preventing infections across Sub-Saharan Africa – and they will continue to do so .
So , while the health worker situation is dire , it ’ s not insurmountable as long as we work together .
How is Cognizant allowing Amref to enhance training programmes , provide greater visibility and improve services ?
As an organisation , we are ambassadors of technology . We know that technology can do a lot of good – especially in contexts where resources are strained . Technology is especially powerful when you ' re able to use it to connect various pieces of the puzzle together .
We have several digital tools , which we use for training , service delivery and data collection . We have two tools for training : Jibu and Leap . Jibu means ‘ answer ’ in Swahili , and , quite literally , aims to provide training and education answers for health workers and aid their professional development using smart devices . Similarly , Leap is a learning solution for healthcare workers – primarily CHWs – that uses short message services
( SMS ) and interactive voice recordings ( IVR ) that can work on of any basic phone .
We have another tool , m-Jali , which is a service delivery platform for data collection and reporting at a household level . While the tools have been in use for a long time , the challenge lies in i ) better visualising the data that sits within each tool , and ii ) understanding the connection between the training you ’ re providing and the quality of service being delivered within the community by the health workers using the training .
The work that we explored with Cognizant was about visualisation and integration , how you get different tools and technologies to talk to each other to provide a more robust picture .
It ’ s important for health workers to get real-time data for informed decision-making . Working with our teams , Cognizant , with support from GSK , was able to come in , understand the tools that we have and create dashboards to better understand the data within them . This has been an insightful process for both the Amref team and the stakeholders we work with . It has enhanced our data analytics and visualisation capabilities , while also whetting appetites to do even more in this space such as integration with government systems for scale and sustainability .
What does the future hold for Amref ?
Our vision is to have lasting health change in Africa by continuing to focus on peoplecentred and community-led solutions . That is quite an ambitious vision , but it ' s not impossible to accomplish . Collaboration is the only way to successfully address the challenges the health sector is facing . Long-standing partners to Amref , like GSK , and newer partners like Cognizant , continue to provide the necessary resources for this critical work .
To create a world in which we can all thrive , our entry point is always women and young people . This is because we know that focusing on these groups of people will mean that no one is left behind . We must work together to find global health solutions that work because disease , as evidenced by the COVID-19 pandemic , knows no borders . �
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