by admin | Nov 15, 2016 | Notes from the Field, OpenLMIS, Supply Chain, Technology, Uncategorized
OpenLMIS, SELV, iSC. To most people these acronyms don’t mean much. To me, they tell a story of getting vaccines to the most remote communities in Mozambique. Sistema Electronico de Logstica de Vacinas (SELV) is the local name of a software used to record information...
by admin | Oct 24, 2016 | data for decision making, Supply Chain
In 1972, The UN General Assembly agreed to mark October 24 each year as World Development Information Day in order to draw the world’s attention to development problems and the need to strengthen international cooperation to solve them. The Assembly felt that...
by admin | Oct 3, 2016 | data for decision making, Pharmacy, Supply Chain
Simple ideas can be powerful – a point driven home during my recent trip to Uganda. While I was there, I had the opportunity to tour the Ugandan national medical stores, where medicines for the entire country are warehoused. The head of sales and marketing showed me...
by admin | Aug 17, 2016 | Malawi, Pharmacy
One hundred and thirty minutes. That’s just over two hours. It’s a long time to wait to see a doctor no matter where you are in the world. Then after waiting for two hours, patients talk to a healthcare provider for less than 2 minutes – 140 seconds – before they...
by admin | Jul 13, 2016 | data for decision making, Supply Chain, Technology
If someone asked me “what’s a van?” in the US, I’d probably say a big-ish vehicle meant to efficiently move people and stuff from point A to point B. In Africa, these large people movers are called minibuses, kombis or any of a hundred other terms, except van. So when...
by admin | Dec 22, 2015 | data for decision making, Health Worker Capacity, Technology, Uncategorized
In response to this article by Dr. Mahad Ibrahim on the role of data during the Ebola outbreak, some interesting questions were sparked among our team. The piece evoked a lot of great insights about the opportunities and challenges the piece addresses, as well as how...
by admin | Oct 12, 2015 | Supply Chain
The UN Commission for Life-Saving Commodities (UNCoLSC) “Atelier d’échange: Pratiques et ressources pour améliorer l’accès aux treize produits vitaux pour la santé des femmes et des enfants” (in English, “Workshop to Promote Exchange on Practices and Resources to...
by admin | Apr 7, 2015 | Mozambique, Notes from the Field, Supply Chain
Improving Data for Management of the Vaccine Cold Chain in Mozambique Last week I was spending a lot of time with my colleague from UNICEF/Mozambique to create a distribution plan for new cold chain equipment procured and funded by UNICEF. This is a great opportunity...
by admin | Feb 9, 2015 | Health Worker Capacity, Malawi, Maternal and Child Health, Notes from the Field
VillageReach, in collaboration with D-tree, is proud to announce the implementation of a new mHealth application in Malawi. What an exciting partnership! During the first week of February 2015, 25 health surveillance assistants (HSAs), nurses and other health workers...
by admin | Dec 4, 2014 | Health Worker Capacity, Malawi, Maternal and Child Health
The Role of Data Collection and One Community’s Path Toward Change While working on the Kwitanda Community Health Project (KCHP), based in the Kwitanda catchment area, Balaka District, in southern Malawi, I have seen firsthand how critical the role of data...
