Case Studies
Implementers and technical managers have deployed RapidSMS (add link) to add value to their development projects by improving efficiency and accuracy. RapidSMS can be used in countless ways to add value to development projects by transforming how data can be collected and utilized. From education to health, this platform is already changing lives throughout Africa. Learn more about some of the exciting development projects that have been implemented by RapidSMS in each program country.
Education
Senegal– The Jokko Initiative: Literacy and Community Empowerment (link to Case Study)
The Jokko Initiative is a collaboration between UNICEF and Tostan that makes it possible to communicate with a network of people by simply sending a text message. Through Jokko’s RapidSMS Community Forum, a user can send an SMS text message to a “magic number” that then forwards the message to all phone numbers belonging to the network. The module also introduces mobile phones as pedagogical tools to teach and reinforce literacy as well as the organization and management skills taught in Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program.
Emergency Response
Somalia- Monitoring Emergency Response
A RapidSMS project for emergency response monitoring is currently in the testing phase, leading to deployment in southern Somalia. Previously, data from the Emergency Response Monitoring Checklist was submitted via paper and email by various aid organizations sporadically and often inaccurately or with important data missing.
Health
Kenya- Empowering Community Health Workers
A recent Millennium Villages (link) Project, with support from UNICEF, is customizing RapidSMS to address the mortality of children under five years old at a community level. This initiative brings diagnoses, referrals and treatment out of the clinics and into the communities.
Kenya – ChildCount
Malawi – Nutritional Surveillance (link to Case Study)
UNICEF Malawi deployed RapidSMS to address serious constraints within the national Integrated Nutrition and Food Security Surveillance System (MINFSS) which was facing slow data transmission and poor quality data sets. RapidSMS has automated the basic diagnostic tests and is now identifying more children with moderate malnutrition who were previously falling through the cracks.
Supply Chain Management
Nigeria– Monitoring Supplies in a Campaign Setting (link to Case Study)
In Nigeria, RapidSMS piloted the first phase of a 70-million ‘Long Lasting Insecticide-Treated Nets’ distribution campaign. RapidSMS was first used in Kano state to capture data about commodities from state stores local government areas and distribution points.
Ethiopia– Supply Chain Management (link to Case Study)
In October 2008, Ethiopia experienced crippling droughts. Faced with the possibility of famine, UNICEF Ethiopia launched a massive food distribution program to supply the high-protein food Plumpy’nut to under-nourished children at more than 1,800 feeding centers in the country.