NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Public-Private Engagement for Better Health in Africa

While assessing the good, the bad, and the innovative, new report by the World Bank Group finds that public-private engagement is less than systematic. The Healthy Partnerships report evaluates engagement with private providers in 45 African countries. Lead author Connor Spreng, an economist at the World Bank, on the findings.

Categories

Health Care, Technology

Tags

governance

MOTECH’s Mobile Apps Bridging Rural Gap for Pregnant Women

Started in 2009, MOTECH is a mobile health platform that offers two main applications: mobile midwives and nurse services. Pregnant women and their families register for the cell service through community health centers. MOTECH boosts efficiency for nurses, to be sure. But it also gets low-income patients to think consciously about their health.

Categories

Technology

Tags

Base of the Pyramid, rural development

New Techniques, Technology Helping Operation ASHA to Expand

Operation ASHA is a community-based program founded in the Delhi slums to fight the spread of antibiotic resistant TB strains by incentivizing counselors to closely monitor progress of patients and ensure they finish courses of DOTS. They have been growing at a dizzying pace with plans to expand to Cambodia, Morocco, Ghana, and Kenya.

Categories

Health Care, Impact Assessment, Technology

Tags

Base of the Pyramid, technical assistance

Indian Mobile Initiative Sweeps MIT?s Service Challenge

Thirteen other teams snagged implementation awards to partner with communities on innovative projects overcoming gaps in water/sanitation, agriculture and medical accessibility as part of this year?s MIT IDEAS Competition and the newly launched Global Challenge. This year 45 teams in all competed for $150,000 in awards to fight global challenges.

Categories

Agriculture, Technology

Tags

poverty alleviation

ViewChange Video of the Week: World Water Day and Drip Technology

Water issues are top of mind today, which is World Water Day. Modern agriculture tends to focus on helping farmers with large fields (and more money to spend). But an innovative, inexpensive drip irrigation systems, developed with investment from the Acumen Fund, are helping smallholder farmers in India dramatically increase crop yields.

Categories

Agriculture, Technology

Technology for the People: Notes from the ONE Africa Symposium

The first-ever ONE Africa Symposium in Johannesburg, South Africa was designed to highlight novel technology and innovations unleashing Africa’s economic potential and promoting sustainable development. The 300 attendees were a cross-section of innovators, policymakers, students and academics. Two innovators: Sproxil and Transparent Aid, stood out.

Categories

Environment, Technology

Piramal eSwasthya (Part 2): Building Acceptance for Mobile Health

"The world’s most radical yet simplest healthcare delivery model for the BoP, (with the) largest number of patients treated through remote diagnosis - Piramal eSwasthya becomes synonymous with the word telemedicine." That’s the headline the head of Piramal eSwasthya wants to see in 2020. In part two of our interview, he explains achieving it.

Categories

Health Care, Technology

Tags

public health

Booting Up Tanzania With Help From Google

When Joshua Stern, a graduate of Stanford with a degree in computer science, served in the Peace Corps in Tanzania from 2006 to 2007, one thing soon became clear. "The major takeaway there," he tells Fast Company , "was that the best development work being done was being done by these local groups, community-based organizations." The small groups were often the most effective--yet they had no web presence, no effective way to communicate with other small NGOs or to raise f...

Source

Fast Company (link opens in a new window)

Categories

Technology

Region

Sub-Saharan Africa