Community health workers (CHWs) improve access to quality health services at the community level. Despite the critical role that CHWs play, governments often have limited insight into their activities, the quality of their services, the conditions of the communities that they serve, and how best to link these CHWs and their beneficiaries to the larger health system. To effectively monitor CHW services and improve public health management at the community level, practical, effective and integrated systems for data collection, analysis and monitoring are needed. Mobile technologies show great promise, but how do we ensure they are integrated with national HMIS systems and how do we scale them to meet the need?
Highlighting case examples from three countries, this webinar presents the successes and challenges of linking a CHW workforce to larger national health systems with mobile technologies. Presenters will explore the technical process of integrating various mobile platforms; best practices and lessons learned building reports to facilitate data-based decision making at the government level; and how to design for scale within existing systems and considering the processes needed to integrate with those systems.
Panelists will share lessons learned from the following –initiatives: 
Ethiopia – JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc (JSI) and the Government of Ethiopia are working to equip 40,000 Health Extension Workers with an electronic community health information system (eCHIS). Understand how an initiative to implement a mobile solution to improve Post Natal Care (PNC) in the first 48 hours after birth has evolved to integrate into this larger health system vision.
Madagascar – The Ministry of Health in Madagascar is working with USAID, MSH and Dimagi to build a comprehensive mHealth application for use by community health volunteers (CHVs) to improve the health of women of reproductive age, children under five, and infants by enhancing the quality of primary health care services at the community level.
India – Dimagi is working with the Ministry of Women and Child Development to launch a maternal and child health (MCH) application to over 100,000 community health workers across eight states of India. Data collected through the system is made visible in a robust reporting dashboard at the Central, State and District levels.
Coordinated by Dimagi with support from Initiatives Inc. and the Health Systems Global CHW Thematic Working Group.
Webinar Recording:
All PowerPoints below:
A Mobile Solution for Health Extension Workers in Ethiopia.pptx
ICDS-CAS – Deploying mobile technology to 110,000 CHWs across India .pdf
USAID Mikolo Project – Integration to Ministry of Health DHIS2 System.pdf
Resource Topic: Community Health Workers/Volunteers, mHealth and Technology
Resource Type: Presentations
Year: 2018
Region:
Country: Ethiopia, India, Madagascar
Publisher May Restrict Access: No