Category: People
Championing the Health Worker: Meet Martha Mazana
Apr 8, 2015
Did you know Sub-Saharan Africa has 24% of the global disease burden but only 3% of the world’s health workers? Health workers are at the heart of the BID Initiative and in honor of World Health Worker Week, we take a moment to honor their commitment to improving health systems. Meet Martha Mazana, a health worker in charge at the Victoria Falls Clinic in the Southern Province of Zambia.
Read MoreStrength in Numbers: The Power Behind Peer Learning Networks
Mar 16, 2015
The BID Initiative is designed with an embedded peer learning network, the BID Learning Network (BLN). Through this peer support and collaboration, participants are able to learn from the successes and failures in other countries, and build new solutions together so they can make faster progress towards higher immunization rates. Particpants have already and continue to share personal experiences, providing invaluable insight to the BID Initiative efforts and other BLN particpants through our Google Group discussions, webinars and in-person consultation meetings. The following post on the value of peer networks originally appeared on the PATH blog.
Read MoreThe BID Learning Network Introduces Small Grant Program
Jan 26, 2015
Embedded within the BID Initiative structure is the BID Learning Network (BLN) which is intended to facilitate peer learning and dissemination of innovations and lessons learned. The goal of the BLN is to bring countries together to identify shared problems and solutions; use that knowledge to design common information system products, practices, and data policies that will be useful to all; experiment with these designs in countries to determine their applicability; and then use this experience to inform national and global decision-making.
Read MoreHighlights from the BLN Design Collaborative
Jan 15, 2015
The BID Initiative Learning Network (BLN) Design Collaborative meeting was held in Lusaka, Zambia from 1st-4th December 2014. BLN members from nine sub-Saharan African countries attended to discuss and iterate on the design of BID Initiative solutions, specifically country immunization information system needs.
Read MoreUser Advisory Group Established in Zambia
Dec 24, 2014
We recently established a new User Advisory Group (UAG) in the Livingstone District of Zambia! Similar to the Tanzania UAG, this group will play a critical role in the design and iteration of proposed solutions and interventions. The goal is to improve immunisation data quality, collection and use addressing the various challenges identified by the EPI program and other stakeholders in the district.
Read MoreWhen Will Design Get Serious About Impact?
Dec 22, 2014
A recent article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review discusses the increasing importance of Human Centered Design in the public sector as well as international development. On the heels of our BID Learning Network Design Collaborative meeting, we couldn’t agree more.
Read MoreTesting Interventions in Livingstone
Dec 19, 2014
Last month, we joined our colleagues from both the Lusaka and Livingstone offices to visit four health facilities in Livingstone. The purpose of our visits were to test the proposed product vision and change management interventions in the facilities and obtain feedback from health care providers.
Read MoreTanzania UAG – Members Prove their Commitment to the BID Initiative
Dec 17, 2014
The BID Initiative’s User Advisory Group (UAG) plays a critical role in the design, fine-tuning and prioritization of proposed solutions and interventions to improve immunization data quality, collection, and use. The Tanzania UAG recently convened in Arusha to review the testing phase results and discuss lessons learned. The meeting was a success as UAG members expressed their commitments and readiness to the BID Initiative and National Immunization and Vaccination Development Program (IVD) to assure interventions are successfully implemented and sustained.
Read MoreSustainable Impact at Global mHealth Forum
Dec 13, 2014
If you follow the Potomac River south from Washington, DC, on the Maryland side you’ll come across a large hotel and convention center in National Harbor, MD. Here, the Gaylord National Convention Center is buzzing with the energy of over 500 people from 50 countries who have gathered to share knowledge and experiences around using mobile phones for health impact in low- and middle-income countries.
Read MoreUHC and ICT: More than Just Acronyms
Dec 12, 2014
Today is the first-ever Universal Health Coverage day and the two-year anniversary of a unanimous United Nations resolution endorsing universal health coverage. Over 500 organizations around the world are working to ensure that “every person, everywhere, has access to health care without financial hardship.”[1]
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