There are immense opportunities in this field and we really look forward to assisting reproductive and maternal health NGOs in making the most of these new tools in support of their work!

NFC is basically a set of short-range wireless technologies, typically requiring a distance of 10 cm or less, the technology always involves an initiator and a target and can take very simple form factors such as tags, stickers, key fobs, or cards that do not require batteries. NFC peer-to-peer communication is also possible, where both devices are powered.  NFC tags currently contain anything from simple data to elaborate instructions that enable them to unlock doors, pay for goods, launch phone calls or exchange data between users.  The below (4 year old) video from MIT gives a good idea of some of the possible uses.

NFC is already available on a number of phones and will be on all mobiles within a few years (kinda like the ‘new GPS’).  The technology opens up amazing new possibilities for health and development programmes/approaches, both from a professional and individual user perspective.  We want to map to these out and help the development/health community be at the forefront of this technology, as it rolls out!

Through Mama, health workers are now able to identify themselves as maternal health champions within humanitarian organizations or in the field and to join a community of practice. Maternal health practitioners will, though five innovative applications, be able to seek advice from fellow members, share best practices and lessons learned, assess their own practices/skills level and test their knowledge of the MISP (minimal initial service package).   Mama also offers rewards through digital badges for actions taken as well as a  ‘Lives Saved Counter’ application through which the community can register when they enabled a safe birth, showing the positive impact of their work.

Mama is also an unprecedented initiative as it addresses the isolation faced by many health workers in the field through the use of new technology. For the first time, practitioners who may not have access to the Internet or smart phones will be able to send their questions/comments about maternal health to the Facebook community via SMS. This text message is posted to the Mama wall and member news feeds through a Facebook application. The other community members can reply to the question and the answer is sent as a text message back to the practitioner. The answer is filtered by the community and has to be recommended (”liked”) by three members before it is sent.

The project also involves expert Mama Mentors who provide advice, technical updates and answer specific questions.  The community will focus on different technical/programmatic themes each month and new mentors will be invited to join in and support discussions.

We are very proud of this innovative project and look forward to providing continued support to Mama and WRC!

We’re also excited about an innovative partnership with JamiiX and MxIT, which will bring the campaign message and emergency preparedness information, through the mobile, to 3.5 million Indonesians.  This, a first for WHO, will be launched next week and seeks to showcase the effectiveness of new approaches in health outreach.

The RapidSMS scheme may prove vital in reducing the country’s high maternal mortality rate.  Since its launch last year in Musanze, there have been no reported maternal deaths in the district (compared with 10 in 2008).   The next step in this UN backed campaign is to provide a further 17,000 phones to maternal health care service providers and then a further 50,000 to every health care worker in the country.  Will be interesting to follow how this approach will affect the country’s mortality and morbidity rates.

To hear a good summary of lessons learnt, listen to the podcast released by The Chronicle of Philanthropy where Wendy Harman, social media manager at the American Red Cross, and Geoff Livingston, chief marketing officer at Zoetica Media, discuss the opportunities and drawbacks associated with this emerging fundraising tool.