TIST: Rising carbon price enables more rapid growth of TIST tree growing in Africa and India
Growth of TIST’s pro-poor tree growing activities in sub-Saharan Africa and India has been held back in the past by the low price paid in the informal carbon market for its “high quality” carbon credits. The greater recent awareness of the need to act to address climate change has led to a large increase in 2020 in the price paid to purchase TIST’s carbon credits. The resulting increase in resources has enabled TIST to adopt a more ambitious expansion plan aimed at substantial further increases in the currently 90,000 farmer beneficiaries and the currently 18 million trees grown.
Jacaranda Designing for Impact: How To Remain Equitable and Relevant for Mums - at Scale
If Jacaranda have learnt one thing through COVID-19, it's the power of accurate information and the threat of its absence. When it comes to maternal and newborn health, information is the lynchpin to mums seeking care at the right time and place, helping them recognize signs that they or their baby may be at risk. But how do they maintain the relevance and impact of the information they share with mums as they grow?
Jacaranda recognize that every mum is different. Some mums use basic phones, others smartphones. They speak different languages, and have varied needs depending on, say, their age, educational level, stage of pregnancy, or location, which is why they rigorously and routinely adapt the messages they send mums through PROMPTS - their AI-enabled digital health tool - to make sure lifesaving information around pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum is inclusive and easily understood. This month Jacaranda sent their 50 millionth message. The figure is an encouraging benchmark of their current capacity and demand but as they expand, their priority is always that quantity does not replace quality, and mums continue to receive timely, clinically-accurate messages tailored to their needs. The tangible impact they've seen so far in shifting health seeking behaviors is testament to this approach; women on the platform are 27% more likely to seek prenatal care and uptake of family planning has doubled. As Jacaranda test and adapt their messages, they commit to equity and relevance to ensure they continue to place mothers at the center of design. Read the full story here.
Jacaranda Health reaching the last mile of under-immunized infants through tech-enabled immunization tracking
|
Immunization is one of the greatest global health success stories, achieving significant gains in driving down rates of child mortality worldwide. Yet against this backdrop of success a major data challenge emerges; namely how to identify underimmunized infants when coverage is already high… Generating high-frequency, real-time data on where, when and how to reach the last mile of underimmunized children is a low-cost, scalable approach to closing the immunization gap, ensuring all infants receive their full dose of vaccines as a basic human right. PROMPTS, Jacaranda's digital health platform serving 800K+ mums and babies across Kenya, is also being used to improve immunization, and identify geographic hotspots of weak immunization across 15 counties. Building on its two-way messaging and data collection capabilities, PROMPTS sends mums information about immunization, reminders for when to take their babies for vaccination, and asks questions about adverse events (like a fever or headache) following immunization - a common factor to vaccine hesitancy. Mums will be asked; ‘Have you taken your baby for its week 6 vaccination?’. If she replies ‘no’, the next question is ‘why?’. This follow-up is critical. Responses from mums are relayed to our government partners, who are then equipped to address barriers like stock-outs or lack of transport to facilities, improving immunization coverage in a resource-efficient way. EfD are pleased to have supported Jacaranda's PROMPTS initiative and their government partnerships initiative. |
Jacaranda's Tech and the path to operational scale-up - Three ways technology is helping us reach more mums and providers
Simple technology has the power to radically transform care models for patients and providers, and for health organizations like Jacaranda, its use in building robust, operationally-effective systems at scale can’t be underestimated…
Thanks to tech-enabled data collection, PROMPTS Helpdesk Manager Angela Juma has greater visibility on where and how to make improvements to the helpdesk, connecting more mums to care - faster.
Simple technology has the power to radically transform care models for patients and providers, and for health organizations like Jacaranda, its use in building robust, operationally-effective systems at scale can’t be underestimated. As they continue to test, build, and adapt their solutions to reach more mums and nurses, their program teams are asking converging questions around efficiency versus scale, namely; ‘how do we make accessing our tools easier?’, ‘how do we maintain their quality at scale?’, and ‘how do we ensure our program teams continue to innovate whilst responding to increased numbers?’. The answer - in part - lies in tech, which helps scale quality interventions faster by reducing barriers to uptake, saving time and human error, and generating data to help Jacaranda see where and how to improve.
Jacaranda save lives by updating their simple and replicable low cost technology tool to find and track emergency blood sources.
Jacaranda are cutting operational bottlenecks using low cost technologies to provide real time tracking to source blood supplies by type and number of units preventing postpartum hemorrhage deaths (excessive bleeding after delivery), the most common cause of maternal death in SSA.
By empowering providers with real-time information, Jacaranda are helping limit the unnecessary, life-threatening delays in clinical emergencies - giving medics more time to do what they do best; getting people better. Read how Jacaranda are using the potential of digital technologies to radically shift models of care and bring powerful new tools to patients and providers here
Jacaranda Health selected to join Google's AI for Social Good Program!
Jacaranda are excited to be one of the top 30 projects from over 17 countries across Asia-Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa to join the Google AI for Social Good program. They will be working with Dr. Amulya Yadav at Penn State University to expand upon their AI tools that triage and predict risk for mothers on their PROMPTS platform. Read more about AI for Social Good here