Orange, GAVI and Côte d’Ivoire Ministry of Health are coming together for a mobile phone project, “M-Vaccin Côte d’Ivoire,” which will increase child immunization by focusing on regions with the lowest immunization rates in the Côte d’Ivoire.

GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance

GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, is dedicated to protecting children’s lives and health by providing immunizations in developing countries. Orange works towards providing technology to use as tools in both healthcare and also education and finances and believes that their digital outreach supports those aspects of underdeveloped countries.

The project will use Orange mobile technology to both inform parents about the importance of vaccinations through text and voice messages and to also make sure parents don’t forget about immunization appointments by sending reminders of the date and time of their child’s session.

Orange Technology

Orange will also be providing health care workers with the M-Vaccin mobile application that allows them to view data, create vaccination schedules for individual families they are caring for and monitor the results, which in turn should increase child immunization.

The partnership between these organizations will continue for five years; during this time, Orange and GAVI will combine to invest a collective $5.47 million in the project. Half of the investment will be from the GAVI Matching Fund, and the other half from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This funding will go to support the outreach program and provide both mobile devices to those in need and healthcare workers, and also inform citizens about the importance of immunizations, and keeping up with vaccination appointments and learning sessions.

Project Implementation

The Project will be implemented in the 29 districts of Côte d’Ivoire where immunization is lower than the national average. Many of the parents living in these districts aren’t fully informed about immunizations, and often aren’t living close enough to healthcare centers in the first place. Côte d’Ivoire’s infant mortality rates are some of the highest in the world, and only continue to increase; about half of children under age one are immunized.

The M-Vaccin Program

The M-Vaccin Program expects to reach more than 800,000 children and could possibly be expanded into other countries in West Africa upon evaluation. Dr. Seth Berkley, the CEO if GAVI, said the partnership is really important for the children of Côte d’Ivoire, and that their parents do not receive enough information about vaccinations because of where they live.

Solving or working around these situational obstacles will significantly improve the rates of child immunization in the Côte d’Ivoire, and also hopefully serve as a catalyst for further increases in child immunization across the continent.

– Chloe Turner

Photo: Flickr