Imagine a device that could deliver accurate and up-to-date medical information to the most remote areas of Ebola “Hot Zone” in West Africa.
What if I told you this device was already in the hands of about two-thirds of the population of these countries?
A new, free, gender empowerment resource for women and men was launched today by Airtel Madagascar and HNI, financed by GSMA Connected Women.
Known in Madagascar as Tolotra Mandroso, a Malagasy term meaning “Welcome” and “Development” service, the 3-2-1 Service is a multi-channel mobile service that provides access to important public service information in the local language, anytime, anywhere, and free of charge. Continue reading
Human Network International (HNI) is pleased to announce that we have been awarded a Stars in Global Health grant from Grand Challenges Canada! Grand Challenges Canada is funded by the Government of Canada and is dedicated to supporting Bold Ideas with Big Impact in global health.
With this award, HNI will collaborate with government ministries and lead stakeholder organizations in Madagascar to add 100 new global health messages to our 3-2-1 Service. The new messages will be based on advice from leading health experts in Madagascar as well as the feedback from current 3-2-1 users. Check out our proposal video!
The 3-2-1 Service provides free on-demand public service information across development topics (e.g., Health, Family Planning, Gender, Water and Sanitation, Agriculture, Micro finance, and Land Tenure) on simple mobile phones through voice and text in Malagasy to all Airtel subscribers in Madagascar. With this service, the population can access vital public service information on their Airtel phones, anytime, anywhere, and free of charge!
The 3-2-1 Service in Madagascar is extremely popular: over 200,000 unique users per month make over 1 million queries. Since the launch of the Service in 2010, the 3-2-1 Service has had more than 3 million users make a total of 45+ million queries. HNI is excited to use the Grand Challenges Canada: Stars in Global Health award to further expand the health messages on the 3-2-1 Service and make them available for free to the Malagasy population!
Human Network International (HNI) is a sub-contractor to Chemonics International Inc. for the USAID Coastal City Adaptation Project in collaboration with Guy Carpenter & Company and TechChange. This project seeks to improve climate resilience and adaptation in two at-risk Mozambican municipalities, Pemba & Quelimane, with assistance from the American people. HNI will support the initiative by offering innovative, mobile-based data collection and information dissemination to support monitoring and evaluation (M&E) efforts; enhancing the capacity of USAID Coastal City Adaptation Project municipalities in data collection, analysis, and visualization; and enhancing early warning and disaster risk notification systems.
The prevalence of mobile phones and mobile network coverage in Mozambique presents an opportunity to introduce improved forms of early warning and post-disaster communication systems that can complement more traditional forms of communication (such as radio) and increase the effectiveness and efficiency of urban service delivery. HNI will work with the municipalities and the National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC) to improve communication with civil society organizations and community members to make sure they get important early warning information directly on their own mobile phones.
HNI will also support these partners to identify official disaster preparedness announcements and make this information available – free of charge and on-demand – via simple mobile telephones for the general public. This mobile resource will also include informative messages on climate change adaptation measures to improve the resilience of local communities to natural disasters. While these agencies already publish frequent updates as disasters such as cyclones approach, this information is often not accessible by the general public without access to the Internet. As a result too often citizens are ill-informed and unprepared when disasters strike.
HNI will also develop a mobile post-disaster data collection system in collaboration with regional officials to build the capacity of the Mozambican government to independently manage the post-disaster data collection system for future emergencies. Local officials need timely, accurate, and complete data in order to make resource allocation decisions immediately after a disaster. HNI will support these officials to use SMS technology in order to open new lines of communication with public servants and community volunteers who have important information to share.
Click for details about the USAID Coastal City Adaptation Project in Mozambique, read more about HNI’s experience with mobile disaster reporting in Madagascar, or click below to browse our photo album from the trainings!
You talked… and we listened. Based on partner feedback, we made our questionnaire building process simpler and easier. Now you can build your first questionnaire – and text in sample data – in less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee!
Click below to watch a tutorial video fresh off the press that shows just how easy it is to use DataWinners to start collecting data!
[su_youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8JvbSPhHk0&list=PL8-ns6bBc2OrBnCd6CTjswMgwaRDSPNrN&feature=share&index=1″%5D
To inspire you to think creatively about all the different data you can collect with DataWinners, take a look at some of our sample Questionnaires in our new Template Library.
If you want to collect data about the same people, places or things more than once, consider registering them in DataWinners and giving each an Identification Number to improve your accuracy and speed up data collection.
Then your Data Senders can use the Identification Numbers to answer your key questions. Example: “What is the Identification Number of the child you are visiting?”
Get started quickly with DataWinners by browsing our online selection of fun tutorial videos featuring the music of Madagascar on the DataWinners YouTube Channel!
We are delighted to report that HNI Madagascar has just been awarded a GSMA mWomen Innovation Fund grant! These grants support scalable and sustainable offerings in order to increase women’s access to and use of mobile phones and life-enhancing mobile services in developing markets. The GSMA mWomen Global Development Alliance is a programme in partnership with USAID, Australian DFAT, GSMA and Visa, Inc.
GSMA mWomen solicited innovative mobile solutions from industry and development partners to serve women in order to reduce the mobile gender gap and generate insights to encourage and equip others to do the same.
In collaboration with Airtel Madagascar, HNI proposed to address the lack of access to information among resource-poor women in Madagascar by creating the first ever on-demand, mobile resource for women. We will do this by building on our 3-2-1 Service – which has already been accessed by 2 million+ Airtel subscribers – and adding new content specifically designed for women.
Photos: Erik (HASH) Hersman
The gender topic will be the first menu choice when calling the 3-2-1 Service. Callers will be able to dial 3-2-1 and access free messages on women’s rights, women’s development, women’s health and youth topics, and gender violence and trafficking.
This offering represents a revolutionary shift in the way that rural, resource-poor women receive important, life-improving information. By providing the opportunity to access the service from their own mobile phone, Malagasy women will be able to overcome traditional barriers to information, consulting trusted sources without fear of stigma or retribution.
Read more about HNI’s new on-demand mobile resource for women, or click to visit GSMA mWomen’s blog post announcing the award!
Human Network International is seeking passionate individuals, regardless of background, for a new Chief Technical Officer (CTO) position. The CTO will have the opportunity to lead the development of DataWinners, HNI’s innovative cloud-based data collection tool, and other custom-designed services using the latest technologies.
HNI is a dynamic and rapidly growing organization with great potential for career advancement and opportunity long-term placement in developing nations. Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis until April 10th. Click to hni.org/careers to check out the full position description, and please share this announcement with your networks!
Peace Corps Senegal and Peace Corps headquarters staff are conducting a process evaluation of the Master Farmer Program, which is funded through the food security agreement with USAID. Peace Corps Senegal Language and Cultural Facilitators (LCFs) were trained to collect data using Google Nexus 7 tablets and the free DataWinners Android App.
LCFs conducted field interviews with Master Farmers, community members, and Peace Corps Volunteers throughout Senegal, and then uploaded the data in the evening when WiFi was available. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected, including GPS coordinates of farms where improved technologies are being applied and photos of those technologies, which were uploaded to Google Drive.
Photo credit: Danielle Stoermer
Data will be collected through early March and the final report will be published in late May. The results of this review will be used to improve the Master Farmer Program, provide guidance for other Peace Corps posts interested in establishing a similar program, and serve as a model for future reviews of other Peace Corps programs.
For more photos and project updates, visit Peace Corps/Senegal on Facebook!
________________________________________
The DataWinners Android App is available for free in the GooglePlay store. Download project questionnaires directly onto your Smartphone or Tablet, fill them out, and upload the data whenever you have an internet connection!
Human Network International manages a dedicated team of design artists, quality assurance experts, and professional developers who are constantly working to improve DataWinners. The team publishes updates to the software every 4-6 weeks to fix bugs and add new features based on partner feedback. Check out a few of the most recent improvements, thanks to the suggestions of our wonderful partners!
We have just implemented “Drag & Drop” functionality throughout the DataWinners platform. This allows users the opportunity to change the order of their questions on project questionnaires and subject registration forms. 
Please note that when changing the question order on pre-existing questionnaires, we advise re-sending the updated questionnaire to your Data Senders if you had previously sent out a printed copy of the project questionnaire. 
We have also just stocked the “Guides & Tutorials” section of DataWinners.com chock full of helpful resources. Click below to check out all of our new support materials to help you get started with your data collection projects!
For more than 50 years, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has taken the lead in responding to natural and man-made disasters in Ethiopia. Currently CRS manages the Joint Emergency Operation Partnership (JEOP), a USAID-funded emergency food assistance program providing food aid to almost one million people in Ethiopia. The program operates across Ethiopia and is a partnership between many agencies and the Government.
It’s impossible to respond to an undetected emergency. To manage food aid effectively, JEOP project managers need early warning and market pricing data from rural Districts. Historically, early warning reporting systems in Ethiopia were paper-based. Reports were handwritten and carried from place to place. Not only did data arrive late – often too late to prevent a food crisis from occurring – but many of the most vulnerable communities were not included. JEOP managers needed a new solution.
In August 2012, CRS subscribed to the DataWinners service. The CRS Early Warning Assessment and Response Coordinator, Shenkut Ayele, created a questionnaire in DataWinners on 24 food security indicators related to water sufficiency, crop conditions, harvests, rain levels, livestock condition and mortality, pasture availability, food consumption, food gaps and market prices. He then trained community members from 79 rural districts to submit answers weekly using their own mobile phones.
Each week, the JEOP now routinely collects data from 95% of the targeted Districts. After analyzing the data in real time, JEOP produces timely reports on the food security situation for USAID, Government Agencies and concerned stakeholders. JEOP management and stakeholders use these reports to make key decisions such as resource allocation and planning.
“DataWinners speeds up information sharing and shortens the response time for emergency assistance. This is important because lives are at stake.”
Shenkut Ayele, Catholic Relief Services, Ethiopia
Early Warning Assessment & Response Coordinator
DataWinners 