mHealth: Kenya

The Kenyan integrated mobile Maternal and Newborn Child Health information
platform (KimMNCHip) is a national scale effort to provide affordable and
accessible mobile health solutions to all pregnant women and mothers with
children under 5 everywhere in Kenya. It is run by a cross-sector partnership
between the Government of Kenya, Safaricom, World Vision, Care, AMREF, and
NetHope.

Background
KimMNCHip is designed from the outset to be implemented at national scale. Its objectives
are to: 1) strengthen Kenya’s community health system/referral services by linking households,
community health workers, and health facilities in a real-time health information system that
tracks pregnancies, births, and maternal deaths and provides updates and reminders for timely
interventions; 2) provide push and pull target-based health messaging for mothers and
household members; and 3) promote and popularize mSavings and eVouchers for mothers and
related family members.

Using Mobiles to Connect Mothers to Different Health Facilities and Services

mHealth: Kenya

In 2009, Kenya reported an under 5 mortality rate of 74 out of 1,000 live births. Kenya also
has 29.2 million mobile subscribers (March 2012), implying that, with an estimated population of
41 million, over half of the adult population, and at least every household, has a phone. It is
KimMNCHip’s intention that in the same way Kenya set the pace for mobile money transfer,
Kenya will set the pace for Africa in relation to making mobile phones work for the health of
mothers and children.

Stakeholder Engagement

Staff from Safaricom, World Vision, Care, AMREF, the Ministry of Medical Services, and the
Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation have formed a taskforce to define KimMNCHip’s
requirements. This taskforce includes representatives from the Division of Reproductive
Health, the Division of Child and Adolescent Health, the Division of E-health, the Division of
Community Promotional Services, and other NGOs. KimMNCHip members also actively
engage in key committees responsible for family planning, maternal and child health, and
community health indicators. Efforts are ongoing to form focus groups of mothers to provide
feedback on KimMNCHip.

Targets

The project will be realized in a three-phased approach spanning three to four years:
 Phase I: Introduction of clinical/diagnostic components for mother and child, linkage to
the community health monitoring system, and basic push messaging for mothers and
health workers.
 Phase II: Introduction of mSavings and eVouchers
 Phase III: National scale up to reach 6-10 million mothers and 200,000 community
health workers in 200 districts.

Mobile Solution
The mobile solution will use a combination of web portals and SMS to deliver the clinical
components for mother and under 5 case management and link it to a community health M&E
system. The system will work in real time in connected areas, and work offline in areas with no
connectivity, then synchronize when a connection is made to the mobile network. In Phase II,
mobile wallet facilities will be added to allow for mSavings and eVouchers for mothers to
manage their delivery and healthcare costs.

Contact

Dr. Stefan Germann, Director for Partnerships, Innovation & Accountability

World Vision Global Health & WASH Team
Mobile: +60(0) 162100554 | Email: Stefan_Germann@wvi.org