Vodafone and its partners – Safaricom,
Mezzanine and M-PESA Foundation – to expand mobile health training
platform
Accenture (NYSE:ACN) and the Accenture Foundations have
awarded Amref Health Africa an additional grant of US$3 million to
help the organization enhance and scale its mobile
health training program to 3,000 community health workers in
Kenya. This grant brings Accenture’s direct support to Amref Health
Africa to more than US$7.3 million since 2005.
This grant is a part of Accenture’s corporate citizenship
initiative, Skills to Succeed, which is equipping more
than 700,000 people around the world with the skills to get a job
or build a business. The M-PESA Foundation has provided an
additional US$1.5 million in funding.
Community health workers play a critical role in providing
healthcare services to communities, but lack the training and
support to deliver them effectively. Accenture’s two-year
grant will enable Amref Health Africa to expand its Health
Enablement and Learning Platform (HELP) – which provides community
health workers with flexible, mobile access to skills training and
support tools – and has the potential to improve healthcare
services for hundreds of thousands of people across Africa.
Piloted in 2013, HELP is a mobile health learning platform
developed in partnership with Vodacom-Mezzanine’s Helium platform,
and Safaricom – a Vodafone affiliate in Kenya. HELP builds on
Vodafone’s mhealth portfolio which, developed with its network of
global partnerships, increases access to healthcare services
through its customer reach and scalable mobile health solutions.
Vodafone and Safaricom will continue to provide scalability and
mobile solution expertise with technology partner Mezzanine.
“Through this collaborative partnership, we are leveraging
technology and delivering measurable solutions that will make a
profound impact across sub-Saharan Africa,” said Jill Huntley,
managing director, Global Corporate Citizenship, Accenture. “By
harnessing the power of mobile, Amref Health Africa is delivering
job and medical skills training at speed and scale – a critical
component in improving the health as well as the long-term economic
sustainability of communities in Africa.”
“African countries are facing a severe shortage of healthcare
workers who are able to provide support for communities in need.
Providing in-depth, high-quality skills training via mobile devices
will help develop the capacity and confidence of community health
workers,” said Dr. Lennie Bazira Igbodipe-Kyomuhangi, interim CEO,
Amref Health Africa. “By working together to scale HELP, we will
support more community health workers with ongoing training,
supervision and defined career paths that, in turn, benefit the
health of their communities.”
“Through this cross-sector partnership, we will further increase
the number of healthcare workers to deliver the health services
needed to support their communities,” said Les Baillie, M-PESA
Foundation executive director. “We’re actively building the
foundation for a long-term, scalable and sustainable solution that
will improve the lives of many people in Kenya, and ultimately,
across Africa.”
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services
and outsourcing company, with approximately 319,000 people serving
clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled
experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and
business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most
successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help
them become high-performance businesses and
governments. Through its Skills to
Succeed corporate citizenship initiative, Accenture is
equipping more than 700,000 people around the world with the skills
to get a job or build a business. The company generated net
revenues of US$30.0 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31,
2014. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
About Amref Health Africa
Amref Health Africa is an international African not-for-profit
organization headquartered in Nairobi founded as the Flying Doctor
Service of East Africa in 1957. Amref Health Africa’s vision is for
lasting health change in Africa: communities with the knowledge,
skills and means to maintain their good health and break the cycle
of poor health and poverty. With a focus on women and children,
Amref Health Africa works with the most vulnerable African
communities to achieve lasting health change. Amref Health Africa
reaches over 35 countries, with country or regional offices in
seven countries and a staff of over 1,000. Amref Health Africa
provides training and consulting support across various countries
in Africa and to date has trained over 600,000 health workers of
all cadres using a range of approaches, including the use of
technologies such as electronic learning and mobile
learning. www.amref.org.
About Vodafone
Vodafone is one of the world’s largest telecommunications
companies and provides a range of services including voice,
messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile
operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 54
more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 31
December 2014, Vodafone had 444 million mobile customers and 11.8
million fixed broadband customers. For more information, please
visit: www.vodafone.com.
About Safaricom
Safaricom transforms lives. We provide voice, data, financial
services and enterprise solutions for a range of subscribers, small
businesses and government, using a variety of platforms. As the
biggest communication company in East and Central Africa, Safaricom
delights over 21 million subscribers, providing over 200,000 touch
points for its customers and offering over 100 different products
under its portfolio. With annual revenues in excess of Kshs 100
Billion, Safaricom invested Kshs 27.78 billion in infrastructure
this year, providing over half of Kenya’s population with 3G
coverage and providing 2G coverage to 90% of Kenyans. Safaricom
harnesses its proprietary fibre infrastructure, and is in the
process of building a dedicated enterprise business to provide
managed services to clients in the East African region. Safaricom
pioneered commercial mobile money transfer globally through M-PESA,
the most successful such service anywhere in the world. Launched in
March 2007 as a money transfer service, M-PESA now has over 19
million customers and over 81,000 Agent outlets countrywide.
About M-PESA FOUNDATION
Registered as a charitable trust in 2010, the M-PESA Foundation
provides grants for the implementation of large-scale, long-term
projects in the areas of health, environmental conservation,
education and integrated water projects. To date, the M-PESA
Foundation has implemented a range of maternal health projects in
partnership with Amref Health Africa, and several other partners;
bio diversity conservation in the Nairobi National Park and the Mau
Eburu Ecosystem; major infrastructural improvements for Starehe
Girls Centre, a leading girls school that focuses on providing
educational opportunities for bright girls from needy backgrounds
and Kenya Red Cross Society, to implement an integrated water
project in Kwale County. The Foundation also supports initiatives
that integrate technology for good.
About Mezzanine
Mezzanine is a subsidiary of Vodacom, based out of the Vodacom
Business Africa hub in Johannesburg. Mezzanine is managed by a team
of dedicated engineers and business analysts that have been working
together for the last eight years to create solutions for mobile
health and agriculture in Africa. Mezzanine delivers access to a
range of mobile business services by leveraging the communication
infrastructure made available by mobile network companies across
Africa. Partnering with in-country mobile network companies enables
Mezzanine to deliver enterprise services beyond those available
from traditional ICT systems. Mezzanine currently powers
deployments in South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and
Tanzania.
AccentureSam Hyland,
+ 917-452-5184samuel.hyland@accenture.com
Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
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