1. Presentation to US-Africa Private Sector Health Forum
21 November 2008
Claire Thwaites
Head of Vodafone Foundation & UN Foundation Partnership

2. Partnership with the UN
• The UN Foundation started 10 years ago with a $1bn gift from Ted Turner
• Vodafone’s £15m, 5 year partnership with the UN began in 2005
• The partnership offers Vodafone the opportunity to act as a global citizen and
help tackle humanitarian challenges with technology solutions on a global scale

3. Three Programme Areas

4. mHealth for Development
The Partnership has supported a measles vaccination program –
aiming to achieve a 90% reduction in deaths by 2010.
We’ve immunized 372 children and helped save 2.3m lives so far

5. mHealth for Development
The Partnership has supported the development of a wireless health
data collection tool – enabling health workers to flag diseases
and respond to potential epidemics.
Working with the WHO – the wireless tool has been deployed in 22
sub-Saharan African countries so far. Already there have been
improved efficiencies, more effective health systems and better
patient outcomes.

6. Thought Leadership & Innovation
The Partnership commissions independent research
on the role of mobile in helping tackle humanitarian
challenges. The most recent report was on;
• mHealth for development
Available at www.unfoundation.org

7. mHealth Defined
mHealth (n) – the delivery of health care
services via mobile communication devices
Addresses pressing public
health issues
• Tracking outbreaks of communicable diseases
• HIV/AIDS treatment & prevention
• Maternal health care
• Children’s health

8. mHealth: Key Applications
• Education and Awareness - SMS/text messaging in support of public
health and behavioral change campaigns.
• Data Collection and Record Access - Applications using mobile
devices to enter and access patient data.
• Monitoring and Medication Compliance - Maintain care giver
appointments or ensure medication regime adherence via one-way or
two-way communications on mobile devices.
• Disease and Emergency Tracking – Use mobile devices to send and
receive data on disease incidence, outbreaks and public health
emergencies.
• Health and Administrative Systems - Allow access between mHealth
applications and central health systems.
• Analysis, Diagnosis and Consultation - Support diagnosis and
treatment through access to medical information or staff via mobile
devices.

9. THANK YOU
cthwaites@unfoundation.org