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Designed to Scale: How Programme Mwana Uses SMS to Get Health Results Across Zambia and Malawi

In Zambia, roughly 13.5% of the population is estimated to have HIV/AIDS, while the number of children (ages 0-14) with the disease is estimated to be 120,000. Programme Mwana uses SMS technology to send lab results between community health clinics and diagnostic labs to improve the process of early infant diagnosis across the country.

Launched in 2010 through a partnership with UNICEF Innovation, the Zambian Ministry of Health, Boston Univeristy, CHAI, and the local UNICEF office, Programme Mwana was designed to be a scalable system to help with infant health interventions, allowing HIV/AIDS results to be sent securely from labs to district clinics. The project was launched simultaneously in Malawi. Merrick Schaefer, who led the development of the project with UNICEF, says that the group focused on participatory design to develop agile, adaptable software that meets the needs of community health workers.