Three of the 23 social innovation projects selected by TDR and its partners for case study research and sharing lessons learnt are being profiled at an international conference. The event is being held 20-21 April at the Geneva Health Forum.
The Social Innovation in Initiative (SIHI), spearheaded at the beginning of 2014 by TDR, is a collaboration with the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town, the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University, and the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
 Operation ASHA, India | The goal is to integrate a social innovation lens within health systems policy and practice. Social innovation is one way that engages communities and the various health system actors in new approaches to develop solutions. Businesses, governments, donors and civil society organizations are increasingly working together and setting up exciting initiatives that improve health care access for the poor. Examples include primary health posts in rural areas in Rwanda run by nurses as well as supporting teachers in Malawi to help them recognize symptoms and diagnose malaria in their students. |
The goal is to integrate a social innovation lens within health systems policy and practice. Social innovation is one way that engages communities and the various health system actors in new approaches to develop solutions. Businesses, governments, donors and civil society organizations are increasingly working together and setting up exciting initiatives that improve health care access for the poor. Examples include primary health posts in rural areas in Rwanda run by nurses as well as supporting teachers in Malawi to help them recognize symptoms and diagnose malaria in their students.
Twenty-three social innovations already successfully in place in 15 countries were selected from a global call for nominations of community-based social innovations in health.
Presentations
An open session will be held 20 April: Improving access to quality diagnostic tools in low- and middle-income countries through social innovation. Francis Gabriel Moussy, the diagnostics innovation lead at the World Health Organization, will provide an overview, and Lindi Van Niekerk from the Bertha Centre will explain social innovation. Then three different projects will be profiled:
Embryyo Technologies – Nishant Kumar: A drug adherence monitoring system for tuberculosis patients in India using a digital pillbox that automatically registers when pills are taken and makes the information available via mobile and web-based applications to all layers of DOTS staff so they can effectively monitor patient compliance in real-time.
Operation ASHA – Ashvini Vyas: A health care delivery system bridging the last-mile distribution gap by partnering with the national government tuberculosis programme, mobilizing communities to play an active role in care delivery and leveraging technology to monitor and track whether outcomes are achieved for people affected by tuberculosis.
Learner Treatment Kit – Stephan Witek-McManus: A programme to train teachers in rural Malawi to use rapid diagnostic tests to identify and treat school children for malaria infections and other common illnesses through Learner Treatment Kits.
TDR social scientist Johannes Sommerfeld will lead the discussion on lessons learnt, and recommendations coming out of this session will be presented at plenary session on the 21 April.
Logistics
Geneva Health Forum
Centre International de Conférences de Genève (CICG)
20 April
Time: 16:00–17:30
Venue: Room 14, level 2
21 April
Time: 16:00–17:30
Venue: Room 1
For more information, contact: Johannes Sommerfeld or Beatrice Halpaap.