The alliance, which is being piloted over the next year, and will see mobile phones used to improve communication of supply and demand to help vaccinate more children against common infectious diseases in rural parts of Africa.
The programme will be rolled out in 100 clinics in Mozambique and each facility will receive regular prompts telling them to report vaccine stock levels by SMS text message.
Meanwhile mothers and caregivers will be registered on a Mozambique Ministry of Health database and alerted by SMS to the availability of vaccinations and will be able to schedule vaccination appointments by SMS and receive notifications of past and future vaccinations.
Commenting on the project GSK CEO Sir Andrew Witty said: “Innovative technologies – whether mobile devices, medicines or vaccines – are helping to transform global health. Organisations such as UNICEF and GAVI have played a key role in making vaccines much more accessible in Africa but barriers still exist which stop children from benefitting from basic immunisation.
“This new partnership combines GSK’s expertise, knowledge and resources with those of Vodafone with the potential to deliver life-saving vaccines to tens of thousands more children in Mozambique. Our hope is that together we will create a sustainable and scalable model which could ultimately be replicated to help more children live healthy lives across developing countries.”
Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone, added: “Vodafone is committed to investing in mobile technologies that can transform healthcare in both developed and emerging markets. These partnerships have the potential to save millions of children’s lives in some of the world’s poorest countries and we are delighted to support this critically important endeavour.”
