Course: Information and Communication Technologies and Development Class
Presentation: Community outreach project in ICT
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CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Kenya community outreach project in heath sector(m-PAMANECH)
3. Challenges facing (m-PAMANECH) the health community outreach
project in Kenya
4. Application of 4IR emerging technologies in community outreach
project
5. Recommendation
6. Conclusion
7. References
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INTRODUCTION(1/2)
• Community outreach projects intend to bring mutual benefits for all
the community members.
• It is an effort by individuals in an organization or group to connect
their ideas or practices for the benefit of other organizations, groups,
specific audiences or the general public (Zlotnikova and van der
Weide 2015).
• A community is made up of people with a common interest, usually
living in a certain region. East African Community (EAC) is an example
of a community which is made up of several countries including
Kenya.
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INTRODUCTION(2/2)
• Kenya has made several community outreach projects as a way to
tackle its many challenges in different sectors, including the health
sector.
• Several techniques have been used in these outreach projects
including the use of Information Communication Technology(ICT)
tools.
• Our presentation will focus on one ICT outreach project in health
sector that have been carried out in Kenya called:
• m-PAMANECH
• PAMANECH stands for The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child
Health and m for mobile
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Kenya community outreach project in heath
sector: (m-PAMANECH)(1/2)
• The digital application (m-PAMANECH) was developed to use a
mobile and web-portal digital solutions that link the demand and
supply of maternal and newborn services.
• The application had:
• the official Ministry of Health(MoH) 513 (household register),
• MoH 514 (service delivery log book) and
• MoH 100 (referral tool) used by the Community Health Volunteers(CHVs)
and
• The MoH 515 (Community Health Assistant(CHA) Summary) used by the
CHAs.
• To improve the functionality and the utility of m-PAMANECH, a
decision support tool (DST) was integrated in the application.
• The DST assisted the CHVs screen danger signs among pregnant
women, newborns (0-28 days) and mothers in the immediate
postpartum (within 6 weeks post birth)(Bakibinga, Kamande et al.
2020).
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Kenya community outreach project in heath
sector: (m-PAMANECH)(2/2)
• m-PAMANECH aimed at using ICT tool to enable CHVs to
• identify pregnant women, new mothers and their newborns
exhibiting danger signs thus
• enable them to make correct and timely decisions on referral for
care in health facilities.
• The project took place at the urban slums of Kamukunji
sub-county (Bakibinga, Kamande et al. 2017).
• This is because, if CHVs have more knowledge and skills on
the needs of women and neonates at risk, they would be in
a better position to care for community members in need
of healthcare.
• As such, care services for mother and newborn would
increase resulting in reduction in morbidity and mortality in
the urban slums (Bakibinga, Kamande et al. 2020).
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Slums in Kenya
Source: https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/news/counties/24-health-centres-set-for-slums-in-nairobi-2295628

Challenges facing (m-PAMANECH)the health
community outreach project in Kenya
• m-PAMANECH faced several challenges in its implementation. The
challenges are grouped into:
• Socio-political environment
• Infrastructure availability
• Health workers’ strike
• Electioneering period
• Attitudes and behaviour
• Expectations
• Lack of knowledge and skills-ICT
• Issues related to the system
• Network coverage
• Nature of the gadgets
• Nature of the system
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Application of 4IR emerging technologies in
community outreach project(1/2)
• In the 4th Industrial Revolution, several technologies exist:
• Artificial Intelligence
• Internet of Things
• Block chain technology
• Robotics
• Big data
• And many more others. All these can be applied in health sector, but
for m-PAMANECH, specifically, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of
Things best fits the outreach project.
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Application of 4IR emerging technologies in
community outreach project(2/2)
• Artificial Intelligence
• A smart application that acts like a doctor,
can be developed. The application will enable
a pregnant woman to ask it question about
her conditions and gets notified of dangerous
signs that require medical attention.
• Internet of Things
• With integrated smart devices all around us,
it is possible for m-PAMANECH to incorporate
smart wearable devices that would send
signals such as body temperature of pregnant
women and children directly to a DST that is
used alert for dangerous signs.
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Chatbot in Health: source: https://www.istockphoto.com/
IoT in Health: source: https://www.how2shout.com/

RECOMMENDATIONs
• (Bakibinga, Kamande et al. 2020) provided the following
recommendation for emproving m-PAMANECH usage, that to:
• integrate the system with others in use
• make it available on users’ regular phones.
• provide extra motivation for users, including performance-based
remuneration.
• use local languages in the system.
• provide basic ICT skills for users.
• strengthen ICT infrastructures available.
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CONCLUSION
• The community outreach project that have been carried out in Kenya
is a good example of how ICT projects can be used to enhance the
health services of the country.
• There exist challenges on the implementation of these outreach
projects, solutions need to be devised to handle the challenges for
the projects to be sustainable.
• Studies need to be carried to incorporate new technologies that are
introduced as the World changes. New technologies promises to be
more effective in solving the challenges of many existing outreach
projects.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Bakibinga, P., et al. (2020). "Challenges and prospects for implementation of
community health volunteers’ digital health solutions in Kenya: a qualitative
study." BMC health services research 20(1): 1-12.
2. Bakibinga, P., et al. (2017). "The role of a decision-support smartphone
application in enhancing community health volunteers’ effectiveness to
improve maternal and newborn outcomes in Nairobi, Kenya: quasi-
experimental research protocol." BMJ open 7(7): e014896.
3. https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/news/counties/24-health-centres-
set-for-slums-in-nairobi-2295628
4. https://aphrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/PAMANECH-
Brochure_20.6.14_Very_Final1.pdf
5. https://www.how2shout.com/lifestyle/how-internet-of-things-iot-influencing-
the-healthcare.html
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