When I first moved to West Africa back in 2009, you could travel to the most remote, rural villages — places without power, running water or any other modern conveniences — and you would invariably find Coca-Cola. Somehow the familiar red-and-white brand had solved the distribution and marketing challenges of reaching these ends-of-the-earth consumers.
In those same remote villages, you can also find some of Africa’s highest-tech companies are mobile providers like MTN, Tigo, Airtel, Vodacom and Safaricom. Africa has leapfrogged the power line and the PC and gone directly to mobile phones. By the end of 2015, there will be an estimated 1 billion mobile phone accounts in Africa — one for nearly every man, woman and child on the continent.
In our first challenge, we talked about the importance of rapid diagnostics to locate the malaria parasite in people. What is a diagnostic test result but a plus or a minus, a one or a zero? It’s a bit of data. But in many malaria-endemic countries, that data used to just sit in stacks of paper to be collected every so often by health authorities. When you combine this data with rapid reporting via mobile phones, you have the makings of a revolution in global health.
About the author
Martin Edlund@martinmedlund
Martin Edlund is the chief executive officer of Malaria No More, a globally recognized nonprofit with the visionary mission to end humanity’s oldest, deadliest disease in our lifetimes. Edlund also serves as executive director of the Health Finance Coalition.