A bold and long-lasting partnership
Uganda has always been a special place for Shifo, as this was where the idea of Smart Paper Technology (SPT) originated and was first piloted. In 2013, Shifo began a collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Uganda (MoH) to implement and evaluate a point-of-care electronic immunisation registry system in Mukono and Wakiso Districts. Assessments showed that point-of-care eHealth solutions were not timely in Uganda and could not replace the existing systems. This was largely due to a lack of infrastructure in most health service delivery points (HSDP), a lack of technical support structure at district and facility levels, and high operating costs which were not sustainable for the MoH.
Based on an external evaluation in Mukono District in 2018, we discovered that an SPT alternative offered a more sustainable and scalable solution. The MoH decided to shift from the existing system, to the exclusive use of SPT in all the health facilities in Uganda, for immunisation and child growth monitoring programs. This was a momentous decision for initatiing systems change and institutionalising the SPT solution in Uganda. In 2019, the MoH proposed to extend the use of SPT to support the entire reproductive, maternal, new-born and childhood health (RMNCH) service area, which consists of Family Planning, Antenatal, Delivery, Postnatal, Immunisation and Nutrition services.
We have always set our sights on SPT being utilised nationally in Uganda, and in 2021 we took another step closer to achieving it. It was clear from the start, that as we undertook the largest implementation of SPT that Shifo has seen so far, it would not be possible, or applicable, to copy and paste how we had developed and implemented the solution elsewhere, due to the sheer magnitude of the scale. We therefore had to change the way we operated, starting with the development of our systems, and even impacting on how we finance and administrate the implementation activities.
In November 2021, we began a long term partnership with CordAid to build a solution for Results Based Financing (RBF), using SPT-generated data as the foundation. A memorandum of understanding was signed between Shifo and CordAid to enable our partnership to continue long into the future in Uganda.