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Global health goes high-tech to enhance livelihoods
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The 2009 Global Health Conference at Washington’s Omni Shoreham, sponsored by the Global Health Council, showcased cutting-edge trends in the provision of health care to South Asia’s most neglected communities (as well as those around the world). Some of the most interesting innovations include the growing adoption of “mHealth.” This concept utilizes the functionality of mobile phones and PDAs, which are used to gather health data and facilitate dissemination of data regarding health information and services. For instance, USAID is conducting a trial with the mobile phone-based program, RapidSMS Child Malnutrition Surveillance, to enable health practitioners in Malawi to share children’s nutritional information at the touch of a cell phone button, drastically reducing the time necessary to detect a possible famine. Mobile devices, when used in this manner become extremely powerful tools: they avoid the pitfalls associated with mobile computing—which requires reliable internet connectivity. The global health community is quickly becoming a 2.0 community, embracing high-tech solutions that enable it to “leapfrog” over troublesome technology platforms.
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Most significantly, mHealth is being intelligently employed as an adjunct to health care models with proven efficacy. Pathfinder International, for instance, has successfully worked with communities in a constructive manner to garner support for programs such as reproductive health for 25 years. Communications Director, Linda Suttenfield, emphasized that the Pathfinder’s approach has always focused on partnering with communities, rather than imposing Western beliefs upon people holding different cultural values. “You have to [be cognizant] of where you are,” Ms. Suttenfield explained. The focus of Pathfinder’s presentation last Wednesday was on the prevention of postpartum hemorrhage in India. However, Ms. Suttenfield noted that the latter initiative is merely one part of Pathfinder’s goal to garner community-based support for family planning in general. The impact of such programs is significant, even in countries such as India, which has demonstrated blazing economic growth over the past ten years. Indeed, in a country of 1.1 billion people, there are many villages that remain isolated from modern family planning practices. As such, Ms. Suttenfield stated, “with every year of [family planning] education, there has been an increased openness to contraception.”
The implications of such programs are dramatic. Not only does access to contraception reduce maternal and neonatal mortality, decrease maternal morbidity and enable women to avoid pregnancy-related anemia, it can translate into a reduction in poverty. With greater control over the number of children a family must care for, the extremely low-income poor have slightly more disposable income (DI). This suggests the possibility for a higher enrollment of children in school, particularly girls. Higher literacy rates are, indeed, key in breaking the cycle of generational impoverishment.
In the aggregate view, more people can become enfranchised and can take advantage of the opportunity to participate in the political process of the world largest democracy under this theory. Increased empowerment of women, in particular, has been shown to be a surprisingly indicator of a country’s potential for economic expansion. The 2007 World Bank study, entitled Gender and Economic Growth in Kenya states that “[r]esults from both micro- and macroeconomic regression analyses [in Kenya]…conclude that gender inequality is a powerful constraint to economic growth.” In addition, “[data indicates] that if Kenya eliminated gender-based inequalities in education and access to [private-sector] related inputs, the country could gain from a one-off increase GDP by 4.3 percentage points…” Years before the latter study, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, Muhammad Yunus, demonstrated the ability of poor Bangladeshi women to rise above their circumstances by providing them with microcredit loans to manage their own small, handicraft-related businesses.
Combining research results from international health, gender studies and economics, therefore highlights the crucial role international health programs play in the overall picture of female empowerment—and consequent economic growth. The increased use of technology is already creating new opportunities for the advancement of women in underdeveloped countries. With Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and India all ranking worse than 83 of 179 countries in the Gender-related Development Indicies (GDI), there exists much opportunity for women to become more empowered in South Asia. By embracing community-based approaches enhanced by high-tech platforms, the global health community must spearhead the effort to increase GDPs by more effectively caring for the health of individuals.
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