Viamo has been named a recipient of USAID’s Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) grant as one of 26 breakthrough solutions to global development challenges in 2021.
In addition to bringing new local partners to USAID, these awards engage public and private sector companies, improving millions of lives around the world.
As part of our efforts to collect evidence on the efficacy and potential of phone information systems, we are evaluating the strength of our Viamo Platform to elicit behavior change. The platform delivers free, expert-approved and relevant information to mobile phone users on topics such as agriculture, education, climate change and health.
Pregnant women wait for checkups in a schoolhouse used for mobile clinics in Gbangu-Nagbo, Ghana. The Public Health Department of Baptist Medical Centre in Nalerigu, Ghana does regular mobile clinics in this Kokomba village.
The Viamo Platform has delivered free, expert-approved messages to more than 30 million people in 18 countries. These on-demand messages use human centered design to increase users’ understanding of vital information and spur behaviors that improve development outcomes.
With the support of DIV, we can test the efficacy of content for the Viamo Platform by conducting a large-scale trial in Uganda. The trial will determine the impact of behavior change on maternal health and family planning.
Women enrolled in this health study will be given an in-person introduction, a demonstration of the voice-powered Viamo Platform, along with ongoing promotional texts and telephone calls. Women in control groups will only receive standard promotional SMS text messages.
Our evaluation will enable us to determine the effectiveness of phone-based information services in facilitating behavior change and determine the viability and cost-effectiveness of the Viamo Platform intangibly improving people’s health.
Viamo aims to continue advancing innovative mobile technologies that tangibly enhance the lives of people living in low-resource areas.
Click here to read the full announcement.
