Mobile money for improved maternal health, the African story

Pic:Courtesy of D-Tree

Healthcare in Africa is reaching a whole new dimension with the introduction of  mobile money to health systems. 

Mobile money itself takes many local names by the  countries but be it Mpesa in Kenya,  Airtel Money across Africa or Mpamba in Malawi,  the power of these mobile money services is now being  harnessed to take reproductive health services,  health insurance and  and universal health covereage  to those who needed most, the poor masses of  rural Africa.

Sharing her story at the Africa Regional Meeting on Digital  Health, Erica Layer of D-Tree tells the success of  the lives of women in Zanzibar who have had safe deliveries in medical facilities as opposed to the age-old norm of home delivery which has been a part of life in  Zanzibar until recently.

Through a mobile-money based initiative, D-Tree transfers mobile money into the mobile phones held by community health volunteers who monitor pregnant women, the volunteers through the mobile phones closely link the health centres with the expectant mothers by keeping the health officials informed about the numbers and health status of the pregnant women in their areas in between medical centre visits. At the time of delivery, the community volunteers informs the facilities of the women to expects and when to expect the deliveries and this is done  with the collaboration of a network of taxi drivers who provide the transport  to the hospitals.

Despite its huge success, D-Tree’s mhealth initiatives in Zanzibar  are not without challenges as  Erica layer highlighted difficulties in does forecasting transport needs of the mothers as  a challenge and the need for  a culture of digital reporting and accountability among the community volunteers. She also called for improvement in connectivity and an automated medical record system. Nevertheless, the programme has been hugely successful and will be scaled  out to Tanzania. The  four-day meeting is supported by USAID.

News is: UbuntuNet Alliance appoints Dr Pascal Hoba as CEO

UbuntuNet Alliance, the Regional Research and Education Network for Eastern and Southern Africa, on 5th March  announced the appointment of Dr Pascal Hoba as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Alliance with effect from 1st January 2015. Dr Hoba succeeds Eng. Dr Francis (Tusu) Tusubira who retired on 28 February 2015 after successfully leading the Alliance since 2007.

Unlike his predecessor, The new UbuntuNet CEO will be based in Lilongwe and this has send waves of excitement the Malawi research and education community igniting hope for the connecting of the country to the  high speed, UbuntuNet network, funded by the EU ander AfricaConnect project.


Dr Hoba is coming from the Association of African Universities (AAU) in Accra, Ghana where he has been Director of Knowledge Management Information and Communications since 2005. In his role at the AAU, Dr Hoba was also Coordinator of the Europe-Africa quality Connect project and the Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD) programme. He is credited for initiating the Open Access process with the DATAD programme as a regional repository center. 

“Becoming CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance presents a privilege to serve the NREN community which I personally contributed to as first Project Coordinator at the AAU in charge of the RENU (Research Education Networking Unit).” Under this responsibility I organised for AAU, the parallel event at WSIS summit in November 2005 which officially launched UbuntuNet Alliance,” says Dr Hoba.

“It is also a huge responsibility for me. Indeed, there is a positive legacy left by the former CEO and it is my responsibility now to take the Alliance to next level which means consolidating the achievements, bring new services and resources and building a strong regional organisation that supports the NRENs and all organisations that promote education and research networking. With humility, innovation, determination and, of course, hard work, and with the collaboration of the community, I am sure we shall surely write another story of the UbuntuNet Alliance,” says Dr Hoba.

With over 15 years experience in Higher Education, Dr Hoba has served on a number of Africa-wide initiatives and boards such as the ICT Advisory Committee of the Pan African/Indian e-Network Project at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa; and the Executive Committee of the Pan-African Leadership Institute for Library Management based in Alexandria in Egypt.  What better person to take the Alliance to the next level of being the hub of innovation in ICT and research for propelling Africa to the realisation of its development goals.

He has authored several scientific papers on strategic information and edited a number of books including: The Contribution of Higher Education to National Educational Systems: Current Challenges for Africa published in 2007; Agents in Development, African Higher Education Networks and Policy Entrepreneurship.

The new UbuntuNet Alliance CEO graduated in business law from Law school of Aix en Provence, France he also holds a Masters Degree and PhD in Scientific and Technical Information from the University of Marseilles in France where he also worked as Lecturer in Information Communication from between 1999 and 2005.  His long successful career in communications has also seen him to international development agency ADEA/IIEP/UNESCO as Programme Officer in Paris, France. Dr Hoba presents the dawn of a new era in service provision and efficiency in UbuntuNet Alliance.

Great news  indeed for the the education sector and all ICT players in Sub-Saharan Africa!

Growing an eduroamed Zambia

Eduroam is the secure, world-wide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community. According to the eduroam website, eduroam allows students, researchers and staff from participating institutions to obtain Internet connectivity across campus and when visiting other participating institutions by simply opening their laptop.

Eduroam is one of the services that some of the Zambia Research and Education Network (ZAMREN) members pride in. ZAMREN has connected 38 institutions, that range from universities to cancer research centres at major hospitals, to its high speed backbone network.

A recent study on eduroam usage in Zambia has revealed that eduroam has enabled Zambian academicians and scholars to enjoy freedom and free of access to research and education resources.

The study was conducted by Christopher Chembe et al and presented at UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 in Lusaka Zambia on 13 November 2014.

Eduroam is available at five sites in Zambia. The study also showed that most users use the service resources everywhere.

However, Chembe cites the need for harmonisation of ICT policies as being among the major challenges in maximising the benefits of eduroam in Zambia.
“Eduroam is a very beneficial service to education. We need to look at the challenges to promote freedom and free access,” says Chembe.

Zambia is one of 4 countries in Africa that have implemented eduroam. The others are South Africa, Kenya and Algeria.

Symposium on Ebola brings out ICT tools in Ebola fight

Mike Schmoker  said “In a research-poor context, isolated experience replaces professional knowledge as the dominant influence on how teachers teach.”

UbuntuNet Alliance carries the vision of becoming a facilitator  of innovative solutions to the health challenges facing the African continent through promotion of telemedicine.

Building on collaborative remote telemedicine initiatives on research and education networks such as the Dengue Symposiums in the Caribbean and in Asia, the Alliance, against all  organisational and technological challenges.

held a Symposium on Ebola as a pre-conference event to UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 held on 12^th November with an impressive audience of conference participants.

Mali’s Doctor Ousman Ly, General Director of National Agency of Tele-health and Medical Informatics in the country’s Ministry of Health, despite being called to attend to a case of Ebola that Mali reported earlier that month and a break in the data link,  availed his presentation that offered insight into a new e-health strategy  of using ICT tools in Mali to create awareness  but also track Ebola in real time.

The electronic alert system for Ebola is an application developed for mobile phones that allows real-time trace data for Ebola and all diseases of epidemic potential. This application is a digital display interface called Digital Integrated Health Information System (SNISI) and is installed on phones responsible for Health Information System at the District [Mali]. 

Representing the Ministry of Health in Zambia, Dr Constantine Malama,  Virologist and Public Health Specialist indicated that Zambia was currently conducting research on Ebola and allayed fears of the virus spreading to Zambia directly from the fruit bat  indicating that a recent study had shown that the country’s climate does not support the fruit bat which is a natural career of Ebola. 

The Doctor further indicated that Zambia had instituted professional health checks at its airports to screen all entrants into the country and had already created Ebola isolation facilities in a remote location. 

Another global Telemedicine event is slated for December 2014 at Asia Telemedicine Symposium (ATS2014) to be held on December 13, 2014 at the Telemedicine Development Center of Asia (TEMDEC) of Kyushu University Hospital in Japan.

According to Yasuichi Kitamura, the board of director of Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN), the  regional research and education network of Asia Pacific area the symposium brings together doctors to tackle emerging medical issues.

“One of the working groups of APAN is the medical working group. This WG is very active for having the collaboration about the telemedicine.  And this is the special thing but this working group is organized by the medical doctors not by the network engineers and the WG's scope is the real medical matters.
UbuntuNet Alliance’s Joe Kimaili will present remotely from Uganda's renown Makerere  University. According to Kitamura there is a strong collaborative partnership in between Uganda’s Makerere University and Japanese and university hospitals that have previously facilitated collaborative initiatives in orthopedics. Interested Ugandan researchers can enlist to participate in the Telemedicine Symposium by emailing info@ubuntunet.net

Pan-African research and education network to be realized soon

“We are  convinced that working together, the dream of a pan-African research and education network will be fulfilled soon, through the junction of the UbuntuNet Alliance, West and Central Africa Research and Education Network (WACREN) and Arab States Network  (ASREN) in North Africa,” Said Dr Boubakar Barry, Board Member of UbuntuNet Alliance, the regional association of National Research and Education Networks  (NRENs) in  Eastern and Southern Africa when he opened UbuntuNet-Connect 2014, the 7th Annual Conference of the Alliance, on November 12, 2014.

Africa has so far been mapped into three regions in as far as  high speed connectivity of research and education networks: West and Central Africa, North African and Eastern and Southern Africa. A new Initiative in the offing is expected to fast track actualisation of the dream of Africa_wide connectivity to huge speed data networks.  This is all expected to revolutionise the continent through reduction of brain drain of qualified researchers, provision of innovative solutions through research to problems such as infectious diseases, climate change and food shortage, corruption currently dogging African states.

Meanhwile, Dr Barry also described UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 as an international event in a global environment. The Conference held at the prestigious Hotel Intercontinental in Lusaka, Zambia started with a minute of silence in honour of Africa’s fallen leader and Zambian President Michael Chilufya Sata who died on October 28, 2014.

UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 brought together participants from 28 different nations in unearthing ideas, experiences and research finding spanning across the fields of ICT, education, research and connectivity.

“In the globalised environment that we have today, a challenge that impacts any part of the world must be the concern of all nations. The latest example that illustrates this is the Ebola epidemic we are facing today, and about which we organized yesterday an International Symposium as part of the UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 programme.” Said Dr Barry about the conference themed Infrastructure, Innovation, Inclusion.

Meanwhile the Zambian Government through the Deputy Minister of Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Hon. Col. Panji Kaunda challenged researchers and academicians to fully utilize UbuntuNet, the high speed data networks being rolled out under the AfricaConnect project.

“I am posing a challenge to our researchers and academicians to aggressively use the research and education networks which are now being rolled-out to collaborate and bring about innovation and workable solutions to our unique  situations,” said Kaunda, who’s Government has been exemplary in supporting rolling out of a backbone network in Zambia and promoting international interconnectivity. 

From the GÉANT Association, Cathrin Stöver said in pan-African nature of the new phase of AfricaConnect would require increased liberalisation of the telecommunication markets in order to avoid regulatory impediments to an otherwise beneficial project.

UbuntuNet-Connect 2014 explores ways of giving real value to African researchers

UbuntuNet Alliance, the regional research and education networking organisation for Eastern and Southern Africa, lastweek held its 8th Annual Conference, UbuntuNet-Connect in Lusaka at the prestigiuos Hotel Intercontinental.

The Conference unearthed ideas, experiences and research finding spanning across the fields of  ICT, education, research and connectivity from across the globe. 

Commenting in one of the panel discussions, Dr Pascal Hoba incoming CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance added that indeed there is need for the Alliance to harmonize its efforts with researchers by surveying what their needs are and meeting them.


Eng. Dr Tusubira has described the Conference as a 'wonderful event.'

"It looks to me like UbuntuNet has already gone well beyond a conference to an annual gathering of the clans where we share knowledge and experience, and ensure the growth and sustainability of the research and education networking tribe both in Africa and around the world."

WACREN and the UbuntuNet Alliance programme to foster internet development in Africa

The West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) and the UbuntuNet Alliance for Research and Education Networking, the regional Research and Education Networking organization for Eastern and Southern Africa, have signed an agreement to adopt the Africa Training Initiative (ATI) a programme that is highly expected to foster accelerated development of the Internet across the African continent. 

www.google.comThis MOU serves to enable the two regional research and education networking bodies to implement the ATI as a defined and endorsed project under their auspices.

The ATI is an independent community initiative developed and previously operated by Eko-Konnect, a cluster of the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN) in the Lagos area.   

Apart from contributing to the development of the Internet in Africa, the ATI  which will be facilitated and supported through the NREN members, will also promote the  adoption of best practices in building and protecting the Internet as well as fostering the emergence of a productive environment for the growing community of African users. 

It is expected that ATI will provide a sustainable capacity building ecosystem for African professionals through training and input into university programs, student involvement, industry participation, fostering Internet research and support structures such as Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and Network Operators Groups (NOGs).  

The initiative is a sustainable, ongoing and replicable framework for skills and capacity growth, and it will also provide a platform for collaboration with internal and external sources of expertise.    

Commenting on the development, Dr. Boubakar Barry, CEO of WACREN said he looked forward to expanded relationships with African organizations and their partners.

“This initiative is of common interest to the regional research and education networks because we recognize the importance of self-sustainability, independent growth, continuity of learning and self-support in establishing long term technical and Internet capability in Africa,” declared Dr Barry.

On his part, Dr. Francis Tusubira, CEO of UbuntuNet Alliance highlighted the need for strategic and tactical approaches to sustainable capacity building.  

“We have been doing a lot of stopgap training and building capacity outside the training institutions.  We need to ensure that our universities internalize the approaches so that graduates are more market ready to operate data networks,” said Dr Tusubira.

WACREN and UbuntuNet Alliance are partners in the ongoing AfricaConnect project and have been collaborating closely since their establishment.