Procuring supplies for children

Innovate for children

© UNICEF/Supply Division/

Every day, an estimated 26,000 children under the age of five die from mostly preventable causes. For more than 60 years, UNICEF has been working hard to ensure the survival and development of the world’s most vulnerable.
Key to our commitment is finding creative solutions to address the issues that negatively impact on young lives. Many opportunities exist for UNICEF to invest its credibility and market positioning in shaping and promoting innovative products, technologies and approaches that will benefit children.

In 2008, UNICEF Supply Division launched an Innovation Strategy, including a business model and innovation generator, creating an efficient process for identifying, defining and addressing needs and problems with the goal of developing new products, services and processes. The innovation generator model streamlines the methodology to ensure that innovation is based on real user needs. 

So far, eight pilot projects have been identified with help from field, Programme and Supply staff. These include a Mother-Baby Pack for prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS and several water and sanitation related products, including a light, compact, and durable water container, that’s still rigid enough to be carried on the head. Another focus is how SMS technology solutions can be used to strengthen the delivery of supplies which is initially being explored in the distribution of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food for the treatment of severe malnutrition and bednets for the prevention of malaria.

“Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.”  - Bill Gates

Innovate for Children Strategy Overview (pdf)

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Current Innovative Solutions

• Auto-disable syringes
• Fridge Tags
• Peanut-based Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF)
• Rapid SMS Technology

Upcoming initiatives

• Strengthening the supply chain by using SMS
• Improving water facilities
• Prevention of mother to child HIV transmission
• Improving Education facilities

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Current Innovative Solutions

Auto-disable syringes

UNICEF, the World Health Organization and other health partners are always looking for new equipment and innovative solutions to improve immunization safety. The auto-disable(AD) syringe has an internal one-way valve which disables the device, preventing re-use and significantly reducing the incidence of blood-borne disease transmission such as Hepatitis B and HIV. UNICEF’s immunization programmes only use AD syringes. In 2008, UNICEF procured more than 2.6 billion doses of vaccines, and more than 480 million AD syringes.

Fridge Tags

Vaccines are alive and if they’re to remain effective, they need to be kept at constant temperatures. This sounds easier than it is, particularly when you consider that UNICEF programmes vaccinate children living in some of the most remote and difficult to reach areas of the world. The fridge-tag enhances vaccine safety by providing a quick and easy way to monitor the temperature at which vaccines are stored or transported. A digital display indicates whether a vaccine has been exposed to either freezing conditions or excessive heat at any time during the previous 30 days. If the fridge-tag is exposed to an out-of-range temperature, a sign appears on the display to warn health workers that the vaccine may be ineffective or unsafe.

Peanut-based Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF)

The humble peanut is helping transform the treatment of severe malnutrition in children - the cause of more than half of all childhood deaths globally. The ingenious peanut-based formula doesn’t need to be mixed with water or refrigerated, and on average, a child with no other underlying health problems will gain one kilogram a week during treatment. In just two years, UNICEF’s procurement of the peanut paste increased by 450 cent, to 11,000 tonnes.

Rapid SMS Technology

In Africa alone there are an estimated 280 million mobile phone subscribers. With this technology so readily available the question UNICEF asked was how could it be utilised to improve child health and reduce under-5 mortality.
In 2008, RapidSMS technology was trialled in Ethiopia to monitor the distribution of RUTF, compiling mobile text message data into real-time correlated reports. Gaps and stock-outs at local health posts were reported to a central warehouse and responded to immediately, instead of weeks later.
The RapidSMS framework is practical, simple and compatible with even the most basic mobile phones, leveraging already existing infrastructure to increase the possibility of replication.

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Upcoming initiatives

Strengthening the supply chain by using SMS

Bringing light to the last mile - UNICEF is testing technology for supplies monitoring, in order to trace supplies that are beyond our direct control, having been handed over to partners.
After a number of light technology testing pilots we are looking at a deeper implementation in Ethiopia to track nutrition supplies (combined with malnutrition rate monitoring) in 2,500 distribution points, using SMS/Mobile phone technology.

This will also be combined with education assessments in 20,000 schools. We are preparing an initial scope document in September in order to start this project in 2010.

This will require mobilising a coalition of partners from the technology sector, academia in Ethiopia and offshore, and the private sector in order to work with the Ethiopian Government in implementation.
Still in an early phase, we are looking to engage interested technology and supply chain students within this project, potentially within an institutional framework that might be established around this, and similar, initiatives.

Improving water facilities

…to fetch a pail of water

In many developing countries, it is children (usually girls) and women who are responsible for fetching water. For the average family of six people this can represent between 50 and 90 litres per day. Add to this the fact that in Africa the average distance walked to get water is 5.5 kilometres, and it becomes simple to see how a household’s need for water can prevent girls from attending school, not to mention increase the risk of their coming into contact with contaminated water and disease.

Finding innovative solutions to the chore of fetching water is just one area where UNICEF is focusing its efforts.
 

Prevention of mother to child HIV transmission

In developing countries, especially in Africa, pregnant women who are HIV positive continue to pass on the virus to their children due to limited availability and low uptake of medicines required to prevent the transmission of the HIV virus. The disease progresses very quickly in infants, with around 50 per cent dying before the age of two if they do not receive treatment. But with prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) interventions, infection in infants can be virtually eliminated.

UNICEF’s efforts are focused on getting a package of supplies to HIV infected mothers so they can be in charge of protecting their child from the disease throughout the pregnancy and delivery. The pack is designed be user-friendly, manageable and compact, containing everything needed for PMTCT for both mother and baby. It could be used both within and outside the clinical setting.

Improving Education facilities

Child Friendly Spaces can be defined as enabling spaces for children to reach their full potential. They can be created within a Child Friendly School, or within a community or a park, and in the emergency context they can be created within temporary structures. Focusing on improving education facilities raises questions around and puts emphasis on several issues, including technology, gender, health, environment, furniture and new products and services.

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