ReliefWeb

Overview

The IREACH project, initiated in 2019, was built on an existing and evidence-based1 software application called mPosyandu, an innovation developed by World Vision Indonesia. The contextualised CommCare application was shown to improve the quality of care provided by nutrition counsellors. The IREACH project contributes to improved maternal and child health by boosting community and volunteer capacity and awareness, conducting health campaigns, and strengthening programme performance monitoring.

The mPosyandu application was created to offer shorter reporting times for routine nutrition monitoring shared from Posyandus (integrated and community-owned health service posts focused on maternal and child health) to Puskesmas (sub-district community health centres). In Posyandus the tool has been shown to improve data accuracy by 80% (95% CI 75.9-83.1). In rural Posyandus, the improvements in accuracy were as high as 94%.

This digital health tool has many features of value to frontline staff:

• quick processing of nutrition measurements that automatically flags a child’s nutritional risk

• capturing of information about underlying child illness and current feeding practices

• enhanced data-informed nutrition counselling.

Where mPosyandu is being used by both Posyandus and their collaborating Puskesmas, the convenience and efficiency of using the same application adds additional benefits.

The IREACH project currently operates in Central Sulawesi and is supported by the Australian Government. It has proven scale-up potential, so efforts to expand partnerships continue.