PSI Laos puts its consumers’ needs at the center of all programming so they have the right information and resources to make informed, safe decisions about their own health and the health of their families.
T4 Road, Unit 16, Donkoi Village,
Sisattanak District
PO Box 8723
Vientiane Capital, Laos People’s Democratic Republic
Phone: + 856-21-330-429-32
Since 1999, PSI Laos has been working in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections and malaria; find new cases of TB; treat diabetes; prevent unintended pregnancies; reduce under nutrition; strengthen capacity to respond to future public health emergencies; and improve overall reproductive health and sanitation for the people of Laos.
Between January and October 2019, PSI Laos provided 20,310 years of healthy life for its clients, including:
75,548
years of protection against unintended pregnancy for Lao couples
55,431
users reached with modern contraception
5,596
users reached with HIV testing
62,257
users reached with malaria testing
3.1 million
condoms distributed
In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, PSI Laos launched the Women’s Health Project in 2011 to increase access to IUDs and other contraceptive methods. In 2012, one in four women in Laos had never heard of IUDs and more than half had never heard of the contraceptive implant. To change this reality, PSI Laos now works closely with the Ministry of Health, the Maternal and Child Health Center, the United Nations Population Fund and provincial health departments in 10 provinces to strengthen the capacity providers in the public and private sectors have to offer high-quality sexual and reproductive health services. PSI Laos supports the government to carry out training on sexual and reproductive healthcare in the public and private sectors, including clinical training on the insertion of IUDs and contraceptive implants, while advocating for increased access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive healthcare for women served in the private sector. These activities are all part of efforts by PSI Laos to gradually transition financial responsibility and activity ownership to the Ministry of Health.
PSI Laos improves knowledge of contraceptive methods so that women can make informed decisions about their reproductive health. This includes through Huk Mi Plan, an integrated digital ecosystem of sexual and reproductive health and rights resources that PSI Laos launched in 2019 in partnership with the Ministry of Health. The broad range of resources, including youth-friendly and engaging information via Facebook, the first Lao language sexual and reproductive health website and a series of 21 educational videos in four local ethnic languages, Lao Loum and English create a safe space for women and offers reproductive health counseling via an online messenger, a hotline and by linking them with trained, quality-assured providers. Thus far, the Huk Mi Plan Facebook page has established a community of over 20,000 followers. PSI Laos is also training government health educators on effective reproductive health interpersonal communication to ensure long-term sustainability and integration of sexual and reproductive health into national frameworks. From December 2018 to October 2019, 116,924 women were reached by a combination of PSI Laos and PSI Laos-trained government health educators in the public sector, with 50,308 referral cards distributed and 29,851 returned. Health educators also use these sessions to raise awareness about the new national health insurance scheme.
With the adoption of the 2016 National Safe Abortion Clinical Guidelines, the abortion landscape in Laos has liberalized considerably, though progress has been slow and access to information and affordable, quality-assured abortion services remains low. Of the estimated 100,000 abortions that take place each year in Laos, nearly 40,000 are considered unsafe, and the vast majority occur via unregulated and potentially low-quality channels.
Over the past eight years, PSI Laos has emerged as the Ministry of Health’s key technical partner on abortion, having elevated safe abortion as a major public health issue and garnered support for the development of clinical guidelines, provider trainings and registration of medical abortion products. PSI Laos will continue its work to ensure that all safe abortion sites have trained staff, are fully stocked with necessary commodities and equipment and effectively collect and use data.
In partnership with the Laos government’s Centre for Malaria, Parasitology and Entomology, PSI Laos is working to engage the private sector to support malaria elimination in Laos, as well as other countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion. PSI Laos recruits private sector outlets such as pharmacies and clinics to join the Public-Private Mix program and provides malaria case management training. As a result of PSI Laos advocacy, improved national malaria case management guidelines were implemented in 2019, helping contribute to a 50% increase in the number of malaria cases tested that year. PS Laos I is also working to ensure the availability of anti-malarial medications and malaria detection tests by strengthening the existing supply chain for these products at the district and village levels. And in an effort to expand access to high-risk populations in hard-to-reach areas, PSI Laos has piloted a number of innovative new intervention approaches, including its Shop-based Village Malaria Worker network and its work training providers on military bases.
PSI Laos has developed comprehensive mobile technology solutions for providers and implemented the use of an encrypted Facebook Messenger chatbot application to increase reporting for suspected and confirmed malaria cases into national information systems. These tools are improving data management and enable results to be more easily shared with government partners to inform future malaria elimination strategies.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the National TB Center, PSI Laos supports the government’s goal to detect more cases of TB. By engaging the private sector, patients with TB are now offered directly observed short-course treatment in private sector clinics. PSI Laos also mobilizes pharmacists to refer clients with key symptoms of TB to Sun Quality Health clinics (a PSI social franchise) for screening. PSI Laos uses mobile video units to provide information on TB, conduct interactive group discussions and offer on-site prescreening and referrals by a private health provider to communities in high-risk locations.
PSI Laos is working to reduce the transmission of HIV and sexually transmitted infections by increasing access to high-quality, affordable or free prevention products and services, including condoms and HIV testing. In support of the National HIV/AIDS Program, PSI Laos provides a comprehensive package of products and services to female sex workers. This includes behavior change communication activities focused on HIV/sexually transmitted infection awareness, instructions on correct and consistent condom use, and group and one-on-one outreach sessions. PSI Laos has also implemented a new risk-tracing snowball approach in all two provinces to target previously unknown networks of female sex workers for HIV testing, diagnosis and referral for treatment.
Through strategic partnerships with both the public and private sector, PSI Laos is working to increase condom use equitably and sustainably in Laos. As part of this strategy, in 2019 PSI Laos relaunched its Number One brand condoms in order to diversify its condom lineup, ensure long-term product sustainability and enable a competitive, quality-assured condom market across all income levels.
With funding from the World Diabetes Foundation, PSI Laos works to strengthen Laos’ ability to respond to the growing threat that diabetes poses to the health and development of the country by establishing national policies on the treatment of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and gestational diabetes in Laos. Currently, no such policies exist at the national level, and most healthcare providers lack the necessary training and skills to provide proper treatment to individuals suffering from these afflictions.
PSI Laos and the Ministry of Health have developed a three-year plan for the creation and implementation of an initial national response to diabetes and its common comorbidities. PSI Laos will work with multiple stakeholders, including the Ministry of Health and WHO, to develop national guidelines for each target health area and create training modules for healthcare providers based upon the guidelines. In addition, PSI Laos and the Department of Health Care will educate healthcare providers at hospitals on the proper diagnosis and treatment of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and gestational diabetes. These hospitals will become centers of excellence on diabetes, hypertension and/or gestational diabetes management, with the ultimate aim of establishing a sustainable framework for diabetes care by providing both national guidelines and training modules that will last long beyond the project’s completion.
Under the leadership of the Laos Department for Communicable Disease Control and with consortium partners, WHO and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), PSI Laos is helping to strengthen a public health emergency operations center (PHEOC) in the Ministry of Health to enable effective, timely response to any public health threat. The PHEOC will be leveraged to accelerate the country’s achievement of malaria elimination by further transforming surveillance into a core intervention, improving accountability for key malaria metrics through higher scrutiny within the Ministry of Health and capacitating an incident management system for rapid response.
During the implementation phase, the consortium will conduct PHEOC-related trainings for all core staff and provincial/district level staff, build out emergency response plans by health area and collaborate with international partners (WHO Geneva and WHO Western Pacific Region, Thailand Ministry of Public Health Emergency Operations Center and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) to receive training and develop a network of partners that can be leveraged in the future.
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Join us in this illuminating session as we explore the evolution of the STAR self-testing project, sharing insights, challenges, and successes that have emerged over the years. By examining the lessons learned and considering the implications for future healthcare strategies, we hope to foster a deeper understanding of the transformative potential of self-testing in improving healthcare accessibility and patient-centric services.
This enlightening session promises to provide updates from WHO guidelines and share insights on the journey toward viral hepatitis elimination. It will also showcase outcomes from the STAR hepatitis C self-testing research and discuss how these findings could potentially inform hepatitis B antigen self-testing and the use of multiplex test kits in the context of triple elimination. Join us in this crucial discussion as we work together to fast-track the global journey toward a hepatitis-free world by 2030.
In this two-part session, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PSI, and Population Solutions for Health will share lessons and best practices from rigorous research and hands-on implementation experience in Zimbabwe. The session will cover important topics like client-centered, community-led demand creation, differentiated service delivery, sustainable financing, and digital solutions. The sessions will also cover lessons in the program.
In this session, PSI and PSH will share lessons for optimizing access to comprehensive, culturally sensitive HIV and sexual and reproductive health services. Topics will include enhancing the accuracy and reliability of sex worker population data, improving HIV case finding among men who have sex with men (MSM) through reverse index case testing, and scaling differentiated service delivery models. The session will also cover integrating mental health and substance abuse in key populations (KP) programming and lessons in public sector strengthening.
Additionally, the session will showcase solutions that MSMs have co-designed, highlighting how this collaboration has improved the consumer care experience. It will demonstrate the critical role of KP communities in establishing strong and sustainable HIV responses, including amplifying KP voices, strengthening community-led demand, and establishing safe spaces at national and subnational levels for KP communities to shape and lead the HIV response.
This enlightening session promises to provide updates from WHO guidelines and share insights on the journey toward viral hepatitis elimination. It will also showcase outcomes from the STAR hepatitis C self-testing research and discuss how these findings could potentially inform hepatitis B antigen self-testing and the use of multiplex test kits in the context of triple elimination. Join us in this crucial discussion as we work together to fast-track the global journey toward a hepatitis-free world by 2030.
In this two-part session, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PSI, and PSH will share lessons and best practices from rigorous research and hands-on implementation experience in Zimbabwe. The session will cover important topics like client-centered, community-led demand creation, differentiated service delivery, sustainable financing, and digital solutions. The sessions will also cover lessons in program management. These insights are applicable beyond Zimbabwe and can be used to scale up HIV prevention efforts in the region.
Strong surveillance systems are essential to detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. Since 2019, PSI has worked alongside the Ministries of Health in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam to strengthen disease surveillance systems and response. Learn more here.
As COVID-19 spread globally, so did misinformation about countering the pandemic. In response, PSI partnered with Meta to inspire 160 million people to choose COVID-19 preventative behaviors and promote vaccine uptake. Watch the video to learn how.
Early warning of possible outbreaks, and swift containment actions, are key to preventing epidemics: disease surveillance, investigation and response need to be embedded within the communities. Public Health Emergency Operations Centers (PHEOCs) are designed to monitor public health events, define policies, standards and operating procedures, and build capacity for disease surveillance and response. Learn more here.
HOW COULD PRIVATE SECTOR PHARMACIES AND DRUG SHOPS ADVANCE PROGRESS TOWARDS UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE
Private sector pharmacies and drug shops play an important role in improving access to essential health services and products for millions of people living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where healthcare resources are often limited. However, the way in which these outlets are, or are not, integrated into health systems holds significant importance. Do they serve as facilitators of affordable, high-quality care? Or have they become sources of substandard health services and products?
For over 50 years, PSI’s social businesses have worked globally to generate demand, design health solutions with our consumers, and work with local partners to bring quality and affordable healthcare products and services to the market. Now consolidating under VIYA, PSI’s first sexual health and wellness brand and social business, our portfolio represents the evolution from traditionally donor–funded projects towards a stronger focus on sustainability for health impact over the long term. Across 26 countries, the VIYA model takes a locally rooted, globally connected approach. We have local staff, partners and providers with a deep understanding of the markets we work in. In 2022, we partnered with over 47,000 pharmacies and 10,000 providers to reach 11 million consumers with products and services, delivering 137 million products. VIYA delivers lasting health impact across the reproductive health continuum, from menstruation to menopause. Consumer insights drive our work from start to finish. Their voices, from product exploration to design, launch, and sales, ensure that products not only meet consumers’ needs but exceed their expectations. The consumer is our CEO.
In 2019, our human-centered design work in East Africa explored ways that our work could support and accompany young women as they navigate the various choices required for a healthy, enjoyable sexual and reproductive life. Harnessing insights from consumers, VIYA is revolutionizing women’s health by addressing the confusion, stigma, and unreliability surrounding sexual wellness. Across five markets – Guatemala, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Pakistan – VIYA utilizes technology to provide women with convenient, discreet, and enjoyable tools for making informed choices about their bodies. The platform offers a wealth of high-quality sexual wellness information, covering topics from periods to pleasure in an accessible and relatable manner. Additionally, VIYA fosters a supportive community where users can share experiences and receive guidance from counselors. In 2023, VIYA will begin offering a diverse range of sexual wellness products and connect users with trusted healthcare providers, ensuring comprehensive care tailored to individual needs.
By: Fana Abay, Marketing and Communications Director, PSI Ethiopia
In rural Ethiopia, women and girls often face significant barriers in accessing healthcare facilities, which can be located hours away. Moreover, there is a prevailing stigma surrounding the use of contraception, with concerns about potential infertility or the perception of promiscuity. To address these challenges, the Smart Start initiative has emerged, linking financial well-being with family planning through clear and relatable messaging that addresses the immediate needs of young couples—planning for the lives and families they envision. Smart Start takes a community-based approach, utilizing a network of dedicated Navigators who engage with women in their localities. These Navigators provide counseling and refer interested clients to Health Extension Workers or healthcare providers within Marie Stopes International-operated clinics for comprehensive contraceptive counseling and services.
In a significant development, PSI Ethiopia has digitized the proven counseling messaging of Smart Start, expanding its reach to more adolescent girls, young women, and couples. This approach aligns with the priorities set by the Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MOH) and is made possible through funding from Global Affairs Canada. The interactive and engaging digital messaging has revolutionized counseling services, enabling clients to make informed and confident decisions regarding both their finances and contraceptive choices.
Clients who received counseling with the digital Smart Start tool reported a higher understanding of their options and were more likely to choose contraception (74 percent) compared to those counseled with the manual version of Smart Start (64 percent). Navigators also found the digital tool more effective in connecting with clients, leading to higher ratings for the quality of their counseling.
By December 2023, PSI Ethiopia, working in close collaboration with the MOH, aims to reach over 50 thousand new clients by leveraging the digital counseling tool offered by Smart Start. This innovative approach allows for greater accessibility and effectiveness in providing sexual and reproductive health services, contributing to improved reproductive health outcomes for women and couples across the country.
By: Christopher Lourenço, Deputy Director, Malaria, PSI Global
Community health workers (CHWs) are critical lifelines in their communities. Ensuring they have the training, support, and equipment they need is essential to keep their communities safe from malaria, especially in the hardest to reach contexts.
For example, in Mali, access to formal health services remains challenging, with four in ten people living several miles from the nearest health center, all without reliable transportation or access. In 2009, the Ministry of Health adopted a community health strategy to reach this population. The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) Impact Malaria project, funded by USAID and led by PSI, supports the Ministry with CHW training and supervision to localize health services.
In 2022, 328 thousand malaria cases were recorded by CHWs); 6.5 thousand severe malaria cases were referred to health centers, according to the national health information system.
During that time, the PMI Impact Malaria project (IM) designed and supported two rounds of supportive supervision of 123 CHWs in their workplaces in the IM-supported regions of Kayes and Koulikoro. This included developing and digitizing a standardized supervision checklist; and developing a methodology for selecting which CHWs to visit. Once a long list of CHW sites had been determined as accessible to supervisors for a day trip (including security reasons), the supervisors telephoned the CHWs to check when they would be available to receive a visit [as being a CHW is not a full-time job, and certain times of the year they are busy with agricultural work (planting, harvesting) or supporting health campaigns like mosquito net distribution].
Supervisors directly observed how CHWs performed malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and administered artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT). They recorded CHW performance using the digitized checklist, interviewed community members, reviewed records, and provided on-the-spot coaching. They also interviewed the CHWs and tried to resolve challenges they expressed, including with resupply of commodities or equipment immediately or soon afterwards.
Beyond the observed interactions with patients, supervisors heard from community members that they were pleased that CHWs were able to provide essential malaria services in the community. And the data shows the impact.
In IM-supported areas of Mali, 36% of CHWs in the first round were competent in performing the RDT, which rose to 53% in the second. 24% of CHWs in the first round compared to 38% in the second were competent in the treatment of fever cases and pre-referral counseling. Between both rounds, availability of ACT increased from 80 percent to 90 percent.
Supportive supervision with interviews and observations at sites improved the basic competencies of CHWs between the first and second rounds, and additional rounds will help to understand the longer-term programmatic benefits.
By: Dr. Dorothy Balaba, Country Representative, PSI Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, PSI leads the implementation of USAID Transform WASH (T/WASH) activity with consortium partners, SNV and IRC WASH. Contrary to traditional models that rely on distribution of free or heavily subsidized sanitation products, T/WASH utilizes a market-based sanitation approach. This approach creates sustainable and affordable solutions, by integrating market forces and supporting businesses to grow, while creating demand at the household level.
During the last six years, T/WASH has worked alongside the private sector and government (Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health, Ministry of Water and Energy, and Ministry of Labor and Skills), among other stakeholders, to increase household access to affordable, quality sanitation products and services. For example, more than 158 thousand households have invested in upgraded sanitation solutions with rapid expansion to come as the initiative scales and market growth accelerates.
T/WASH has successfully trained more than 500 small businesses, including community masons and other construction-related enterprises, with technical know-how in sanitation product installation, operational capacities, and marketing and sales skills needed to run successful, growing businesses. The Ethiopian government is now scaling the approach to all districts through various national, regional, and local institutions with requisite expertise. T/WASH has also worked the One WASH National Program, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Water and Energy, and Ministry of Labor and Skills to examine policies that influence increased household uptake of basic WASH services, such as targeted sanitation subsidies, tax reduction to increase affordability, and increased access to loan capital for business seeking to expand and households needing help to improve their facilities.
To share the journey to market-based sanitation, representatives of the Ethiopian Ministry of Health and the USAID Transform WASH team took to the stage at the UN Water Conference in 2023.
“Rather than relying on traditional aid models that often distribute free or heavily subsidized sanitation products, market-based sanitation creates sustainable and affordable solutions, integrating market forces and supporting businesses to grow.”
— Michael Negash, Deputy Chief Party of T/WASH
By: Dr Karin Hatzold, Associate Director HIV/TB/Hepatitis
Building upon the success and insights gained from our work with HIV self-testing (HIVST), PSI is actively applying this approach to better integrate self-care, more broadly, in the health system beginning with Hepatitis C and COVID-19. Self-testing has emerged as a powerful tool to increase access to integrated, differentiated, and decentralized health services, accelerating prevention, care, and treatment for various diseases, while also increasing health system resilience against COVID-19.
Here’s how we got there.
Seven years ago, the landscape of HIV self-testing lacked global guidelines, and only the U.S., the UK and France had policies in place that allowed for HIV self-testing. High disease burdened countries in low-and-middle-income-countries (LMICs) lacked evidence and guidance for HIVST despite major gaps in HIV diagnosis.
However, through the groundbreaking research from the Unitaid-funded HIV Self-Testing Africa (STAR) initiative led by PSI, we demonstrated that HIVST is not only safe and acceptable but also cost-effective for reaching populations at high risk with limited access to conventional HIV testing. This research played a pivotal role in informing the normative guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) and shaping policies at the country level. As a result, more than 108 countries globally now have reported HIVST policies, with an increasing number of countries implementing and scaling up HIVST to complement and partially replace conventional testing services. This became especially significant as nations tried to sustain HIV services amidst the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
By leveraging our expertise, PSI is conducting research to identify specific areas and populations where the adoption of Hepatitis C and COVID-19 self-testing could significantly enhance testing uptake and coverage. This research serves as the foundation for developing targeted strategies and interventions to expand access to self-testing, ensure that individuals have convenient and timely options for testing for these diseases, and are linked to care, treatment and prevention services through differentiated test and treat approaches.
By: Shawn Malone, Project Director, HIV/AIDS Gates Project in South Africa, PSI Global
In South Africa, where the HIV response has lagged in reaching men, PSI’s Coach Mpilo model has transformed the role of an HIV counselor or case manager into that of a coach and mentor who provides empathetic guidance and support based on his own experience of living with HIV. Coaches are men who are not just stable on treatment but also living proudly and openly with HIV. Situated within the community and collaborating closely with clinic staff, they identify and connect with men struggling with barriers to treatment and support them in overcoming those barriers, whether that means navigating the clinic or disclosing their HIV status to their loved ones.
PSI and Matchboxology first piloted the model in 2020 with implementing partners BroadReach Healthcare and Right to Care as well as the Department of Health in three districts of South Africa. Since then, the model has been rolled out by eight implementing partners in South Africa, employing more than 300 coaches and reaching tens of thousands of men living with HIV. To date, the model has linked 98 percent of clients to care and retained 94 percent of them, in sharp contrast to the estimated 70 percent of men with HIV in South Africa who are currently on treatment.
Given the success of the program, South Africa’s Department of Health and the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) have each embraced the Coach Mpilo model in their health strategy and are embedding it in their strategies and programs.
“The men we spoke to [while I was traveling to South Africa for a PrEP project with Maverick Collective by PSI] were not only decidedly open to the idea of taking a daily pill…many were willing to spread the word and encourage friends to get on PrEP too. We were able to uncover and support this new way forward because we had flexible funding to focus on truly understanding the community and the root barriers to PrEP adoption. This is the philanthropic funding model we need to effectively fight the HIV epidemic, and it’s beneficial for all sorts of social challenges.”
– Anu Khosla, Member, Maverick Collective by PSI
By: Hoa Nguyen, Country Director, PSI Vietnam
In late 2022, with funding from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, PSI and Babylon partnered to pilot AIOI in Vietnam. By combining Babylon’s AI symptom checker with PSI’s health provider locator tool, this digital health solution analyzes symptoms, recommends the appropriate level of care, and points them to health providers in their local area. The main goal is to support people in low-income communities to make informed decisions about their health and efficiently navigate the healthcare system, while reducing the burden on the healthcare workforce. The free 24/7 service saves people time and subsequent loss of income from taking time off work and from having to pay unnecessary out-of-pocket expenses. Under our global partnership with Meta, PSI launched a digital campaign to put this innovative product in the hands of people in Vietnam. By the end of June 2023 (in the nine months since product launch), 210 thousand people accessed the AIOI platform; 2.4 thousand people created personal accounts on the AIOI website, 4.8 thousand triages to Symptom Checker and linked 2.2 thousand people to health facilities.
Babylon’s AI symptom checker and PSI’s health provider locator tool captures real-time, quality data that supports health systems to plan, monitor and respond to consumer and provider needs. But for this data to be effective and useable, it needs to be available across the health system. Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard provides a common, open standard that enables this data exchange.
PSI’s first consumer-facing implementation of FHIR was launched in September 2022 as part of the Babylon Symptom Checker project in Vietnam, enabling rapid alignment between PSI and Babylon’s FHIR-enabled client records systems. PSI already has several other consumer health FHIR implementations under active development in 2023, including PSI’s collaboration with the Kenya MOH to launch a FHIR-enabled WhatsApp national health line for COVID-19 health information. PSI will also look to adopt and scale health workforce-facing FHIR-enabled tools, such as OpenSRP2, which will be piloted in an SRH-HIV prevention project in eSwatini in partnership with Ona by the end of 2023.
— Martin Dale, Director, Digital Health and Monitoring, PSI
By: Dr. Zayar Kyaw, Head of Health Security & Innovation, PSI Myanmar
Under a three-year investment from the Indo-Pacific Center for Health Security under Australia’s Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), PSI is enhancing disease outbreak surveillance and public health emergency preparedness and response capacities in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. When PSI conducted a review of existing disease surveillance systems in Myanmar, it identified several gaps: although the Ministry of Health had systems in place for HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and other communicable diseases, they were fragmented, with different reporting formats and reliance on paper-based reporting. In addition, private sector case surveillance data were not routinely captured, yet private clinics and pharmacies are the dominant health service delivery channel in the country. This hindered effective disease prevention and control efforts.
Building on our extensive private sector malaria surveillance work under the BMGF-funded GEMS project in the Greater Mekong Subregion, PSI implemented a case-based disease notification system using social media channels to overcome the limitations of paper-based and custom-built mobile reporting tools. These chatbots, accessible through popular social media platforms like Facebook Messenger and Viber, proved to be user-friendly and required minimal training, maintenance, and troubleshooting. The system was implemented in more than 550 clinics of the Sun Quality Health social franchise network as well as nearly 470 pharmacies. The captured information flows to a DHIS2 database used for real-time monitoring and analysis, enabling rapid detection of potential outbreaks. Local health authorities receive instant automated SMS notifications, enabling them to promptly perform case investigation and outbreak response.
In 2022, private clinics reported 1,440 malaria cases through the social media chatbots, while community mobilizers working with 475 private providers and community-based malaria volunteers reported more than 5,500 cases, leading to the detection of two local malaria outbreaks. Local health authorities were instantly notified, allowing them to take action to contain these surges in malaria transmission. During the same time, pharmacies referred 1,630 presumptive tuberculosis cases for confirmatory testing – a third of which were diagnosed as tuberculosis and enrolled into treatment programs.
By: Anya Fedorova, Country Representative, PSI Angola
The shortage of skilled health workers is widely acknowledged as a significant barrier to achieving Universal Health Coverage. To address this challenge, PSI supported ministries of health to develop a digital ecosystem that brings together stewardship, learning, and performance management (SLPM). The ecosystem enhances training, data-driven decision-making, and the efficiency of healthcare delivery.
Here’s what it looks like in practice.
In July 2020, PSI Angola, alongside the Angolan digital innovation company Appy People, launched Kassai, an eLearning platform that targets public sector health workers in Angola. Through funding from USAID and the President’s Malaria Initiatve (PMI), Kassai features 16 courses in malaria, family planning, and maternal and child health – with plans to expand learning topic areas through funding from ExxonMobil Foundation and private sector companies. A partnership with UNITEL, the largest telecommunication provider in Angola, provides all public health providers in Angola free internet access to use Kassai.
Kassai’s analytics system to follow learners’ success rate and to adjust the course content to learners’ performance and needs. Kassai analytics are integrated with DHIS2 – the Health Management Information System (HMIS) of Angolan MOH, to be able to link learners’ knowledge and performance with the health outcomes in the health facilities. The analytics track learners’ performance by course and gives visibility by health provider, health facility, municipality, and province. Each course has pre-and post-evaluation tests to track progress of learning, too.
By the end of 2022, there were 6,600 unique users on the Kassai platform and 31,000 course enrollments. PSI Angola’s partnership with UNITEL, the largest telecommunication provider in Angola, allows for free internet access to learn on the Kassai for all public health providers in Angola. Building on its success for malaria training, Kassai now also provides courses in family planning, COVID-19, and maternal and child health. This reduces training silos and provides cross-cutting benefits beyond a single disease.
Implementing the SLPM digital ecosystem brings numerous benefits to health systems. It allows for more strategic and efficient workforce training and performance management, enabling ministries of health to track changes in health workers’ knowledge, quality of care, service utilization, and health outcomes in real time. The ecosystem also supports better stewardship of mixed health systems by facilitating engagement with the private sector, aligning training programs and standards of care, and integrating private sector data into national HMIS. Furthermore, it enables the integration of community health workers into the broader health system, maximizing their impact and contribution to improving health outcomes and strengthening primary healthcare.
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With overarching commitments to flexibility in our work, and greater wellbeing for our employees, we want to ensure PSI is positioned for success with a global and holistic view of talent. Under our new “work from (almost) anywhere,” or “WFAA” philosophy, we are making the necessary investments to be an employer of record in more than half of U.S. states, and consider the U.S. as one single labor market for salary purposes. Globally, we recognize the need to compete for talent everywhere; we maintain a talent center in Nairobi and a mini-hub in Abidjan. PSI also already works with our Dutch-based European partner, PSI Europe, and we’re creating a virtual talent center in the UK.
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The health of PSI’s consumers is inextricably linked to the health of our planet. That’s why we’ve joined the Climate Accountability in Development as part of our commitment to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030. Read about our commitment to environmental sustainability.
PSI does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, genetic information, disability, protected veteran status or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state or local law. Read our full affirmative action and equal employment opportunity policy here.
PSI is committed to establishing and maintaining a work environment that fosters harmonious, productive working relationships and encourages mutual respect among team members. Read our policy against discrimination and harassment here.
PSI is committed to serving all health consumers with respect, and strives for the highest standards of ethical behavior. PSI is dedicated to complying with the letter and spirit of all laws, regulations and contractual obligations to which it is subject, and to ensuring that all funds with which it is entrusted are used to achieve maximum impact on its programs. PSI provides exceptionally strong financial, operational and program management systems to ensure rigorous internal controls are in place to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse and ensure compliance with the highest standards. Essential to this commitment is protecting the safety and well-being of our program consumers, including the most vulnerable, such as women and children. PSI maintains zero tolerance for child abuse, sexual abuse, or exploitative acts or threats by our employees, consultants, volunteers or anyone associated with the delivery of our programs and services, and takes seriously all complaints of misconduct brought to our attention.
PSI affirms its commitment to diversity and believes that when people feel respected and included they can be more honest, collaborative and successful. We believe that everyone deserves respect and equal treatment regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, cultural background or religious beliefs. Read our commitment to diversity and inclusion here. Plus, we’ve signed the CREED Pledge for Racial and Ethnic Equity. Learn more.
PSI affirms gender equality is a universal human right and the achievement of it is essential to PSI’s mission. Read about our commitment to gender equality here.
From ministries of health to regulatory bodies and purchasers, we partner with private and public sector players to provide seamless health services to consumers – no matter their entry point to care.
Across 40+ countries, we scale digital solutions that make it easier for people to take ownership of their own health, and health systems to use resources efficiently and increase health impact.
We support health systems in shaping the policy and regulatory environment for self-care interventions and ensuring self-care is included as an essential part of healthcare services.
Climate change has a wide-ranging impact on health, ranging from infectious disease to food insecurity, heat and pollution-related illnesses, and injuries and death caused by extreme weather events. It also disrupts health systems and access to medical services that exacerbate health challenges. Adapting is key, all with the urgency of now. We explain how, below.