Africa's campaigns to stop polio and other diseases are seeing more consistent motivation, thanks to WHO working with countries and partners to pay frontline health workers through mobile phones rather than cash. We have a high workforce.
Over 80% of employees say they prefer digital payments. ”
Mr. Ahmed Hamani Jibo, Head of WHO Digital Finance Team
WHO has been at the forefront of international organizations in moving away from the unwieldy and unsafe practice of paying salaries in cash. Over the past few years, the organization has built a digital finance team and is working with the Better Than Cash Alliance, a United Nations partnership of 80 member countries with a mission to advance the digitalization of payments and expand financial inclusion. Participated in activities to support goals). .
Since its establishment in 2020, WHO's Digital Finance team has designed and implemented digital payment solutions in 24 African countries, including Benin, Botswana, Madagascar, Rwanda, Togo and Zimbabwe in the last year.
“WHO has successfully digitized payments for more than 2 million health workers across Africa,” said Tidar Wold, AI Managing Director of the Better Than Cash Alliance. “With these inspiring results, WHO is taking a clear leadership role in accelerating the digital transformation in the delivery of health outcomes globally.”
“There's a big difference in speed.”
Workers surveyed in Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, and Tanzania appreciate the safety of not carrying cash, the convenience of not having to go to a pay point to collect their wages, and most of all, the speed with which payments can be completed in the shortest possible time. He said he valued it highly. Instead of just 30 minutes after work, he has to wait weeks or even months.
The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found that timely rewards are linked to improved morale and employee retention.
“There's a really big difference in speed,” said Jean-Luc, a health worker interviewed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the end of a polio vaccination campaign. “I finished cleaning up my campaign yesterday and got a text message the next evening. I'm going to pay my child's school fees. Now I can relax.”
Digital payments can also save time and money for health campaign organizers, including the burden and expense of transporting large amounts of cash and preparing documentation.
“When you pay 300 to 500 volunteers, it takes time to pay bills and sign receipts,” said Saidi, a polio team leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
WHO used new digital payments for the first time during a polio vaccination campaign in Ivory Coast. Although vaccine-induced polio outbreaks were on the rise, vaccination campaigns were slow to get off the ground. In the first quarter of 2020, nearly half of WHO's polio eradication campaigns in the African region were postponed, experiencing worker turnover and other negative impacts due to delays in cash payments.
As WHO and partners work to develop fundamental aspects of the digital payments ecosystem (e.g. registration of employees in databases, verification of profiles by mobile network operators), the benefits of a cashless approach have become more apparent. .
There is substantial evidence that digitizing payments can give people, especially women, greater access to financial services and greater control over their incomes. For the past four years, the World Health Organization has leveraged Mobile His Money's growing presence across Africa to ensure that brave vaccinators on the front lines of polio epidemic campaigns are paid in full, quickly and securely. I did. ”
Maria May, Senior Program Officer, Inclusive Financial Systems, Gates Foundation
Alan Labric, Director of WHO's Digital Health Innovation Department, said: “Digital payments are one of the key pillars of digital health public infrastructure, currently strongly encouraged in WHO's guidance to Member States on digital transformation. There is,” he said. WHO sees digital payments, along with data exchange and digital identity infrastructure, as the foundation for many more digital development activities. He added: “We are pleased to work with our partners in the digital sector to add our voice to this celebration of WHO's participation in the Better Than Cash Alliance.”
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