Ashesi Computer Science team wins STAR-Ghana funding

STAR Ghana Funding

A team of faculty members at Ashesi's Computer Science (CS) Department is one of a handful across Ghana to win funding from STAR-Ghana to build and implement a mobile-based platform that will improve access to quality healthcare for people living in under-served communities.

In October 2012, STAR-Ghana invited interested teams to respond to a Health Sector call aimed at improving access to quality health services for all Ghanaians, with a focus on excluded groups and people living in deprived areas. The drive aims to do this by increasing accountability and responsiveness in the delivery of health services.

The Ashesi team, headed by Aelaf Dafla, Kwadwo Gyamfi Osafo-Maafo, and Nathan Amanquah, receives $190,000 for its project, and is one of 29 teams selected out of over 300 applicants to receive funding.

"The department has a strong range of expertise, and we started exploring different ways in which we could use it to help the district Ashesi is in," said Dafla, who heads Ashesi's CS department. "One of the interesting areas we decided to focus on was the Community Based Health Planning and Service (CHPS) Programme, which deploys trained Health Officers to provide health care to under-served communities."

Over the next 2 years, Ashesi's CS Department will work on building an effective mobile-based health platform that will increase support and supervision for Community Health Workers in 20 communities across Ghana. The platform will also enable a more efficient flow of information between Community Health Officers, and Health Management Teams.

"The objective is to provide cost-effective tools that will allow the officers to improve their skills and provide them with knowledge support," says Dafla. "We would also be working on tools that will allow District Health Management Teams to accurately capture health data that can be used to improve responsiveness. Eventually this project is going to include other departments in the university, as we begin to evaluate impact and work on different ways in which we can improve the tools we are building."

STAR-Ghana is a multi- donor pooled funding mechanism (supported by DFID, DANIDA, EU and USAID) to increase the influence of civil society and Parliament in the governance of public goods and service delivery. The organisation's ultimate goal is to improve the accountability and responsiveness of Ghana's government, traditional authorities and the private sector.