Phone-based applications improve maternity services in Ethiopia

This dissertation found that availability of well-resourced health facilities (with skilled professionals, equipment and free ambulance services) at a close distance from the community, may not be a guarantee that the services will be used, unless we address the community’s concerns about competence of health care providers and lack of culturally acceptable care. We demonstrated that equipping health workers with locally developed mobile applications can be part of the solution in improving maternity service utilization. Our experiences show that using mobile applications helps to serve the actual needs of the health system with better likelihood of local ownership, success and sustainability.