BBC Media Action is one of the few NGOs who has been able to create sustainable business models that enable their health communication solutions to have a life of their own, even after donor funding has come to an end.
BBC Media Action’s biggest achievement in terms of sustainability has been the national adoption and roll out of Kilkari and Mobile Academy by the government of India in 2016. It has successfully created the largest maternal mobile messaging programme and the largest mobile training programme for frontline health workers (FLWs) in the world, in collaboration with the Indian government and with support from a consortium of donors.
Full management and implementation of both services has now been successfully transferred to the government of India. Nevertheless, it has taken eight long years of hard work for these two mHealth services to reach several million people and a promising degree of sustainability.
BBC Media Action believes that Mobile Academy and Kilkari are the first national adoption of mHealth services ever seen globally. Both services are currently live in 13 states and five languages (Hindi, Odia, Assamese, Bengali and Bihari), with Kilkari reaching over 10 million subscribers in three years. More than 200,000 FLWs have graduated from the Mobile Academy course. Leveraging the government of India’s online databases, the services are designed to reach every pregnant woman, young mother and ASHA registered in the public health system.