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Maternal mortality rates in Nepal have decreased in the last few decades, yet the country still has the third highest mortality rate in Asia. Our mHealth tool, Mobile Chauturi, supports Nepali Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) in their vital role connecting people to, and sometimes providing, basic primary care across the country.

Through formative research, we discovered that while health volunteers are tasked with communicating about health, they often lack the skills and communication tools to do so effectively. Literacy rates remain low in rural areas, and some communities felt volunteers should know more than they do. As most health volunteers have access to a basic mobile phone and mobile network, we spotted an opportunity to design a simple, accessible innovation – building on successful mHealth projects we’ve run in India.

Working in close partnership with the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) and Nepal Health Sector Support Programme, we developed and piloted an effective mobile health tool to support volunteers that is tailored to the context in which they work.

Mobile Chauturi enables health volunteers to play audio health content via their own mobile phone. Featuring a doctor character, mini-dramas and folk songs on a range of health topics, the creative audio content promotes positive discussion, improves knowledge of healthy behaviours and trust in health volunteers, and helps them deliver higher-quality support to their communities.

By improving the confidence, communication skills and knowledge of community health volunteers, we hope to see greater levels of trust, motivation and confidence in making healthy decisions among our audiences. Watch this space for project evaluation results coming in summer 2020.

Project information