The Problem
Without real-time, relevant, gender-desegregated data, policy makers are not equipped to make informed policy, influence legislation, or justify budgets in support of girls or women.
Our Solution
We use mobile app technology to equip the Government of Kenya with digital school records.
In this way we can create a blueprint for pro-girl policy that can be replicated internationally.
We officially launched The Nia Network mobile phone application on 21 February 2013. The press release is available here.
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Coordinating Pad Distribution
We have created the first app in the world to coordinate and map distribution of sanitary pads.
In 2012 we documented 18 distributors supporting 258,014 girls in 2,501 schools. Collectively they received 2,273,337 packets of sanitary pads and 933,059 underpants. That’s 18,186,696 pads in total!
See the 2013 map of distribution in Kenya or download the app for Android.
Join our Pad Giveaway Challenge as we give out pads and underwear to 7600 girls!
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Collecting School Data
Right now there is no efficient way to gather data in schools or see impact.
To fill this gap, we will expand our app to include the ability to document school attendance, performance and retention. We will use it to assess the impact of sanitary pads and health education on school metrics. This will be conducted in a large-scale, multi-year randomized control study beginning in 2014.
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Formulating Best Practices
We facilitate meetings of distributors of pads and other stakeholders to share challenges and create best practices. The practicalities of distributing pads and underpants are quite a challenge.
Questions we’re trying to answer together include: How many pads make up a one-month supply? How many packets should a girl receive at a time? Does she or the school receive them? How do we make sure the girl actually gets to use the donations? How do we make sure the underpants fit? What is the best age-appropriate information for girls? How do we standardize that? How do we make sure the information is delivered appropriately?
