Lilongwe – Nexleaf Analytics and the Government of Malawi are partnering to strengthen Malawi’s vaccine supply chain through a holistic approach to technology adoption and asset maintenance. Our partnership, now formalized through 2027, focuses on the crucial role of health workers in designing and driving digital transformation.
Through this partnership, Malawi and Nexleaf will focus on data utilization and process redesign, collaborating closely with frontline health workers to develop data-centered equipment management practices, strengthening safe and successful vaccine distribution through the last mile. This work will help Malawi maintain the integrity of the vaccine cold chain using data, and the methodologies developed will be scaled to help all Gavi countries adopt data-centered cold chain management.
Nexleaf and Malawi first collaborated in 2021, in partnership with UNICEF, to bring Nexleaf’s ColdTrace remote temperature monitoring (RTM) solution for the vaccine cold chain to every health facility and vaccine storage point in Malawi. With support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Nexleaf and Malawi’s Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI) worked together to build a Culture of Data in Malawi’s vaccine management system, introducing a course in cold chain data use for health workers at the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS). In addition to EPI and Ministry of Health (MoH) personnel, the course enrolled participants from UNICEF, USAID, JSI, and more.
Malawi’s leadership in data-centered vaccine management is years in the making. After assessing gaps in Malawi’s immunization system, Malawi EPI and MoH approached UNICEF to support the implementation of a solution that would ensure vaccine resources remained potent and protected when clinics were closed, including overnight and on weekends and holidays. Since then, Malawi has taken the lead in implementing integrated solutions for vaccine system data, in collaboration with Nexleaf as well as DHIS2.
“Our collaboration with Malawi EPI has been crucial to our work designing technology solutions that deliver results for Ministries of Health,” says Nithya Ramanathan, CEO and Co-Founder of Nexleaf. “Our Nexleaf team members in Malawi have seen first-hand the enthusiasm health workers have, not just for shiny new gadgets, but also for digging in to build the skills and processes to put cutting-edge technology to maximum use.”