Econet Wireless Zimbabwe wins award at the Mobile World Congress #MWC14

Zimbabwe’s leading mobile network operator Econet Wireless yesterday received a Global Mobile Award at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Econet’s Energize the Chain Vaccine Project in Zimbabwe was named the best in the Mobile Health Product or Service category.

Explaining the Econet award, the Global Mobile Awards wrote on their website:

Every year vaccine-preventable diseases result in over two million deaths of children under the age of 5 years, many due to the disruption of the cold chain that renders temperature-sensitive vaccines ineffective. Energize the Chain’s (EtC) aspiration is to eradicate vaccine-preventable deaths worldwide by preserving and extending the vaccination cold chain to ensure delivery of effective vaccines. In partnership with Econet Wireless in Zimbabwe we have already successfully used the power at mobile phone base stations as the energy source to power vaccine refrigeration units in remote locations that currently lack the energy infrastructure needed to preserve the cold chain.

Judges’comments

Simple, extraordinarily clever and truly innovative. Using the power available from mobile base stations to power the vital refrigeration needed to keep vaccines cool is part of the fight to save twomillion children around the world from vaccine preventable deaths.

The judging criteria for this award category was as follows:

• Innovation in terms of functionality, technology deployed, business models and market potential
• Usability: How simple/easy is it to use?
• How it taps into new under-served market segments
• How it fulfills the needs of patients, medical professionals or health institutions with new levels of efficiency and effectiveness
• Evidence of user take up and market success

The Global Mobile Awards recognise the most outstanding companies that use mobile technology to add value and to benefit different communities. The Best Mobile Health Product or Service award in particular, “recognises the rapidly emerging and growing arena of mobile connectivity in healthcare”.

For more information on the Energize the chain initiative visit the Econet Wireless Website or watch the video below.