RapidPro Nutrition Monitoring Success in Mozambique

In 2016, Mozambique faced a severe nutrition crisis amid a drought-driven emergency, yet only about 25% of health facilities were submitting their weekly nutrition reports on time. This data gap left authorities nearly blind to rising malnutrition cases, hindering timely response in communities where children’s lives were at stake. RapidPro nutrition monitoring emerged as the solution to this problem, enabling a rapid digital scale-up of reporting across the country.

UNICEF Mozambique and partners deployed RapidPro, an open-source, mobile-based platform for real-time data collection to connect with frontline health workers even in remote districts. Through simple SMS surveys and other channels, health staff could send critical nutrition data directly to a central dashboard each week. To encourage participation, the initiative leveraged multi-channel mobile surveys and small airtime incentives (phone credit rewards) for on-time reporting.

The impact was immediate: in less than two weeks, weekly reporting rates jumped from roughly 25% to almost 90%, giving decision-makers a reliable national view of the nutrition situation. This swift turnaround demonstrated how digital health monitoring tools like RapidPro can transform emergency response, ensuring that life-saving interventions reach vulnerable children faster.

Why RapidPro Nutrition Monitoring Was Needed in Mozambique

Mozambique’s nutrition crisis in 2016 demanded immediate, granular data on child malnutrition. An estimated 1.5 million people were facing food insecurity due to drought, and tens of thousands of children were acutely malnourished. Yet the existing reporting system could not keep up. Health facilities typically compiled paper forms or verbal reports that took weeks to reach Maputo (if they arrived at all). As a result, nutrition program managers were operating with outdated or incomplete information in the middle of an emergency.

Weekly nutrition monitoring was crucial to identify hotspots of acute malnutrition and allocate therapeutic foods, staff, and other resources. However, with only ~25% of clinics reporting on time, most of the country’s districts were effectively in the dark. The low reporting rate stemmed from multiple challenges:

• Manual processes : Data traveled by hand or via spreadsheets, causing delays.
• Remote locations : Rural clinics lacked internet access, and phone calls were unreliable.
• Limited incentives : Frontline workers received little feedback or support for timely reporting.

In this context, UNICEF Mozambique recognized that a mobile-based nutrition data system was needed to leapfrog traditional methods. The goal was to enable front-line health workers to send data in real time from anywhere, ensuring that decision-makers had an up-to-date picture of the crisis. This need set the stage for deploying RapidPro as a digital solution for nutrition surveillance.

RapidPro Nutrition Monitoring: From 25% to 90% Reporting in Two Weeks

The RapidPro rollout in Mozambique was both fast and effective. UNICEF’s innovation team configured a nutrition monitoring workflow in RapidPro’s visual builder and onboarded health facilities via their mobile numbers within days. Using SMS survey tools, RapidPro would text each registered health worker a short questionnaire every week about new malnutrition cases, stock levels of therapeutic food, and other key indicators.

Multi-channel support meant that even clinics with only basic phones could participate via SMS or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), while areas with better connectivity could eventually use apps or WhatsApp. Critically, RapidPro automatically sent reminders to any clinic that missed a report and provided instant feedback if data were incomplete or out of range. This closed-loop approach ensured that nearly all facilities started reporting consistently.

Within the first two weeks of launch, the reporting rate leapt from roughly 25% to 90% of health facilities nationwide. In practical terms, hundreds of additional clinics began submitting timely nutrition data each week. Health officials could now see a real-time nutrition dashboard showing which districts had spikes in severe acute malnutrition, which clinics were low on Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTF), and where outreach was succeeding.

This was a dramatic improvement from the previous paper-based system. By digitizing the nutrition surveillance, RapidPro gave the Ministry of Health and UNICEF an up-to-date evidence base to direct emergency supplies and support to the hardest-hit provinces. It also fostered a sense of accountability, field staff knew their data was being seen immediately, motivating them to keep reporting regularly.

Multi-Channel Surveys & Airtime Incentives Drive Engagement

The remarkable jump in reporting compliance did not happen by accident; it was actively driven by user-centric tactics. Key strategies that made the RapidPro nutrition monitoring rollout successful included:

• Simple, local-language surveys: The SMS questions were kept short and clear, and translated into local languages. Frontline health workers found the format easy to use, even with minimal training.
• Multi-channel accessibility: RapidPro’s flexibility to use SMS, USSD, and other channels meant every clinic could send data using whatever network or phone they had. No smartphone or internet was required, which was critical in rural areas.
• Zero cost to reporters: To remove any financial barrier, UNICEF worked with mobile operators so that outgoing survey SMS messages were toll-free for users. In addition, health workers received small airtime top-ups as incentives for on-time reporting. These rewards offset any phone costs and recognized the extra effort of timely reporting.

By combining these approaches, the project achieved high engagement from day one. Health workers became partners in the digital health monitoring process rather than just data providers. The multi-channel, incentivized model ensured that even hard-to-reach clinics stayed connected and responsive during the emergency.

Fast, Secure Scale-Up with RapidPro in an Emergency

In an emergency context, time is of the essence. RapidPro’s design allowed Mozambique’s nutrition monitoring system to scale up in days without sacrificing data security or quality. As a free, open-source platform, there were no licensing hurdles, UNICEF could deploy RapidPro immediately and customize the workflows as needed. The system is built to handle nationwide messaging volumes, and in Mozambique it easily managed weekly SMS reports from hundreds of clinics with capacity to spare.

Using RapidPro also meant that sensitive health data stayed secure. All messages traveled through encrypted channels and fed into a protected central database accessible only to authorized personnel. This single, secure platform was a major improvement over scattered phone calls and emails, ensuring data integrity even amid chaos. Despite the fast deployment, reliability was not compromised, the RapidPro server stayed online consistently so health workers could count on it when it mattered most.

Another advantage was agility. If officials needed to adjust questions or add local language translations, they could do so within minutes through RapidPro’s no-code interface. This flexibility proved vital in a fluid situation, as the team could refine the monitoring workflows on the fly. In sum, RapidPro delivered rapid scale-up and dependable performance under pressure, giving responders a powerful digital tool when they needed it most.

RapidPro App: Enhancing RapidPro Nutrition Monitoring Initiatives

RapidPro’s success in Mozambique shows what’s possible with the right tools and support. Similar initiatives elsewhere, from UNICEF Nigeria’s U-Report engaging over a million youth via SMS to Liberia’s mHero connecting thousands of health workers, underscore the platform’s versatility. However, many organizations lack the IT capacity to deploy and maintain such systems. This is where RapidPro App comes in.

RapidPro App is a managed service that enhances the core RapidPro platform with enterprise-grade infrastructure and support, making it easier for NGOs and governments to implement nutrition monitoring or other mobile services at scale. Key benefits of RapidPro.app include:

• Turnkey RapidPro hosting: All server setup, installation, and updates are handled by our team. We deliver RapidPro as a fully managed service, so you can focus on program content instead of IT overhead.
• Cloud or on-premise flexibility: Deploy on our high-performance cloud or on your own servers, RapidPro App supports both options for maximum flexibility and data governance.
• Integration & data migration: We provide robust APIs and integration support to connect RapidPro with your other systems (e.g. DHIS2, CRM databases). If you’re moving from an existing system, our team ensures a secure, no-downtime migration of your data into RapidPro.
• 24/7 support & monitoring: Our experts continuously monitor your RapidPro instance, perform regular maintenance, and provide on-call support. Proactive fixes and updates keep your messaging workflows running reliably.
• Enterprise security & compliance: Enjoy end-to-end encryption, GDPR-compliant data handling, and routine security audits. RapidPro app’s architecture meets strict NGO and government requirements, so sensitive health data stays protected.

By partnering with RapidPro App, organizations get the best of both worlds: UNICEF’s proven RapidPro technology plus the turnkey hosting, security, and expert support needed to deploy it quickly and sustainably. Whether it’s a nutrition monitoring project like Mozambique’s or any other mobile data initiative, RapidPro app helps accelerate impact while minimizing technical headaches.

Conclusion: Empowering Nutrition Monitoring with RapidPro

The Mozambique experience illustrates how investing in real-time nutrition monitoring can yield dramatic improvements in health system performance. By moving to a mobile-based, RapidPro-powered solution, reporting delays were virtually eliminated and malnutrition data became actionable on a weekly basis. The combination of innovative technology and thoughtful implementation (training, multi-channel engagement, and incentives) saved lives by ensuring help reached the children who needed it most.

For governments and NGOs, the takeaway is clear: RapidPro nutrition monitoring can vastly strengthen emergency response and routine health programs alike. With a platform like RapidPro, especially when bolstered by RapidPro app’s turnkey services, you can deploy scalable, secure data collection systems in a fraction of the time it once took. This means more informed decisions, faster interventions, and better outcomes for vulnerable communities.

Ready to modernize your nutrition monitoring or health communication project? Take action today by contacting RapidPro App for a free consultation or demo. Our team will help you launch a RapidPro solution tailored to your needs, whether in the cloud or on-premise, within days, not months. Empower your teams with real-time data and drive impactful change, just as Mozambique did with RapidPro.

FAQ: RapidPro Nutrition Monitoring

Q1: What is RapidPro and how does it support nutrition monitoring?
A: RapidPro is an open-source platform (from UNICEF) for building mobile-based data collection systems. It supports SMS, voice, and messaging apps to gather real-time information. For nutrition monitoring, RapidPro lets health programs send simple surveys to frontline workers and instantly receive their reports. This enables timely tracking of malnutrition cases, supply levels, and other indicators, even in remote areas with no internet.

Q2: How did UNICEF Mozambique achieve 90% reporting with RapidPro?
A: During the severe 2016 drought, UNICEF rapidly deployed a RapidPro-based SMS reporting system. Every week, RapidPro sent an SMS form to each clinic to collect nutrition data. Key to success were multi-channel access (so even basic phones could report), automatic reminders for missing reports, and small airtime incentives for on-time responses. Within two weeks, reporting rates jumped from roughly 25% to 90%, giving authorities a nearly complete picture of the crisis.

Q3: Why use mobile surveys and SMS for nutrition data collection?
A: Mobile surveys (via SMS) are fast, cost-effective, and accessible. SMS reaches almost all areas because it works on any basic mobile phone without requiring internet. This is crucial for nutrition programs in rural or low-connectivity settings. Using SMS also speeds up reporting, data that might take weeks via paper can be obtained in minutes. Overall, SMS survey tools empower frontline health workers to send data regularly with minimal effort.

Q4: What does RapidPro App add to the open-source RapidPro platform?
A: RapidPro app is a managed hosting service that handles the technical setup and ongoing support for RapidPro. It takes care of server infrastructure, installation, updates, and integrations, allowing organizations to deploy RapidPro quickly without an in-house IT team. In addition, RapidPro app provides 24/7 technical support, enterprise-grade security compliance, and easy integration with other systems. Essentially, it lets you use RapidPro as a turnkey service with expert guidance, ideal for large-scale or government deployments.