Duration

2017 onwards

Key Partners

MoHFW, State Governments,
Development Partners

Funder

Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance

One of the significant components of the Health Systems Strengthening grant from Gavi to the Government of India (GoI) for improving immunization during 2017–2021 was the capacity building of human resources engaged in the immunization program. The GoI identified JSIPL as the nodal agency and lead partner to provide technical assistance for the RISE project. The mandate was to identify the needs, develop a training platform to complement the existing training mechanism, and roll it out in pilot districts across five states.

RISE, an innovative training platform leveraging digital technology, was conceptualized, designed, and prepared for vaccinators. Over the last four years, the RISE model has been implemented in 36 districts, training over 14,000 frontline health workers engaged in immunization. It has demonstrated improved immunization knowledge, enhancing the quality of immunization programs, covering a population of over 50 million by the end of 2021.

Addressing Gaps and Challenges

  • Providing training to a large and diverse health workforce in record time with updated information and skills has been a longstanding challenge. RISE helped reach health workers across the country, addressing growing training needs aligned with rapid developments in India’s Immunization program.
    Bridging gaps in knowledge and learning by complementing traditional training methods with innovative capacity-building methodologies, the project used the ICT platform to train a large number of health workers in one go, thus reducing wait time and bringing flexibility and adaptability to learners. The modules cleared doubts and enabled individual real-time tracking for necessary support by supervisors.
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Key Objectives

To develop a human-centered, interactive, continuous, and adaptable knowledge and skill-building platform for health workers engaged in the Universal Immunization Program (UIP).

To complement the existing classroom-based cascade training for health workers by leveraging digital technologies for faster, easier, and more effective knowledge transfer.

JSIPL’s Role in Implementing RISE

As a first step toward building the RISE package, a comprehensive Capacity Building Needs Assessment (CBNA) was conducted to identify gaps in the immunization training scenario. A technology scoping exercise assessed the readiness of learners to use digital technology as a mode of training. Though the existing “Immunization Handbook for Health Workers,” approved by GoI, was used as the primary resource material for developing RISE content, observations of CBNA guided the team to prioritize content through a consultative process of relevant stakeholders. A Learning Management System (LMS) was developed to deliver training modules through cell phones, tabs, and computers.
The RISE app was launched at the national level in December 2019. The pilot phase was rolled out in five districts in five states covering about 2500 vaccinators during 2020. It was later scaled up in another 33 districts across three states, covering 12,000 vaccinators. A completion rate of over 80% was seen with positive deviance among trained vaccinators in their knowledge and practices during immunization sessions.

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Achievements & Winning Features

  • RISE provided continuous learning when in-person trainings stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its unique design provided the flexibility of access to learners.
  • The app provides self-learning opportunities through its
    user-friendly interface and interactive content embedded with quizzes and games.
  • Instant certification gave learners a sense of control and achievement. They could rate their learning performance through their pre and post-assessment scores in each module before downloading and proudly sharing e-certificates.
  • The design of the modules encouraged peer-to-peer learning and prompt troubleshooting with a two-way, reciprocal process via WhatsApp groups at sub-district levels leading to practical problem-solving between learners, supervisors, and technical teams at the backend.
  • Also, a real-time monitoring tool through a live dashboard allowed supervisors to assess and guide constructively.
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Looking Ahead

RISE is a good example of innovation with the potential to turn into a long-term program. Its success has encouraged the Government of India to take it up for a broader scale-up.

The platform will also be leveraged through updated content regularly with training on other health topics such as COVID-19 vaccination.

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