As a provider of emergency medicines and medical supplies in response to shortages caused by disasters and instability AmeriCares relies on the needs identified by our on-the-ground partners. A recurring challenge is our lack of visibility to our partners supply chains and distribution networks except through cumbersome, often manual reporting.

This limits our ability to plan disaster responses that meet the specific needs of partners and their unique distribution networks, i.e. modules going to mobile medical teams will be quite different from those going to church or community groups. Any tool that can cheaply reduce the burden of reporting and increase transparency, especially in low-resource settings will strengthen our ability to plan effective emergency responses and potentially save lives.

-Adam Smith is a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist with AmeriCares