Telecoms giant Vodafone has announced it is to make available its mobile technology to partners in sub-Saharan Africa in order to boost a programme of child vaccination.
This will see Vodafone form a three year partnership with the GAVI Alliance and drugs giant GSK to source new and underused vaccines.
The programme has set an ambitious target of vaccinating an additional quarter of a billion children worldwide by 2015, potentially averting as many as 4m deaths.
Vodafone’s tech will be harnessed to alert mothers to the availability of vaccines via text message, as well as enabling health workers to access medical records via their phones and allow health facilities to monitor their vaccine stock.
Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone, said: "Vodafone is committed to investing in mobile technologies that can transform healthcare in both developed and emerging markets. These partnerships have the potential to save millions of children's lives in some of the world's poorest countries and we are delighted to support this critically important endeavour."