CHWs "buy in" for phones

Users
1

Hello all,

Does anyone on this list have experience in programs where CHWs pay for a
percentage of their mobile phones?

Typically we give them away, but in an upcoming program we are considering
this alternative. The thought here is that if users have to pay a little
for their phones, it may increase their motivation to use them and their
sense of ownership. It also might make the CHW think twice about letting
her kids or brother play with the phone, which tends to cause us a lot of
headache.

Thanks for any thoughts,
Derek

2

Derek,

I've heard of at least a couple of schemes related to this idea

  1. Have CHW's "earn" their phone by having some of their salary each week
    go into the purchase price of the phone for a while. Then over time when
    the program is over, let them keep them. This is good for ownership, but a
    bit tricky WRT future program changes/updates/etc. I don't remember whether
    anyone's followed through on that specifically, but it always seemed like
    an interesting idea to me.

  2. In (dodoma? I think) if a phone is lost/broken the program would pay 50%
    of the replacement, the individual CHW would pay 25%, and the collective
    group of CHW's together wold pay the other 25%. This gave everyone some
    stake in the care of the devices. Amelia or Brian can probably comment on
    how well that worked.

-Clayton

··· On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 8:48 AM, Derek Treatman wrote:

Hello all,

Does anyone on this list have experience in programs where CHWs pay for a
percentage of their mobile phones?

Typically we give them away, but in an upcoming program we are considering
this alternative. The thought here is that if users have to pay a little
for their phones, it may increase their motivation to use them and their
sense of ownership. It also might make the CHW think twice about letting
her kids or brother play with the phone, which tends to cause us a lot of
headache.

Thanks for any thoughts,
Derek

3

Nick or Amelia would know better, but I'm pretty sure it worked well.
The one lost phone that I was aware of worked out well in that people
actually paid.

I think the more important thing was that we can up with that system
together. We had a couple of meetings with all of our CHWs where we
asked them to present options for what should happen if a phone is
lost or stolen. They voted on them, we offered some feedback along the
way, but it was really the CHWs who decided, which I think led to
higher buy-in to the whole process.

Brian

··· On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 8:41 AM, Clayton Sims wrote: > Derek, > > I've heard of at least a couple of schemes related to this idea > > 1) Have CHW's "earn" their phone by having some of their salary each week go > into the purchase price of the phone for a while. Then over time when the > program is over, let them keep them. This is good for ownership, but a bit > tricky WRT future program changes/updates/etc. I don't remember whether > anyone's followed through on that specifically, but it always seemed like an > interesting idea to me. > > 2) In (dodoma? I think) if a phone is lost/broken the program would pay 50% > of the replacement, the individual CHW would pay 25%, and the collective > group of CHW's together wold pay the other 25%. This gave everyone some > stake in the care of the devices. Amelia or Brian can probably comment on > how well that worked. > > -Clayton > > > On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 8:48 AM, Derek Treatman wrote: >> >> Hello all, >> >> Does anyone on this list have experience in programs where CHWs pay for a >> percentage of their mobile phones? >> >> Typically we give them away, but in an upcoming program we are considering >> this alternative. The thought here is that if users have to pay a little for >> their phones, it may increase their motivation to use them and their sense >> of ownership. It also might make the CHW think twice about letting her kids >> or brother play with the phone, which tends to cause us a lot of headache. >> >> Thanks for any thoughts, >> Derek > >