Developing a gender and vulnerability data and insights platform: Bluesquare’s Innovative Collaboration with Sonder Collective

Developing a gender and vulnerability data and insights platform.
June 7th, 2024

Developing a gender and vulnerability data and insights platform

The Belgian scale-up Bluesquare and the international cooperative Sonder Collective signed a $5 million contract in April 2024 to advance a multidisciplinary initiative focused on developing a gender and vulnerability data and insights platform.

Developed as a global good, this platform will help the global health community to better understand the inequitable distribution of poor reproductive, maternal, newborn, child health, and nutrition (RMNCH+N) health outcomes among women and their children through a focus on the social determinants of health including gender.

As part of the Pathways initiative, Bluesquare will assist Sonder in creating and scaling an integrated data platform to support more effective program targeting and decision-making, to demonstrate how the global health community can use data and evidence to design health care services that are women-centered, precise, and cross-sectional. This large-scale project – which will benefit several countries including Kenya, India, Ethiopia, Senegal, Indonesia and Nigeria – is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Scaling the Pathways Platform with OpenHEXA and IASO, top-notch technologies       

The development of the Pathways Platform will aim to improve the efficiency, consistency, and speed with regards to the core segmentation solution development process. This will be key for actors to understand and address the variations in needs across target populations. Such a platform will also incorporate additional data integration opportunities, segment exploration, data management, and visualization tools. 

Early iterations of the platform leverage (and have been accelerated by) two open-source digital public goods (OpenHEXA and IASO) developed by Bluesquare. OpenHEXA, utilized in over twenty low-and-middle income countries, offers data integration, processing, and analysis capabilities, while IASO offers significant online and offline data collection functionalities. Ultimately,the robust and scalable technology solution developed by Bluesquare (in co-creation with Sonder) will enable a global audience, such as international development organizations, Ministries of Health, and in-country health organizations, to better understand the impact that vulnerabilities have on women’s health. 

A complementary and innovative partnership

“This collaboration provides Sonder with a long-term technological partner possessing advanced expertise in implementing best-in-class software development practices, project management, and quality assurance. Moreover, this partnership demonstrates a deep understanding and sharing of core values.”

Andrew Buhayar

Program Director, Pathways
“For Bluesquare, this project is an important milestone and innovation in its portfolio of data solutions to improve women’s health, specifically reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health and nutrition (RMNCH+N). We are excited to partner with Sonder Collective, an organization that complements our efforts through its focus on multidisciplinary approaches, human-centered design, and UX design, thereby enhancing the project’s impact.

With this large-scale project, Bluesquare solidifies its role as a key technological partner for large international organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WHO, UNICEF, and various ministries of health to address today’s global health challenges.”

Nicolas de Borman

CEO of Bluesquare

About Sonder Collective

Sonder Collective is a Finnish cooperative of designers, storytellers, anthropologists, system thinkers, and innovators working for a more equal and sustainable future. Sonder works as a network of independent professionals around the globe. They bring service design, system, and design thinking together with design research and applied anthropology and use a human-centered approach in everything they do.

Sonder Collective’s website:  https://fr.sonderdesign.org/ 

Pathways Project’s website: https://www.projectpathways.org/home