Amref Health Africa – Leap
A strong health workforce is essential to building resilient health systems. In Ethiopia, significant progress has been made over the past two decades to expand the health workforce, yet shortages of trained medical professionals remain a major challenge, particularly in rural and remote areas. Community health workers—known as Health Extension Workers (HEWs)—play a critical role in delivering primary healthcare services, but expanding and strengthening their training at the scale required remains a complex task.
The Elsevier Foundation partnered with Amref Health Africa to support the use of Leap, Amref’s mobile learning platform designed to provide accessible, scalable training for health workers. Developed to reach frontline healthcare providers through basic mobile phones, Leap enables health workers to access educational content remotely, overcoming many of the logistical challenges associated with traditional in-person training.
Through this collaboration, the partnership supported efforts to strengthen the skills and knowledge of community health workers in Ethiopia and expand access to timely health training.
What we do
The partnership supported the rollout of the Leap mobile learning platform to train a first cohort of health workers across Ethiopia. The program focused on providing digital learning modules that could be accessed through mobile phones, enabling health workers to continue developing their skills while remaining in their communities and workplaces.
Working in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, the initiative delivered training modules tailored to different categories of health personnel, including frontline health workers, community health workers and surveillance officers stationed at points of entry. The training included information related to public health response and community-based healthcare delivery, helping ensure that frontline workers had access to up-to-date guidance.
By supporting mobile-based learning, the initiative aimed to expand the reach of training opportunities to health workers in areas where traditional training methods are often difficult to implement.
How we deliver
The Leap platform uses mobile technology to deliver structured learning content directly to health workers through their phones. This approach enables training programs to be deployed rapidly and at scale, making it possible to reach large numbers of healthcare providers without requiring them to travel or leave their communities.
With mobile network coverage reaching most parts of Ethiopia, the platform offered an efficient way to deliver learning materials to thousands of participants across the country. The mobile format allowed health workers to access lessons in flexible ways, supporting continuous learning alongside their day-to-day responsibilities.
