Using conversational AI for good, a Case Study from Uganda

Erica has been working in international development for the past 15 years and in her role at Safe Hands has embraced chatbot technology to democratise information about Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and will talk through her experiences of developing chatbots in Uganda.

Say It Now was commissioned to work alongside Safe Hands and Reproductive Health Uganda to explore how automated conversations could increase the reach of the important messages that are being disseminated whilst reducing the cost to reach the target groups.

You can see more about the genus and early stages of the relationship at this link and we invited Erica Belanger to talk about her first experiences of working with chatbots at an event we recently held. You can see the entire talk and slides here:

With over 15 years’ experience in international development, Erica is a technical expert on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). At SafeHands, Erica leads the organisation’s multimedia programmes through mHealth solutions, including collaboration with Say It Now on Ask RHU – a chatbot that delivers instant safe sex information to young people in Uganda. She is also the Chair of the UK SRHR Network, and leads a consortium of over 70 UK-based civil society organisations working to ensure SRHR remains high on the UK political agenda. Previously, Erica was the Senior Advocacy Adviser at the world’s largest reproductive health provider, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) where she led the Federation’s advocacy on family planning policy and financing.