FHI 360 developed the Sema Nasi (Kiswahili for “Talk to Us”) project as a mobile phone-based social accountability platform to enable clients to provide feedback on the quality of family planning services they received. Sema Nasi was funded by the David & Lucile Packard Foundation.

Feedback from clients helps to improve the responsiveness of health facilities and the quality of family planning services. To achieve that goal, the Sema Nasi team based the project design on globally acknowledged frameworks for quality of care, as well as the Tanzanian Family Planning Guidelines and Standards. The project was implemented in five private health facilities and one public health facility in Tanzania. 

Participants were recruited through wall posters and individual cards that described the system and how to access it. Participants accessed the system by texting the keyword “Sema” to a designated phone number and then received via SMS a series of questions about the quality of family planning care they encountered. Responses were automatically analyzed in an online dashboard to generate quality index scores for each facility and provide systematic feedback about user perceptions of quality of services to the management teams at the facilities and district offices. These real-time results served to foster accountability to improve service delivery in the participating health facilities.