The limited success of foreign-backed projects to fight diseases in Africa is down to basic misunderstanding about how to communicate even the simplest messages, a Mozambican education entrepreneur has said.

Dayn Amade, founder of Maputo-based technology company Kamaleon, is calling for the World Health Organization and aid groups to reassess how people on the African continent are educated about disease prevention.

“Aid efforts are being hampered by a failure to educate people on the question of why prevention is needed, and by organisations’ ability to tailor messages to local communities,” he said.

Amade is the creator of a digital platform called the community tablet, an interactive platform through which people can be educated and informed about issues impacting their lives. The device, which runs on up to six large, solar-powered LCD screens and is transported on a trailer, can be attached to anything from a car to a donkey, enabling it to reach even the most remote or isolated rural communities.

Amade applauds the efforts of NGOs to acquire and distribute resources, but believes a vital piece of the puzzle is missing in terms of communicating why certain things are important. He cites the continent’s fight against Aids as one such issue.

The UN has reported a $5bn (£3.9bn) shortfall in global funding to fight HIV and Aids, which has caused the death of 15 million Africans and infected a further 35 million. The World Health Organization has warned that it is unlikely the target of eradicating Aids by 2030 will be met, due to the rate of new infections and the number of deaths failing to decrease as expected.

Amade offers his tablets as part of the solution to educating those most affected by the disease. Created in 2015, Amade claims the device has helped to educate over a million people across 90 communities.

“The main reason for missed targets is the inefficient use of resources, as the communities at which health programmes are aimed do not understand why they need to accept help and, more critically, why they need to change their behaviour,” he says.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dayn Amade, founder and CEO of Kamaleon, brings internet access to remote areas. Photograph: Courtesy Kamaleon

“As they say, you can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Education is key: if you educate people, you empower them to make better decisions. However, to do this they must be engaged – and to engage people, you need to understand them.”

“There is a lack of understanding of the African reality. I have seen many organisations with the best of intentions making obvious mistakes, such as giving out information pamphlets to individuals who cannot read, or trainers giving talks while holding an umbrella to shield themselves from the sun, or while wearing sunglasses. The audience sees this and thinks: ‘Why does he think he’s so important?’ These simple mistakes can have a big impact.”

Presentation is critical when explaining health initiatives, Amade said. Using images of people of the same ethnic appearance, dress and dialect as the audience can make people more receptive, encouraging them to feel they are being engaged by one of their own rather than just handed a printed pamphlet.

Amade concedes he has made his own mistakes. “We created an educational video to reduce the spread of cholera. In the animation, the character, having answered the call of nature, cleaned themselves using their right hand, something that we had not noticed. However, the Muslim audience did – and failed to adopt the message, disgusted because they use their right hand to eat.

“In another, we created characters dressed in red to signify people infected with HIV/Aids, while those unaffected were dressed in blue. The animation went on to demonstrate that an unprotected sexual encounter between the two could cause blue to change to red.” In the feedback session, Amade realised the community believed they were being taught about politics, as the ruling party used the colour red and the opposition wore blue.

The community tablet – available to NGOs at cost – is focused on five key areas: public health, digital access, family planning, banking and voting.

Turning air into drinking water: Africa's inspired inventors Read more

Amade says Feedback is vital in understanding whether a message has been received and is likely to be applied by the target audience in daily life.

“All too often, NGOs give talks, or give out information, without knowing what the impact has been. We do this through gamification. Post presentation, people play a game which allows us to collect data on how well the presentation received, what was actually learnt, how they felt about it, what areas they did not understand and what impact it has had on their decisions, ie will they change their behaviour?

“NGOs are overly focused on the achievement of goals and targets, they fail to measure effectiveness,” he said. “To effect change, they need to focus on education, adopting a digital approach to enable greater data capture and measurement, whilst providing more engaging experiences for communities.”