What is the name of your organization?
Greenstar Social Markleting Pakistan Guarantee Limited
What is the name of your solution?
Baji Connect
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Baji Connect: Community Worker -led digital platform enhancing access to quality medicines
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Karachi, Pakistan
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Pakistan
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
In Pakistan, the latest national data shows alarmingly high levels of resistance: over 74% of E. coli and 66% of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates are resistant to ceftriaxone, a commonly used first-line antibiotic (NIH AMR Report 2021–2022). For Salmonella Typhi, which causes typhoid, 72% of isolates are ceftriaxone-resistant, a drastic rise from just a few years ago. But the problem goes beyond resistance, it’s about access to quality, effective treatment. In low-income areas where public health services are weak, people often rely on unregulated pharmacies or informal providers. There’s no guarantee the antibiotics they receive are genuine, appropriate, or stored correctly. This means some infections are now untreatable at the community level. Without timely interventions like community-based surveillance, provider education, and digital QA tools, Pakistan risks losing its frontline defense against common infections. We’re working to change this by expanding Baji Connect, Greenstar’s community-level health workers-led family planning and maternal health quality assurance (QA) system, to monitor antibiotic access and safety.
What is your solution?
Baji Connect is a community-driven digital solution originally designed to strengthen connections between female community health workers and Greenstar’s extensive network of community-based health providers (national footprint of 5000) focused on family planning, maternal health, child health, and tuberculosis. These workers are trusted in their neighborhoods and are deeply embedded in household-level health service delivery and are uniquely positioned to serve as early detectors of poor-quality antibiotics at the last mile. We aim to adapt Baji Connect to support real-time community-level detection and reporting of falsified or substandard antibiotics. The proposed features to be added to Baji Connect include a digital checklist and photo capture tool for health workers to assess medicine packaging, expiry, storage, and patient symptoms. Suspect entries would prompt a remote pharmacist review and guide follow-up. A central dashboard would generate alerts and heatmaps, and providers would receive nudges on rational antibiotic use. These features are proposed but not yet prototyped. However, they build on an operational system with existing user trust and workflows, making adaptation both feasible and scalable. The innovation lies in shifting antibiotic quality assurance and stewardship from hospitals and labs to the actual points of access: homes, corner pharmacies, and informal providers.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Baji Connect is designed to serve low-income women, children, and families living in underserved urban and rural communities in Pakistan. These populations often rely on informal or semi-formal sources of healthcare for common infections due to limited access to regulated health services. They frequently obtain antibiotics from neighborhood drug sellers or local providers, where dispensing occurs without prescriptions, diagnostic support, or any assurance of medicine quality. As a result, these communities are at risk of receiving antibiotics that are ineffective or unsafe. At the same time, they are vulnerable to the misuse of antibiotics, which contributes to growing resistance and leads to failed treatments, prolonged illness, increased healthcare costs, and, in some cases, preventable mortality. The solution also strengthens the role of female community health workers, known as Sitara Bajis, who already provide essential maternal and child health services but are not currently engaged in antimicrobial quality assurance or surveillance. By equipping them with digital tools for medicine assessment and provider education, Baji Connect empowers frontline workers while improving the safety and effectiveness of antibiotics for the communities they serve.
