What is the name of your organization?
Enfants du Monde
What is the name of your solution?
Sagenda
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
Sagenda: an AI-powered assistant helping caregivers and health workers give every child the best start in life.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Genève, Suisse
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Switzerland
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Early childhood is a critical period for brain development, yet 43% of children under five in low- and middle-income countries risk not reaching their full potential due to poverty, malnutrition, and lack of early stimulation. In Burkina Faso, 1.7 million children under five face poor developmental outcomes, with only 14% receiving parental stimulation at home. Despite adopting a national Early Childhood Development (ECD) strategy and the UNICEF/WHO Nurturing Care Framework, the country still struggles with low investment in early stimulation (only 0.1% of ECD spending) and limited integration of nurturing care into health systems.
Frontline health workers are expected to support caregivers but often lack adequate training and tools. To address this, Enfants du Monde developed My Child Grows Up, a mobile app that promotes nurturing care by offering parents and caregivers guidance on health, nutrition, early learning, and safety. However, its use in health consultations is limited by non-personalized content and difficult navigation of age-specific information.
The challenge we are addressing is how to improve the reach and effectiveness of nurturing care support for caregivers—especially through health workers—by providing personalized, practical, and accessible digital tools to strengthen early childhood development at scale.
What is your solution?
Our solution is an AI-powered Virtual Assistant that supports health workers and caregivers by providing personalized, evidence-based guidance on early childhood development (ECD). It offers real-time, tailored recommendations during routine consultations—such as postnatal care, vaccination sessions, or emergency check-ups—focused on nurturing care: play-based learning, sensory-motor stimulation, nutrition, health, and safety.
The tool uses Large Language Models (LLMs)—a type of artificial intelligence trained to understand and generate human language. These models can answer caregiver questions, summarize key child development content, and adapt communication to local languages and contexts. The assistant is connected to a curated knowledge base built from global health guidelines (e.g., WHO, UNICEF), enabling up-to-date, trusted advice that is easy to expand and cite.
Unlike traditional apps, which are often static and generic, this assistant adapts recommendations to the specific age, developmental stage, and concerns of each child. It helps health workers strengthen their counseling skills while empowering caregivers with practical tips they can use at home.
This AI innovation bridges a major gap in ECD services by making high-quality, personalized support available at scale—especially in low-resource settings—where time, training, and tools for early stimulation are limited.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our solution directly serves two key groups in Burkina Faso: frontline health workers and caregivers of children under five. These individuals operate in low-resource settings where access to up-to-date, actionable guidance on early childhood development (ECD) is extremely limited. Health workers often lack the time, tools, and training to integrate best practices into daily care, while caregivers—especially mothers—frequently receive minimal support in promoting their child’s development at home.
The AI-Powered Virtual ECD Assistant will be deployed across medical centers and hospitals in three regions, reaching an estimated 427,000 children under five. It will provide health workers with tailored guidance during consultations, strengthening their ability to deliver quality counseling. For caregivers, the assistant translates complex health information into practical, personalized advice—empowering them to actively support their child’s growth and development.
By bridging the gap between global ECD knowledge and local service delivery, this solution improves the quality of care in the critical early years. Its scalable design allows for future expansion, both geographically and functionally, including adaptation to maternal and adolescent health. Ultimately, it strengthens local capacity, improves child outcomes, and supports equitable access to nurturing care for all children—especially the most vulnerable.
