Secure Data Kit provides Health Data Management in Fifty Countries

We started Secure Data Kit with humble intentions; we knew that Open Data Kit, an open-source suite of tools built to help organizations author, field, and manage mobile data collection, had gaps in its offering. More importantly, we knew we could do more than just fill in the gaps Open Data Kit had, improving our offering by building a suite of features of our own.

First, we focused on security features that would allow users to set granular permission levels. Then, we created more robust reporting, making it easier to view the stories behind collected data. Next, we got to work on portability, simplifying the process of sending and retrieving data.

Through all of this, our primary focus has been our customers. We knew we wanted to make it easier for healthcare organizations to relieve suffering with data, but we had no idea those organizations would one day span across more than 50 countries.

Our original use case, making it easy to collect data, has evolved into comprehensive health management for the 21st century. Here are a few ways our customers around the world are using Secure Data Kit.


  • Our customers in Afghanistan use the SDK smartphone survey app to measure activities and collect data with the intention of stopping the transmission of Polio.

  • In Kenya, SDK’s supply chain module tracks medicines from donation to distribution to more than 15,000 teachers. SDK monitors the entire process of delivery and treatment of children, with the goal of treating students with Schistosomiasis.

  • In rural Nicaragua, SDK is used to track economic development over time with iPhone and Android surveys and access to custom mapping.

  • In Rwanda, coffee farmers use SDK’s iPhone surveys and custom reporting abilities to manage their farms.

  • In the US, SDK has been implemented to help counseling centers better measure the happiness of their patients via SMS and web-based surveys.



Along with serving 50 countries, we also support eight different languages, including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Kinyarwanda, Creole, and Bangla.

Now that we’re serving more countries, more languages, and more customers - we also wanted to make it possible for them to do more with their data. That’s why we recently shared an iOS version of Secure Data Kit to allow customers to create and edit their collected data, view more variables over time, and conduct longitudinal studies.

The 50 countries using SDK:
Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Congo Brazzaville, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea - Bissau, Haiti, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Laos PDR, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, soloman islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Timor Leste, Togo, Uganda, United States, Vanautu, Viet Nam, Zambia