Celebrating 10 years of using mobile messaging to change the world

RapidPro is an open-source software platform that allows users to easily design, build, pilot and scale mobile-based applications from anywhere in the world.

RapidPro powers the way governments and development partners connect, engage, and collaborate with people on their own mobile phones.

Our Journey

Important milestones in RapidPro’s history

2007

UNICEF Innovation launched the open-source platform RapidSMS

2010

Rwandan software engineering firm TextIt (formerly Nyaruka) built their own SMS service called TextIt - a commercial hosted service that runs on RapidPro.

2014

UNICEF partnered with TextIt to open source and expand the functions of TextIt, giving birth to RapidPro.

2020

RapidPro became an accredited Digital Public Good listed in the registry of the Digital Public Goods Alliance

2024

RapidPro hits the 10-years milestone!

Our global impact

130

UNICEF country offices

284

active RapidPro workspaces

5+ Billion

messages exchanged

UNICEF country offices using RapidPro

Case Studies

See More Case Studies →

Happy Bus for Children with Developmental Delays and Disabilities

Through The Happy Bus, UNICEF conducted weekly visits to remote communities to conduct assessment sessions on early child development, parent education on positive parenting and child health, nutrition and development. The Happy Bus will serve at least 3,000 vulnerable families with children with disabilities in its first stage and is expected to scale this further to serve 10,000 families across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip

Health Care on Air Pacific

During the COVID-19 pandemic, UNICEF launched Health Care on Air Pacific, a distance health education program for health workers to provide primary health workers with the knowledge, skills, confidence and guidance on managing COVID-19 infections and continue to deliver quality essential health services to vulnerable populations. RapidPro was used to enable two-way communication using SMS, Facebook, Messenger and Viber.

From Survivors to Changemakers: U-Report Communities Growing within Internal Displacement Camps

In July 2023, U-Reporters from internally displaced persons (IDP) camps from provinces designated as Level 3 Emergencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), took the initiative to bring their participation to the next level by forming U-Communities in their camps. The SBC team organized a U-Report Tour dedicated to providing them with capacity-building training for the youth to support scaling their UCommunities. They also received mentoring and funding to help them learn skills and start their businesses, enabling them to achieve independence and meet their basic needs. More than 1,220 displaced youth – half of which were girls – received training and funding assistance to start their businesses. Through the initiative, 20,000 displaced youth joined U-Report, enabling them to contribute further to change by giving feedback on their living circumstances.

Happy Bus for Children with Developmental Delays and Disabilities

Health Care on Air Pacific

From Survivors to Changemakers: U-Report Communities Growing within Internal Displacement Camps

Get Started with RapidPro

Connect

Engage a hosting service provider to configure and host RapidPro.

Explore

Take RapidPro for a spin. Become familiar with its features and design sample flows for your context. You can use your Android phone to conduct small trial tests too!

Design

Engage a dedicated project manager to lead the design, roll-out, and scaling of the initiative.

Deploy

Engage the mobile network operators and/or an aggregator to support the service(s) deployed.

Organizations Using RapidPro

Get In Touch With Us

Would you like to learn more about RapidPro or get the ball rolling? Simply fill out the form and we’ll get in touch with you. Alternatively, you can reach out to us directly at rapidpro@unicef.org.