Varo Foundation

Nouveau membre Contributeur

Dear colleagues -

As many of you are already aware, New Horizons will be concluding our operations by end of this year. To minimize disruption to countries and partners, we have worked diligently over the past months to identify and transition a variety of critical tools and workstreams to other partners, who can carry these efforts in the future. Today, I’m pleased to share an update on the future stewardship of Varo and Pogo LT.

Background

New Horizons developed Varo and Pogo LT to address gaps in cold chain equipment (CCE) monitoring in low-resource settings. Varo is an Android mobile application that enables users to download data from temperature loggers, generate CCE status reports, and share these reports with other users via email. Pogo LT is a web application that generates aggregate CCE performance reports from Varo-collected data.

These tools have been developed continuously since 2018, in alignment with the Varo ethos statement. Varo was originally created to unlock the value of temperature and alarm data being collected by widely deployed 30DTR loggers. Over the years, Varo and Pogo LT have been extended to support temperature monitoring devices from multiple suppliers and, more recently, to support next-generation EMS loggers. These tools were not developed as an alternative to commercial RTMD offerings, but in recognition that many devices are not connected but the right toolset can enable users to collect and share this critical CCE performance data. When used together, Varo and Pogo LT provide a foundation to enable effective cold chain monitoring using only freely available tools. As we see it, Varo and Pogo LT will provide increasing impact in coming years, especially considering the continued ubiquity of 30DTR loggers and the upcoming introduction of next-generation EMS CCE.

Looking to the future

At the beginning of Q3 2025, New Horizons contacted a number of highly qualified organizations in the global health ecosystem to solicit interest in taking ownership of Varo and Pogo LT. In response, we received a number of excellent proposals. After careful consideration of all submissions, it is my pleasure to announce that New Horizons has transferred ownership of Varo and PogoLT to a newly established 501(c)(3) organization, operating under the name The Varo Foundation. The team behind The Varo Foundationincludes the longtime Varo technical product lead and a senior global health leader with 25 years of global health leadership experience. This team combines deep technical expertise, including existing fluency with the tools, with decades of programmatic leadership in global health. They are ideally positioned to sustain these tools for today – and enhance them for tomorrow.

It has been a great pleasure for me to contribute to the development of Varo and Pogo LT over many years. On behalf of New Horizons, I want to extend our sincere thanks to all partners who have contributed to Varo and Pogo LT. We owe special thanks to Ernest Some (National Cold Chain Officer, DVI / MOPH&S, Kenya); Hendrik Jan Harbers (Berlinger & Co. AG); Tahir Buhari and Mohammed Sani Lawal (eHealth Africa, Nigeria); and Janetrix Maindi and Wilberforce Kongo (Pemmado Limited, Kenya) for their inspiration, feedback, ideas, and steady partnership since the earliest days of these tools.

I have notified the The Varo Foundation team about this message. I expect that they will follow up with more details, especially to clarify impacts to current or future users and to outline their vision for the products going forward.

Warmest regards,
Benson Miller