WHERE WE WORK

BANGLADESH

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data for Decision Makers

DIP worked with the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to develop dashboards that would have up-to-date information on progress toward meeting the goals set in each Line Directors’ 5-year operational plan. A model dashboard was created for the Line Director responsible for Hospital Service Management (HSM). This model provides an integrated platform that the HSM Line Director can use to monitor a range of different types of operational goals. The dashboard also allows the HSM Line Directors to monitor the utilization of facilities, providing them with timely information on how service demand changes, allowing for rapid responses and appropriate allocation of resources based on performance. This dashboard element has been particularly useful for facility-based mortality surveillance during COVID-19. The structure of the HSM dashboard will be replicated to create dashboards for other DGHS Line Directors.

BRAZIL

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data Reports

Vital Strategies has been working with Brazil’s Ministry of Health to expand Saúde Brasil (the annual review of the nation’s health) to include state-by-state health situation assessments for the first time. To complement this expanded report, Vital Strategies used our Portal Development Platform to create a portal hosted on the Ministry of Health website that allows users to obtain: 1) time trend and sub-group comparisons in a state for one specific cause of death and 2) the top 10 causes of death for each state.

CAMBODIA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data Reports

DIP supported the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) with the analysis of civil registration data for the province of Kep. Training on vital statistics report writing using civil registration data was delivered to NIS staff and attended by staff from the General Directorate of Identification (GDI) from the Ministry of Interior. Improved collaboration between NIS and GDI led to the sharing of civil registration data by GDI with NIS. Mentoring sessions were provided to the NIS team to support data analysis and report writing.

The government now has a vision of publishing national reports by 2026, recognizing the gaps that need to be addressed by then. The Ministry of Interior is working with the NIS and MOH to identify where and how these gaps have occurred in the civil registration system and to implement specific solutions. The Kep report has provided the evidence that highlighted these gaps and is serving as an advocacy tool when engaging with the National Steering Committee on Civil Registration and Identification.

CAMEROON

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data Reports

The DIP team started working in Senegal early in 2020 with the Ministry of Health and Social Action, the National Agency for Statistics and Demography, and the Ministry of Territorial Communities, Development and Regional Planning. Activities had commenced at the start of the pandemic and support was shifted to supporting government’s COVID-19 response.

DIP collaborated with the Ministry to conduct the first two in-action reviews to ensure that lessons learned would be captured and integrated into response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first review focused on the initial management of COVID-19 cases and contacts and resulted in operational changes such as an increased reliance on community-based strategies. The second review included a focus on national leadership structures to the COVID-19 response and highlighted important communication and coordination challenges that were presented and shared within the response structures. This led to the development of a technical brief addressing communication within different facets of the pandemic response.

COLOMBIA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Analytics for Public Health Practice

Colombia’s high-quality national Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) have been under-utilized as a data source for health analyses in the country. Vital Strategies developed a hands-on 7-day workshop for 11 epidemiologists, statisticians and analysts representing Colombia’s Division of Epidemiology and Demography and the National Statistics Office with the goal of teaching participants how to better understand, analyze and use the DHS. The workshop consisted of didactic presentations, group work and individual exercises.

Participants were assigned three teams charged with conducting analysis to address a specific question of interest to the Ministry and prepare a publishable report in the three months after the workshop. The selected analysis projects were: factors associated with deferred maternity (inequalities in access to contraception), analysis of the internal quality of maternal mortality data for estimating maternal mortality ratios, and the relationship between sexual violence and fertility.

ECUADOR

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Analytics for Public Health Practice

Vital Strategies has worked with the National Statistics Office leadership to conceptualize the purpose, mandate, and objectives of the unit and to share best practices for data integration, hosting, analysis and use. The observatory is establishing a new data management and analysis model that includes administrative data, thematic surveys, and census data related to health, social characteristics, and living conditions. This system will allow the development of products, both descriptive and analytical, and provide relevant input into government health and social policies including poverty and living conditions in Ecuador, maternal mortality (a method for calculating and revising estimates of historic trends), adolescent pregnancy (a method for calculating and revising estimates of historic trends) and childhood malnutrition prevalence estimates for small geographic areas.

ETHIOPIA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: CRVS Data Use

The team worked closely with the CRVS Program to establish a rapid mortality surveillance (RMS) system in the country, especially the facility-based system. Guidance was provided on how to conduct excess mortality analysis, which data to use to establish the baseline, what to consider in terms of data quality, and how to interpret and present the results. The results were presented to the National Mortality Surveillance Working Group, integrated into the COVID response led by the team at the Emergency Operations Center, and will feed into the Public Health Emergency Management system.

GHANA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: CRVS Data Use

The government has been steadily improving CRVS data collection but had focused less on building capacity toward effectively analyzing and using the data to support public health policy and practice. To address this, Vital Strategies and the University of Melbourne delivered a CRVS Data Use Workshop for 41 technical analysts and communication staff from the Ghana Health Service (GHS), the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), and the Births and Deaths Registry (BDR). Areas of focus of the workshop included basic and advanced analytic measures, completeness and data quality, life tables, comparing mortality and identifying inequalities, and communication and dissemination of vital statistics.

On the last day of the workshop, a select team met to discuss quality and analytic concerns related to data sources for CRVS-related Sustainable Development Goal indicators and informed the government’s current indicator tracking plan.

INDONESIA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: CRVS Data Use

In 2021, the DIP and CRVS teams connected with PUSKAPA, the Center for Child Protection and Wellbeing, a research think tank at Universitas Indonesia. This partnership facilitated collaboration with the Ministry of National Development Planning (Bappenas), the CRVS National Secretariat (Seknas AKPSH), the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS), the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), and the Ministry of Health (MoH). In this phase, the DIP project is primarily focused on improving the analysis, production, and use of vital statistics. The work efforts are closely aligned with the CRVS Program to undertake a review of the vital statistics business processes and complete a legal review of the relevant legislature.

MALAWI

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data for Decision Makers

Vital Strategies worked for several months with Malawi to finalize the country’s National Health Indicators, after several years of work by various partners to develop them. Vital Strategies: met with programs to finalize a list of national health indicators, definitions, data sources, baselines and targets; mapped different data sources for each indicator to ensure better use of data and triangulation of data, as well as identifying duplication within the health information system; defined the exact calculations to be used in the DHIS2 system, to ensure that the indicators displayed through DHIS2 are calculated correctly; and provided detailed guidance on the interpretation of each indicator.

MOROCCO

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Organizational Design

The Data Impact team worked with 12 newly established Regional Health Observatories to develop tools for decision-making and effective communication. These included support in the production of the first annual regional health reports for Oriental and Fes-Meknes, development of a data dashboard for decision support and revision of the annual national health report.

MOZAMBIQUE

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data Reports

The DIP team introduced the National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estatística [INE]) to the guide on producing vital statistics and worked with them to produce the first national vital statistics report. The report has helped to identify areas of improvement at the point of registration and processing the data.

The team is also working with INS to use COMSA data to develop specialized topical reports, specifically on the social determinants of mortality. This is unique to COMSA as other data sources may have data on the social determinants of health but not on mortality. This process provided the INS staff the opportunity to develop advanced conceptual statistical skills and software skills to produce vital statistics. Two analysis plans were produced, and the results will be disseminated in a mortality report.

MUMBAI AND MAHARASHTRA, INDIA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Organizational Design & Analytics for Public Health Practice

A dedicated Data Analytics Unit (DAU) with four staff was established in the Mumbai Health Department, with support from DIP. The DAU provides the necessary analytics to inform decision-making by producing reports to support policy and guidelines development, as well as assisted with program evaluation for the Mumbai Public Health Department. This included analysis ofnoncommunicable disease (NCD) data from the "My Family My Responsibility" application, analysis of monthly NCD program data from dispensaries and peripheral hospitals, retrospective analysis of NCD data from 2017 to 2020, and analysis of data from a pilot project incorporating dietician visits for NCD patients.

The DAU also provided support for COVID-19 data analysis and lead the development of a report on the management of the COVID pandemic in Mumbai city. The report outlined the approach that Mumbai adopted to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and was disseminated widely among public health administrators and managers to guide response planning and mitigation for future epidemics/pandemics. The ongoing analysis of data also resulted in immediate action during the response.

MYANMAR

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data to Policy

The Data to Policy (D2P) program has been well established in Myanmar. This commenced with two rounds of training that led to the production of 16 policy briefs , 14 of which led to policy change. The Program has now been institionalized as 15 ministry staff (D2P alumni) completed a training of the trainer. These trained facilitators then applied their skills by running a locally-led D2P course in Burmese. The Ministry's commitment to the program was also confirmed by the establishment of an official training facility in Pyin Oo Lwin. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the D2P alumni recognized the need to have evidence-based policies on COVID-19. The team proposed to the Union Minister the establishment of “The COVID-19 Policy Analytics Group”(CPAG) that consists of members from various D2P cohorts and departments from MoHS. The Minister approved the formulation of this group, whose aim is to analyze local COVID-19 related policies by evaluating their epidemiological impacts and social and economic outcomes in Myanmar.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Analytics for Public Health Practice

Data Analytics Workshop Develops New Provincial Performance Reports Provincial Health Information Officers trained in Papua New Guinea Data Impact delivered a training on Data Analytics in Papua New Guinea for provincial health information officers (PHIO) and managers from all 22 provinces of Papua New Guinea, and staff from the Performance Monitoring and Research Branch, (PMRB) of the National Department of Health (NDOH). Activities focused on how to communicate key findings from the data into statements about performance to support decision-making at the senior level. Focusing on a subset of key indicators relevant at the provincial level from the yet-to-be-released 2017 Sector Performance Annual Review (SPAR), participants developed a provincial-level performance reports on various indictors and plans for immediate distribution of their reports to decision-makers at provincial, district and facility levels.

PERU

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: CRVS Data Use

The CRVS Data Analysis course, developed jointly by Vital Strategies and the University of Melbourne, was conducted in Spanish with two separate groups: regional statisticians and regional epidemiologists. The 60 participants included staff from all 30 of Peru’s regions. The course (1.5 days for regional statisticians and 2.5 days for regional epidemiologists) was an applied training that promoted analysis and development of data products (reports or briefs) to guide public health decision-making.

Region-specific mortality databases were provided to participants for analysis. In order to receive completion certificates, in the two months following the workshop, participants received mentoring to complete an analysis of mortality in their region. Epidemiologists also presented their findings and recommendations to their regional health directors.

PHILIPPINES

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data to Policy

In the Philippines, the Department of Health sought to strengthen its department’s capacity to use data to drive policy through the Data to Policy program. The policy recommendations made by one participant during the training, led to improved water quality throughout the country, and those made by another are leading to better data collection on maternal mortality.

Water quality issue were analyzed and measures were recommended to improve drinking water quality. In response to the policy recommendations, officials, including those in the office of the Philippine President, supported measures to improve drinking water quality. Before these recommendations, water quality testing was limited to four biologic parameters and there was no active monitoring of test results, now water service providers test for 10 parameters that includes chemicals like arsenic.

RWANDA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data to Policy

The DIP collaborates with the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) to implement activities to support utilizing data for impact. During second phase of the program, a D2P training was implemented that included participants from RBC, academic institutions and hospitals. The participants produced three policy briefs on stroke prevention, mental health and adolescent reproductive health. The policy brief on stroke prevention was presented and approved at a senior management meeting and is being revised for publication in the RPHB.

SENEGAL

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data for Decision Makers

The DIP team started working in Senegal early in 2020 with the Ministry of Health and Social Action, the National Agency for Statistics and Demography, and the Ministry of Territorial Communities, Development and Regional Planning. Activities had commenced at the start of the pandemic and support was shifted to supporting government’s COVID-19 response.

DIP collaborated with the Ministry to conduct the first two in-action reviews to ensure that lessons learned would be captured and integrated into response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first review focused on the initial management of COVID-19 cases and contacts and resulted in operational changes such as an increased reliance on community-based strategies. The second review included a focus on national leadership structures to the COVID-19 response and highlighted important communication and coordination challenges that were presented and shared within the response structures. This led to the development of a technical brief addressing communication within different facets of the pandemic response.

SHANGHAI, SHANDONG, AND ANHUI, CHINA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data to Policy & Digital Data Solutions

The DIP team led two Data to Policy (D2P) workshops for Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (SCDC) during 2016-18, the participants produced several policy briefs which led to policy changes, including passing the smoking-free regulation and inclusion of mandatory helmet use for e-bike riders in the traffic regulation in Shanghai. SCDC, with support from DIP, established the local D2P trainer team, adapted the curriculum to local context. DIP expanded the D2P program to Shandong and Anhui provinces. D2P program in Anhui and Shandong was facilitated by the SCDC trainers.

DIP is collaborating with SCDC to produce a public portal on nutrition and obesity patterns and smoking and hypertension risk behavior survey data in the city. Not only does the portal provide access to the public health data of the specific topics, it also offers recommendations on how citizens can improve their health. DIP is also working with Shandong CDC to create tools to provide access to data collected from surveys on salt intake and hypertension.

SOUTH AFRICA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Public Health Bulletin

The DIP collaborates with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) to implement activities. In the upcoming phase, trainings are planned in scientific communications and data to policy. NICD also publishes a quarterly Public Health Surveillance Bulletin (PHSB) to disseminate information on communicable diseases and disease surveillance activities. Partners are working together to support strategic activities to strengthen the PHSB and trainings will be provided focused on how to write for public health bulletins, best practices in reviewing articles and data analysis.

SOLOMON ISLANDS

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data Reports

The HIS Unit in the Ministry of Health and Medical Services is DIP’s key partner in the Solomon Islands. DIP supported the development of training needs assessment tools for the national HIS team. These tools were used to assess the skills gap in the provincial analysts which was subsequently mitigated through training provided by the national HIS team, with support from the DIP team. The course curriculum included reviewing DHIS2 outputs, producing health profiles, and disseminating quarterly provincial reports. More recently, the national HIS team took the lead in drafting the quarterly provincial profiles with feedback and mentoring support from DIP. DIP made recommendations for revising the reporting template and for further training. The DIP team also provided the HIS team with technical assistance to produce the annual health profiles for all ten provinces. These profiles are used by provincial health directors in developing their Annual Operational Plans.

SRI LANKA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data to Policy

DIP collaborated with Ministry of Health officials within the NCD Unit to produce the country’s first analytical report on the “National Policy and Strategic Framework for Prevention and Control of Chronic Non-communicable Diseases 2010-2020” (NCD Policy). This report quantitatively and qualitatively assessed the extent to which the implementation of the NCD Policy met its objective to reduce premature mortality due to NCDs in Sri Lanka over the past decade. Findings and recommendations from the report informed the implementation of the next 10-year NCD Policy and NCD-related programs in Sri Lanka.

Furthermore, six policy briefs that were produced through the D2P Program targeted NCD policy options. Many of the policy recommendations were included in the upcoming 10-year NCD policy and in some instances, programmatic changes have already been implemented. For example, a retinal screening program targeting primary care medical officers was initiated; the doctors were trained, and new equipment was purchased.

TANZANIA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Public Health Bulletin

The DIP has collaborated with the Minsitry of Health to support capacity-building activities to promote the use of data for policymaking and provide public health staff with training courses and resources to improve public health information and its dissemination. Since Tanzania joined the initiative in 2017 trainings have been implemented in scientific communications and utilizing data to inform policymaking.

In 2019, the DIP worked closely with partners to launch a public health bulletin in Tanzania. Since that time, the public health bulletin has published eight issues and established a communications strategy to facilitate wide dissemination. Trainings have also been held to build capacity for authors to create articles for the bulletin and increase the pipeline for potential content.

THAILAND

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Scientific Communication

Thailand formally joined the D4H Initiative in January 2020 to implement the DIP to strengthen the existing activities in the FETP and the Weekly Epidemiological Surveillance Report (WESR). The DIP will build on existing Thai FETP D2P, SC curricula, and WESR activities. The main partner of the DIP in Thailand is the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH).

New SC training modules were developed on risk and crisis communications in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. A virtual training utilizing these modules was implemented in Thailand in 2021. It covered topics including crafting persuasive messages, managing misinformation, writing press releases, writing for social media, communicating data to non-scientists as well as scientists, and engaging with the media.

UGANDA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Public Health Bulletin

The Uganda Ministry of Health (MOH) established the Uganda National Institute of Public Health (UNIPH) in 2013 to support and coordinate public health activities through public health research, outbreak investigation and reporting, scientific communications, and policy development. The DIP collaborates with the UNIPH to implement activities and trainings.

The UNIPH publishes the Uganda Quarterly Epidemiological Bulletin (UQEB), which features disease-specific updates, field updates, outbreak reports, surveillance data, upcoming events, and reports on meetings and conferences. The DIP team has worked with the UNIPH to develop a communication strategy, , a contact database, and webpage to produce, promote, and disseminate issues. Workshops were also provided on social media posts and press releases. A new UQEB was officially launched in January 2022.

VIETNAM

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Organizational Design

The DIP team is working with the General Statistics Office (GSO) to assist the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to implement the CRVS Systems Improvement Framework through the CRVS Program. The collaboration has further fostered discussions on the current status of the CRVS systems and is defining a desired set of procedures and processes for the vital statistics system. A technical note was developed that defines the details of appropriate technical interventions that the GSO has to make to ensure that the vital statistics produced meet the UN and other international standards. This note presents all aspects that are needed, including new data requirements, scenarios in terms of statistical data collection, it highlights the need to assess internal human and IT capabilities, and proposes enhancements in human resources and technology to meet the new demands. The technical note will be used to design and implement a new system for producing, disseminating, and managing vital statistics data in Vietnam.

ZAMBIA

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data to Policy

The Data to Policy (D2P) program has been well established in Zambia and is currently coordinated by the National Health Research Authority (NHRA). Following the D2P trainings held in 2019, NHRA hosted a Policy Forum where participants presented their policy briefs to stakeholders from the Ministry of Health and other impacted organizations. One policy brief recommended a food fortification initiative involving fortifying sugar with folic acid to prevent birth defects, and the presentation was attended by representatives from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, the Ministry of Health Food and Drugs Control Laboratory, and local sugar companies. The Ministry of Health will partner with the Sugar Association of Zambia to determine how to move the policy change forward.

ZIMBABWE

ACTIVITY IN DEPTH: Data Reports

In May of 2021, the DIP team collaborated with the CRVS Program and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to lead an orientation workshop on the process for producing vital statistics based on civil registration records. The virtual workshop was attended by Zimbabwean representatives. The workshop introduced the country representatives to the Production of a Vital Statistics Report resource kit and produced a preparatory note defining the process for producing vital statistics.

The May workshop greatly motivated the team and was a catalyst to continue strengthening the vital statistics production process. In October 2021, ZimStat produced a draft of the 2015 vital statistics report and convened a meeting with stakeholders from the MoHCC and Civil Registry Department to present and discuss findings and advocate for improved vital statistics production processes. ZimStat plans to use the Production of a Vital Statistics Report resource kit to develop remaining reports, and DIP will support capacity development within the agencies to conduct advanced analyses of vital statistics to inform decision-making.

Country or region you clicked on was not found. Please try again.