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Supporting local decision-making

Many countries have identified primary health care as an urgent priority, but they lack the data needed to pinpoint weaknesses, understand the causes of weakness and drive improvements.

 

Better data is essential to improve health outcomes, yet routinely available data for the monitoring of progress are often of low quality. Even where rich data sources are available, there can be limited capacity to synthesise, interpret and learn from the data.

IDEAS works to support local decision-making in Nigeria, Ethiopia and India.

In Gombe State, Nigeria, IDEAS uses a results framework with six-monthly data-driven learning workshops to support the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation implementation projects.

In West Bengal, India, IDEAS supported district health decision-making through a prototype phase of the Data-Informed Platform for Health (DIPH) – a structured method combining a toolkit with facilitated discussions and action planning.  This involves a five-step cycle running every 3-4 months at district level. Standardized job-aids facilitate linking of input and process data from health and other sectors onto a common data-sharing platform. Government and non-government stakeholders analyse the data, identify challenges and gaps and agree on measures to be taken to resolve issues.

IDEAS is using an action-research approach to adapt, implement and evaluate the Data-Informed Platform for Health for the Ethiopian context.

Report
DIPH training handbook

It also elaborates on the operationalisation and cyclical implementation of the Data-Informed Platform for Health at the district level. The target audience for this handbook are district health officers, both in administrative and managerial roles within the health systems. Part A of the handbook covers the four core...

Ethiopia General Supporting local decision-making Local data use
Research brief
Introducing the Data-Informed Platform for Health

What is a Data-Informed Platform for Health? In low-resource settings the use of local data for health system planning and decision-making is often limited. What data there is may be of poor quality and a data sharing culture is lacking. Health administrators often have limited capacity to analyse and use data for...

India Supporting local decision-making Capacity strengthening Local data use

Published content

Blog Post
Collaborative Learning in Gombe

Gombe State Data-Driven Learning Workshops In January 2016, the Gombe State Primary Health Care Development Agency (the Agency), four national...

Nigeria Supporting local decision-making Behaviour change Capacity strengthening Evidence for policy and practice Implementation projects
News
Recruiting a Research Assistant

The post-holder will coordinate action research on the Data Informed Platform for Health (DIPH), a district-level data-sharing, evidence-based...

Ethiopia Supporting local decision-making Local data use
Blog Post
Who decides what and how? Making decision-making in health systems more effective

In the past, researchers have preferred to target policy-makers – to understand their perspective, develop supportive approaches and tools, and...

Ethiopia General India Supporting local decision-making Evidence for policy and practice Local data use Scale-up
News
Celebrating 8 years of IDEAS

Just a few weeks before this exciting milestone the IDEAS team from London, Ethiopia and Nigeria came together for a team retreat to hear from...

Ethiopia General India Nigeria Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement
News
IDEAS at #HSR2018

New evidence presented as posters (above) included: Sustainability for a Village Health Worker scheme in Nigeria Availability of routine facility...

Ethiopia General India Nigeria Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Behaviour change Capacity strengthening Context Economics Evaluation methods Evidence for policy and practice Implementation projects Implementation strength
News
Improved health systems could prevent over 8 million deaths each year in low- and middle-income countries

Beyond this terrible human cost, poor quality health systems represented enormous economic losses to countries due to lost productivity each year....

General Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Evaluation methods Research findings
News
IDEAS Summer Seminar Series

More than seven years later, the team is building on the wealth of data, results, partnerships and learning created in the current second phase of...

Ethiopia General India Nigeria Community-based newborn care Fostering innovation sustainability Improving coverage measurement Supporting local decision-making Tracking progress Understanding quality improvement Research findings
Research brief
Data-driven learning cycles and their impact on data use for decision making

The implementation partners are The Society for Family Health, SAQIP through a grant to PACT Nigeria and Evidence for Action through a...

Nigeria Supporting local decision-making Capacity strengthening Evidence for policy and practice Local data use Research findings
News
Introducing the DIPH in Ethiopia

The Data Informed Platform for Health (DIPH) is a decision-making support system which facilitates review and use of data in local level...

Ethiopia India Supporting local decision-making Local data use
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