COVID-19 Response Mechanism Technical Assistance – Data Management
Overview
In 2021, EGPAF was awarded American Rescue Plan Act funds through EGPAF’s DELTA2 mechanism to provide tailored, targeted technical support to Ministries of Health (MOH) and GFATM grantees in six countries to achieve their COVID-19 response mechanism (C19RM) activities and targets. The overall focus of this initiative, implemented from 2022-2024, was to support COVID-19 response and mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on HIV, TB, and malaria programs, improving health and community systems in Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Haiti, Malawi, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
EGPAF’s TA directly supported country C19RM activities and targets, primarily through the identification and secondment of several Technical Advisors to address identified gaps, needs, and challenges in the pandemic response in each country, in close collaboration and coordination with Ministries of Health (MOHs), other relevant government entities, implementing partners (IPs), PEPFAR, USAID, and CDC missions. EGPAF worked with each country’s respective MOH and key stakeholders to identify implementation challenges associated with achieving the country’s C19RM targets at the national level.
Key themes emerged in reviewing the successful planning and implementation of C19RM TA activities across these six countries. Data management and health information systems are powerful drivers of health systems change, collaboration across stakeholders, and joint ownership of progress towards epidemic preparedness and control. Broadening the use of these systems and technical innovations like electronic medical records (EMR) and robust data dashboards will further modernize national data platforms and facilitate greater sustainability by local government systems and institutions. These initiatives encompass software development; automatic application deployment using continuous integration and delivery; system, infrastructure, network, and data support; and data quality assurance. The development, implementation, and maintenance of these systems, in collaboration with affiliated ministries, increase the efficiency of health systems and improve the health of women, children, and their families. Through TA and expert support, EGPAF built ministry capacity across the data management cascade from site level to national level to develop, utilize, and maintain data systems to encourage data consumption and data use for informed decision making. This improved national stakeholders’ use of data trend analysis to make data-based decisions that improved in-country health system delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Haiti; Cameroon; Côte d’Ivoire; Uganda; Malawi; Zimbabwe
Capacity Building; COVID-19