Background

Gondar university and DHA/JSI agreed on one-year activities of the IR implementation support in selected woredas and health facilities of the Amhara region during the activity year. The selected woredas are Gondar Zuriya and Farta Woredas. In these woredas, a set of intervention strategies will be developed to overcome the observed HIS challenges in newly selected woredas, namely: need-based capacity building training, mentorship and supportive supervision, evidence generation and best practice documentation and experience sharing, strengthening information use platforms, integrating the strategic problem analysis and solving approach, establishing performance-based recognition mechanisms.

Objectives

General Objective

The overall purpose of this project is to support selected woreda health offices and PHCUs towards creating model health facilities by building a culture of data use for decision-making at all levels.

Specific objectives

Key Activities

Activity 1: provide need-based capacity-building training

Baseline data collection will be conducted through an IR implementation assessment checklist, and tailored intervention will be developed based on identified gaps. Additionally, capacity gaps will be identified during mentorship, supervision, formal requests from PHCUs and districts, and capacity needs assessment which is conducted bi-annually. Accordingly, tailored and need-based training will be given for selected woredas.  Additionally, to achieve the strategic goals of the Information Revolution, we will provide standard training on basic skills /knowledge of data quality, improving information use and digitalization culture. The training will be conducted either onsite or offsite with the participatory teaching delivery method. Training material for health extension workers will be translated into an Amharic version for better understanding and implementation.

Activity 2: Conduct continues mentorship and supportive supervision for woreda health offices and PHCUs

Different types of mentorships (internal, external, UoG lead, woreda lead and cluster-based) will be conducted to improve data quality, use and digitalization. UoG lead mentorship is conducted by UoG team members every two months, whereas woreda lead mentorship will be done by trained woreda health office staff for health facilities every month, and self/internal is conducted every month by health facilities/WoHo staff to improve their institution. While cluster health facilities will do cluster-based mentorship with good HIS performance and individuals who have HIS skill/knowledge and good HIS performance for other facilities within the woreda. Virtual mentorship will be designed and implemented to improve data quality and information use by creating a common telegram channel and other possible social media platform that helps to share information related to HIS and feedback provision. In addition, phone communication with health facilities to follow the progress and strengthen implementation will be implemented. During the mentorship, gaps, challenges, and best experiences will be identified, and an agreed action plan will be developed.

Integrated and joint supportive supervision will be conducted every quarter in implementation areas. Joint supportive supervision is a type of supervision conducted in collaboration with WoHo, ZHD, RHB and UoG team members to identify progress, gaps/challenges, and best experiences/lessons related to data quality, use and digitalization.

Activity 3: Apply different approaches to increase the evidence-based decision making

Activity 2: Apply different innovative intervention strategies and generate evidence

Different innovative approaches like integrating strategic problem analysis and solving continuous quality improvement activity, best experience documentation and sharing, data day celebration, establishing performance-based recognition, capacitating HIS leaders, implementation research, and others will be implemented to improve data quality and information use.

A strategic problem-solving approach will be followed to achieve our objectives in the given project period successfully. Strategic problem-solving is a systematic process to identify a challenge or barrier to high-quality care and implement and evaluate measurable solutions to the identified problem. After applying the strategic problem analysis and solving techniques, the solution will be developed through a participatory action plan and the rest by designing quality improvement projects. In general, It has eight steps to applying the approach. These are: define the problem, set the overall objective, conduct a root cause analysis, generate alternative interventions, perform a comparative analysis of alternatives, select the best intervention, develop an implementation plan and implement, and develop an evaluation plan and evaluate