Published: 28 June 2021

At the end of May with the support from the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), Nigeria organized a national workshop with 12 federal states, federal ministry of health programmes, and other key stakeholders to update the indicators in their national scorecard management tool for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health and nutrition. One of the key takeaways from this meeting was that scorecards can be instrumental in identifying gaps in data management and stir quality improvements in national health information systems to ensure that end users can make optimal use of the data that is routinely collected.

The workshop provided an opportunity to update the DHIS2 indictors and strengthened the capacity of national and subnational stakeholders to use the scorecard to enhance evidence-based action. DHIS2 is an open-source software platform for reporting, analysis and dissemination of data for all health programmes, developed by the Health Information Systems Programme (HISP). It is coordinated by the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo and supported by a number of partners globally.

The workshop used training materials from the recently launched ALMA Scorecard Hub, which provides access to scorecard best practices from countries across the continent as well as online courses with training videos and PowerPoint presentation. By presenting data in a user-friendly, clear way this site has opened up the data for all to understand and use. It provides a firm foundation for action by national programmes, capacity development, sharing of best practices and lessons learnt contributing to ongoing efforts and initiatives to improve reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. The site draws attention to examples of strong performance across Africa and demonstrates that change is possible.