Eswatini
Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, is the last absolute monarchy in Africa—a small country of 1.4 million people with big health issues to combat. It has the fifth-highest infant mortality rate at 55 per 1,000 live births, and a maternal death rate of 590 per 100,000 live births. It also has the highest prevalence of HIV in the world, with more than 25 percent of the adult population and an estimated 40 percent of pregnant women infected. AIDS is the leading cause of death for children under age five. Eswatini faces dual epidemics of tuberculosis (TB) and HIV, in which more than 80 percent of TB patients are HIV-positive.
With these health challenges, and in the face of scarce resources, health managers and providers have to rely on information from routine data collection systems in order to select the most optimal solutions for defined problems. This, however, is only possible if data from the system is of good quality. USAID/Eswatini recognized a need for a strong health information system (HIS) characterized by quality data and called upon MEASURE Evaluation to collaborate with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and a local USAID implementing partner, the Institute for Health Measurement/Southern Africa (IHM), to strengthen collection, analysis, and use of routine health data and to improve country-level capacity to manage health information systems (HIS), resources, and staff.
The Strategic Information Department HMIS Unit (SID/HMIS) in the Eswatini MOH, with technical assistance (TA) from IHM, has been working on streamlining routine data collection system in public health facilities. However, a number of key HIS activities are in their early stages or have not yet begun. This offers a unique opportunity to develop new tools or adapt existing ones to provide information needed by the MOH and partners to plan strategically for approaches to improve HIS performance, and to tailor technical assistance and resources to their needs. MEASURE Evaluation provided support for IHM’s organizational development.
MEASURE Evaluation focused on:
- Developing and supporting a consolidated patient file recording all service-specific information, thereby tracking patient/provider interactions across all health facilities
- Offering training and mentoring to meet the needs of the MOH Strategic Information Department and partners to improve data quality, data analysis, synthesis, communication, and use for health decision making, with a focus on building capacity in data visualization tools
- Developing internal policies and procedures for IHM and a technical assistance strategy that includes leadership training and review of audit results that will prepare IHM to receive direct awards from USAID
- Developing a consistent level of capacity in the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and a community of practice around GIS for public health, both for PEPFAR/Eswatini and its partners
- Identifying and characterizing male partners of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), and providing programmatic mapping to identify venues where AGYW socialize and meet new sexual partners; this approach will support efforts to successful target HIV prevention programs
Related Content
PLACE Swaziland Adolescent Girls and Young Women, Their Partners, and Men Ages 20–34
Eswatini Country Profile: Health Information System Indicators
