Data Demand and Use: An Introduction to Concepts and Tools

Author(s): Nutley T, Snyder E, Judice N

Year: 2012 (rev. 2015)

Abstract:

Significant human and financial resources have been invested worldwide in the collection of population, facility, and community-based data. However, this information often is not used by key stakeholders to effectively inform policy and programmatic decision making. As a result, many health programs fail to fully link evidence to decisions and suffer from a decreased ability to respond to the priority needs of the populations they serve.

Many possible factors undermine evidence-based decision making. Some relate to how information flows to decision makers, and how they make their decisions; others to the context in which information is collected and decisions are made; and yet others to the organizational infrastructure and technical capacity of those that generate and use data.This course aims to provide the conceptual basis for data-informed decision making within an organization or program, or at the national, state, or district levels of government. Also included in the course are introductions to several tools created by MEASURE Evaluation to facilitate the use of data in decision making.

The specific learning objective of the course is to improve the understanding of:

• the role of data in decision making
• the context of decision makingthe determinants of data use
• the importance of data sharing and feedback