Background

In 2013, Ethiopia was the first country to be supported by ALMA to initiate the development of an RMNCAH Scorecard and Action Tracker. Ethiopia is using the tool to track implementation of the Health Extension programme, a flagship programme of the Ministry of Health and included use of the scorecard in both pre-service and in-service training of health staff and health information technicians.

How it works

The country embedded the scorecard into their Health Information Management System (HMIS). Using data from DHIS2, a dashboard is populated with key newborn, child, nutrition, and reproductive health indicators. The dashboard is shared with regions and partners on a weekly basis during a review meeting chaired by His Excellency the State Minister of Health, HE Dr Dereje Duguma, and during weekly meetings with regions, with information then cascaded to woredas.

Impact

Monitoring of essential services during COVID-19 pandemic

The dashboard became an essential tool to monitor service continuity during the disruptions caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. For examples, the dashboard was used to follow up on a measles outbreak and drive action to boost vaccine coverage. The dashboard was included in a weekly report, prompting frequent communications with regions to track implementation of actions. The dashboard also allowed the identification of a decline in the coverage of access to skilled delivery and postnatal care. This led to a focus by the Federal Ministry of Health to provide further technical and logistical support at all levels. Lastly, the dashboard was used for workforce planning, identifying where there were shortages and hiring and assigning new health worker staff.

Key success factors

• Shared on a weekly basis with His Excellency the State Minister of Health, HE Dr Dereje Duguma Leadership shared to RHB and partners, as well as regional and woreda health officers
• Leverages data use for action.
• Complementary to Ethiopia’s Community Scorecard Approach, which creates a community-led citizen feedback process to enhance accountability and responsiveness to citizen and community health needs and improve health outcomes

Partners engaged in supporting the scorecard

• UNICEF
• Ethiopia Social Accountability Program Phase 3