 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Going Mobile: Côte d'Ivoire’s New Community Reporting System Puts Data on the Fast Track
|
|
The Challenge In the fight against AIDS, community indicator data is critical to national planning and monitoring. In Côte d’Ivoire, the Ministry of HIV/AIDS sought SCMS’s assistance in creating an efficient data reporting solution for health facilities. SCMS has collaborated with HIV/Alliance Côte d’Ivoire, a local NGO dedicated to community mobilization, to automate its paper-based process by using personal digital assistants (PDAs) and a secure web reporting site. The solution was designed to reduce workloads, trim reporting time and increase reporting rates and data quality.
|
|
Program Implementation In collaboration with donors and partners, a pilot program was implemented to test PDA effectiveness in collecting and disseminating data. The solution included a data transmission service provided by a local wireless telecommunication company. Through this service, data is transmitted to a web-based central data repository, enabling donors and partners to access information securely. After design and testing, the system was piloted in 20 facilities for three months at a total cost of $115,000. Key to program design was training workers in how to use a PDA and retraining them in how to collect, validate and disseminate data. Showing workers how the system would ease their workload helped them buy into the change.
The mobile system’s positive results in Côte d’Ivoire signal its promise for use in other countries, particularly in rural or remote areas where transmission of paper data is slow to reach national levels.
|
|
Results and Outcomes Pilot program evaluation found a reporting rate of 95 percent, with the time taken to input and submit data significantly reduced. The Ministry receives data almost instantaneously compared to an average six-month wait time with the previous system. Despite high initial start-up costs, the program is cost-effective compared to the paper-based system that required Ministry staff to perform quarterly facility supervisions. As technology advances, costs continue to decline, e.g., in 2008, monthly costs dropped from $12 per facility to $6 per facility. Out of 20 PDAs, only one was lost. Just one facility did not have adequate reception, requiring travel to a neighboring town. Due to the pilot’s success, the Ministry asked SCMS to scale up the system countrywide. The expanded program, known as the Mobile Community Reporting System for Côte d’Ivoire (MCRS-CI), is now in place, and the first national HIV/AIDS report will be produced in 2009.
The mobile system’s positive results in Côte d’Ivoire signal its promise for use in other countries, particularly in rural or remote areas where transmission of paper data is slow to reach national levels. Along with providing more accurate, complete and timely data than paper systems, MCRS’s portability, scalability and capacity to interface with other systems are key technological advantages. Success, however, hinges on the infrastructure to support the technology, as well as thorough training to ensure its acceptance and adoption by end users.
|
|
|
|
|
|
