With funding from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations (BMGF), AFENET, in collaboration with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), is implementing the Strengthening Data Quality to Improve Immunization and Primary Health Care Program performance (PHC-DQI) project.
The project aims to improve the quality and acceptability of Primary Healthcare data for quality programmatic decision-making using behavioral and technical approaches. The intervention is implemented in six states; Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Bauchi, Yobe, and Borno.
As part of the pre-implementation activity, AFENET conducted a baseline assessment in Bauchi, Sokoto, Anambra, and Ekiti. The research team assessed the behavior of two hundred and thirty-three Health Care Workers, conducted Data Quality Assessments in sixty-four health facilities, and interviewed sixty-four health care workers. The assessments identified drivers responsible for PHC data inaccuracies and evaluated the existing health workers’ capacity using the human-centered approach. AFENET shared the research findings with the state and developed interventions that addressed the gaps.
The project collaborated with NYSC that provided PHC-DQI desk officers and established the Community Development Service (CDS) in four orientation camps in Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi, and Sokoto. The project has trained over five hundred corps members to date.
The project team also developed a behavior change manual used for training healthcare workers. The training manual covers behaviour change content that would orient the health care workers to build desired behaviours around the timeliness, accuracy, and completeness of data.
AFENET conducted a Community Informant training in Kano and Sokoto states for selected volunteers from the communities. The training equipped them to work with healthcare providers to strengthen the quality of the project implementation. The findings of the Community Informants will inform the responsive feedback mechanism component of the project implementation.