Digital Square
Connecting the World for Better Health.

Digital Community Health Initiative

Malaria digital community health assessment

Assessing country priorities for digital technology in community health programs

In 2020, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) launched the Digital Community Health Initiative (DCHI) with a vision to strengthen the quality of health care delivery at the community level in PMI partner countries by investing in the scale-up of digitally enabled community health platforms. Led by USAID and co-implemented with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), DCHI seeks to promote generational change in data collection and use, simultaneously strengthen implementation, and improve understanding and use of digital technology.

To help achieve its goals, PMI partnered with Digital Square at PATH to conduct a mixed-methods malaria and digital community health assessment to understand the current digital environment and define country-specific priorities for using digital technology in community health programs. The partnership is divided into three phrases:

  • Phase 1: Identify (rapid ecosystem assessment)

  • Phase 2: Prioritize (prioritize opportunities)

  • Phase 3: Implement (country-specific activities)

To achieve these goals, PMI partnered with Digital Square at PATH to conduct a mixed-methods malaria and digital community health assessment. Digital Square partnered with Population Services International (PSI) and IntraHealth International for Phases 1 and 2 and PSI, John Snow, Inc., and Last Mile Health for Phase 3.

In Phase 1 of the DCHI, Digital Square conducted a rapid ecosystem assessment to understand the community-level collection, aggregation, management, and use of malaria data, including the use of digital technologies. The assessment included a desk review, survey on digital tools in use, and interviews with national and subnational stakeholders. While all countries conducted a desk review, surveys and stakeholder interviews were completed as needed by country in order to fill gaps and triangulate results. Notably, more than 600 documents were reviewed across 27 countries, and more than 300 formal stakeholder interviews were conducted with individuals in 22 countries.

In Phase 2, Digital Square supported country-specific participatory workshops that engaged stakeholders to validate results from Phase 1 findings and identify digital health needs, opportunities, priorities, and recommendations. In total, more than 500 individuals participated in the workshops, including participants from ministries of health (MOHs), national malaria programs, community health workers (CHWs), and implementing partners involved in digital health systems or community health. Phase 1 data were then analyzed across 27 countries to identify cross-country trends, opportunities, and priorities, and results were summarized in a cross-country landscape report and individual country profiles for PMI’s 27 partner countries.

 
 

PMI Digital Community Health Initiative
Cross-Country Landscape Report

PMI DCHI conducted a malaria digital community health assessment in PMI’s 27 partner countries. While this assessment focused on malaria, the findings can be used to understand the broader digital ecosystem at the community level to support integrated service delivery. The Cross-Country Landscape Report provides a cross-country synthesis of findings and presents recommendations for PMI, its partners, local actors, and other donors to advance the use of digital tools to support community health programs. Many individuals contributed to this assessment, through providing research, writing, management, and leadership support.

 

Country Profiles

These PMI DCHI country profiles generate and share best practices and lessons learned within PMI-supported countries to understand how digital technologies are used for community-based case management, as well as for data collection, reporting, and decision-making.

 

*Due to map limitations, Zanzibar is not visualized but the profile is available in the list below.

 
 
 
 

remaining profiles coming soon!

 

Implementing digital interventions for community health and malaria control

Phase 3 of PMI’s DCHI applies an approach guided by each country’s vision for malaria control and elimination to implement country-specific activities to address the agreed-upon priorities. The country-specific implementation activities may include CHW assessments, governance-related document development and dissemination, systems development, and tool piloting/scaling. PMI is partnering with Digital Square to implement these activities in specific countries according to national priorities. A sample of these activities includes:

  • Burkina Faso (Digital Square-led): Improve access to quality health services through utilization of digital health tools by CHWs—including CommCare, RapidPro, and DHIS2—and sustain digitization of community health in Burkina Faso by strengthening the enabling environment.

  • Burma (Digital Square-led): Develop country-level capacity, perform analysis of national digital health architecture, and provide implementation assistance.

  • Mozambique (Digital Square-led): Provide technical collaboration to the MOH to develop a community health information sub-system implementation plan, aligned with the community health sub-system strategy.

  • Nigeria (PSI-led): Improve the Federal Ministry of Health’s governance and oversight of digital health initiatives by supporting the establishment and operationalization of digital health governing structures, increase CHW digital health skills by developing a CHW digital health training curriculum, and pilot updated digital community health management information system modules for CHW digital data collection.

  • Tanzania (Digital Square-led):

    • On the Mainland: Expand OpenSRP solution to support HIV program interventions at the community level and strengthen functionality, interoperability, and data visualizations for malaria case management interventions.

    • In Zanzibar: Support landscaping of orphans and vulnerable children data needs and systems integration into the national health information system to support HIV services.

The contents of the newsletters are the sole responsibility of PATH and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the United States Government, or our other funders.