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The third in a series of 2008 World Malaria Day updates about Jhpiego's efforts to protect people from malaria. Jhpiego reaches across borders to fight a disease that has no borders.
Addressing malaria through better use of data in Angola
April 2008
 Health care providers chart
malaria in pregnancy information to monitor and improve services. For 30 years, Angola suffered from a brutal civil war. During that time period, health services in the country were rendered essentially nonexistent as resources were diverted, health service providers were killed and community residents were afraid of traveling to access services.
Seven years after the end of the war, Angola is making promising improvements in its health system, and addressing malaria is a top priority. Specifically, the Ministry of Health has identified the improvement of malaria in pregnancy (MIP) services—including intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp), insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) and malaria case management for pregnant women—as a critical issue.
A 2006 assessment of MIP in Angola, conducted by Jhpiego with the support of the ExxonMobil Foundation, revealed that in addition to poor or nonexistent MIP services, a critically weak area was information systems. Due to poor data recording and reporting, the state of MIP services was not well known; therefore, progress toward reaching MIP targets was also unclear.
To address this gap, Jhpiego is working in partnership with the Ministry of Health, the ExxonMobil Foundation and Esso-Angola (a local subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corporation) to improve MIP services, data collection and data usage within antenatal care (ANC) clinics using Jhpiego's Standards-Based Management and Recognition (SBM-R) approach. The project is currently working in six health centers across three municipalities in the capital city of Luanda, with plans for scale-up this year.
To improve data collection and usage at the facility level, ANC service providers attend a one-day interactive training session addressing facility-level data for MIP, as well as a longer clinical update on ANC/MIP and an orientation to SBM-R. Through these activities, performance standards on data monitoring are incorporated into routine antenatal care.
The President's Malaria Initiative's 2006 baseline assessment indicated that less than 1% of ANC clients were receiving IPTp. However, estimates from 2007—only months after Jhpiego began program implementation—indicated that 34% of ANC clients in participating health facilities were getting their first dose of IPTp. Jhpiego plans to build on these successes this year by producing job aids, holding a refresher course for ANC providers and following the SBM-R methodology.
In addition, assessments are being conducted to identify needs for improved data monitoring and data usage for decision-making among district-level health authorities. As a current effort of the Ministry of Health is to decentralize decision-making authority to districts, strengthening the capacity among district health authorities fills a critical need. Jhpiego anticipates that the improved quality of MIP services, as well as strengthened monitoring and evaluation systems in these three districts, will yield significant lessons learned on how improved data monitoring systems can improve the quality of ANC/MIP services in Angola.
About Jhpiego
For 35 years, Jhpiego, (pronounced "ja-pie-go"), has empowered front-line health
workers by designing and implementing simple, low-cost, hands-on solutions that
strengthen the delivery of health care services, following the
household-to-hospital continuum of care. We partner with community- to
national-level organizations to build sustainable, local capacity through
advocacy, policy and guidelines development, and quality and performance
improvement approaches.
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