Interim and complementary data solutions

Participants in this Making Self-Injection Count workshop session learned about interim data sources for self-injection data, including Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA) surveys, demographic and health surveys (DHS) surveys, and low-resource, short-term auxiliary data collection systems. This session also highlighted efforts made to collect and use family planning data in humanitarian settings. Presenters addressed general timelines for data access in different countries and evaluated differences in indicators across data sets.

Objectives

By the end of the session, participants were able to:

• Describe how questions on self-injection are being incorporated into broader surveys and get a sense of the timeline for when self-injection survey data will become available in select countries.
• Describe alternative approaches for gathering data on self-care methods, including self-injection, when routine systems are not available.
• Strategize practical solutions for accessing data in their local setting.

Key takeaways

• It can take time (one to five years) for new products to be integrated into routine information systems (HMIS/LMIS). While work is underway to integrate self-injection into routine systems, interim and complementary data solutions can fill that missing dataset.
• Four considerations for interim data collection:
  • Clarity of rationale: Collect data critical for tracking progress and informative for decision- making.
  • Feasibility: use existing systems to the extent possible.
  • Acceptability: aim to make data collection simple for FP focal persons.
  • Institutionalization: collaborate and coordinate with the MOH and other partners, critically reviewing self-injection’s contribution to the method mix with the goal of adapting the HMIS to include SI data.

Presenters

• Phil Anglewicz, Principal Investigator, Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA) project
• Joy Fishel, Senior Survey Coordinator, Demographic and Health Surveys Program
• Stephen Mawa, Program Management Specialist, UNFPA South Sudan
• Allen Namagembe, Uganda Country Coordinator, PATH
• Avotiana Rakotomanga, Madagascar Country Coordinator, JSI
• Shannon Wood, PMA, Assistant Scientist, Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health