This abstract has been accepted at the 2024 DHIS2 Annual Conference
DHIS2 Tracker for Cross-border Mass LLIN Distribution
Senegal and The Gambia share a common border of over 700 kilometers long, with hundreds of villages along the border characterized by high population mobility and intense socio-cultural mixing. The Gambia is almost entirely surrounded by Senegal. Since 2018, the National Malaria Control Programs (NMCPs) of both countries have engaged in a sustained collaboration, which laid a solid foundation that led to the organization of a synchronized universal coverage (UC) distribution campaign of long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs) in 2019. In 2022, Senegal and The Gambia NMCPs repeated the synchronized distribution, which involved 5 regions (12 medical districts) in Senegal and 7 Health Regions and (43 Districts) in The Gambia. All activities, including planning, harmonization of messaging, digitization, and implementation, were conducted on a common timeline. Both countries, together, evaluated various data collections tools and ended up agreeing to use DHIS2 Tracker based on its flexibility, robustness, effectiveness, efficiency and numerous other advantages that the two countries were benefiting from in their various existing DHIS2 implementations.Although, this was the first time where DHIS2 Tracker was implement in cross border activities on different geographical zone. The two country’s IT teams came together and built a designed DHIS2 Tracker programs to suit both countries LLIN distribution context, yet sharing most design features for seamless data integration and sharing. In terms of IT resources, the synchronized LLIN campaign required 345 smartphones and 69 mobile hotspots for data collection (using DHIS2 Tracker) during distribution in Senegal, and 456 smartphones, 456 solar bags, and 456 mobile data sim cards in The Gambia. Both countries also recruited hundreds of community actors to support the census of populations and the distribution of nets. In Senegal, 690 community volunteers and 137 community supervisors, and in The Gambia more than 900 data collectors were recruited and trained on the DHIS2 Tracker. Overall, 99,819 LLINs were distributed in Senegal and approximately 1.3 million LLINs were distributed in The Gambia in this transborder synchronized campaign. In addition, PBO nets were distributed on both sides of the border, demonstrating the collaboration between the two countries even in the choice of nets to be distributed.
Primary Author: Modou Njie
Keywords:
Digitisation of Cross-border Mass LLIN Distribution
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