Plan International Nigeria, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), supported the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) to review the National Health Management Information System (NHMIS).
Helen Idiong, the group’s Director, Programme Quality and Influencing, said during a five-day workshop in Abuja on Tuesday that the support was necessary to gather relevant data for indicators in the sector.
Idiong said the review meeting, spearheaded by the Federal Monistry of Health, would help to come to speed with what is happening globally.
She said “there are a lot of changes, we have new infections coming up and so it only makes sense for an organisation to keep reviewing its processes to be in tandem with what is available globally.
“So, for us at Plan International Nigeria, ours is just to support because we understand the importance of adequate data capturing to the work that we do.
“You cannot speak to government without having data to back it up, so, that is why plan is supporting the FMoH to review the tools for the NHMIS.”
She commended Nigeria for making a lot of progress in the sector, while calling for more work in the area of data collection that would inform decision making.
Dr Chris Isokpunwa, the Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, FMoH, who said “data is used to measure progress and report on indicators,”
He added that the health sector needed the right indicator “and this cannot be gotten without the right data to report accurately.
“We need accurate data to crash maternal mortality. We want to know how many children are immunised and those not immunised. Data is critical for us to know whether we are making progress or not.”
He urged participants to take the meeting as a matter of national assignment to address challenges in the sector.
On his part, Mr Adeola Jegede, the Head, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, said the meeting would ensure current tools were available on relevant data.
Jegede added that relevant data would provide holistic decisions in the health sector, noting that “there is a current drive by government to ensure improvements in the health indicators.
“And for you to be able to take the right decisions at the right time, you need to have the tools that will gather the relevant data on identified indicators that are useful in the sector.”(NAN)