Rwanda is among the recipients of the Excellence and Innovation Awards for advancing the digitalisation agenda for malaria, reproductive, maternal, new-born, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH), and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) to enhance data driven decision-making.
Issued on the sidelines of the African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Sunday, February 18, the awards celebrate countries that have made significant progress in the digitalisation of national health programmes and enhancing data-driven decision-making to improve health services and outcomes.
The awards committee assessed each country using the Scorecard Maturity assessment tool based on five criteria: management use, decentralisation, stakeholder sharing, institutionalisation and political use, as well as documentation and evaluation.
They honour countries that significantly strengthened their country scorecards through public sharing, capacity building at the sub-national level to enhance data-driven decision-making, and empowering citizens to improve health services and outcomes.
Here, Rwanda won the award for the best institutionalization of scorecard tools across malaria and RMNCAH.
"The country has regularly taken innovative approaches to its scorecard use, including integrated malaria and NTDs scorecards and their RMNCAH scorecard. The two scorecards are identified in the country's strategic plan as key performance and management tools to track the progress of indicators'" read a statement from the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), an intergovernmental organization dedicated to ending malaria deaths.
As he announced the winners, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, the President of Guinea Bissau and Chair ALMA, said the awards "serve as a testament to the progress that has been made and the potential for continued success in the fight against these diseases."
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Other countries recognised include Zambia which won the award for best malaria scorecard tool, which it uses to generate and track actions through existing accountability mechanisms at national and sub-national levels.
Kenya was honored for the best RMNCAH scorecard tool, which has been decentralized to the county level and shared with key partners.
The DR Congo received an award for the best neglected tropical diseases scorecard tool, which it uses to enhance collaboration and coordination among stakeholders, monitor interventions, identify bottlenecks, and stimulate action.
Ethiopia was honoured for the best community scorecard tool, introduced in 55 percent of districts across the country. The country improved community engagement in health services.
Ghana won the award for best innovative use of scorecard tools, becoming the first to include community-generated scorecard data in its health management information system.
Tanzania won the award for best innovative use of scorecard tools, including training lawmakers on scorecard use, translating scorecards into the local language, and developing a mobile app for scorecard data collection.
"To accelerate efforts to end malaria, member states urgently need a fit-for-purpose surveillance system to provide the necessary intelligence to identify bottlenecks in malaria control and elimination activities, target interventions more efficiently and respond when the impact of malaria activities is jeopardised" said Dr. Corine Karema, CEO of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria, the largest global platform for coordinated action towards eradicating malaria.
