Description of Session
There is a distinct lack of private health sector data availability in Tanzania. In order for the government to make fully informed decisions about commodities and services, both public and private sector contributions need to be considered. Private sector data is integral to programming and decision making; for example, allowing government programs to make high-level decisions about commodities using the data. Accredited Drug Dispensing Outlets (ADDOs) are small, privately-owned drug shops that are an essential source of care and commodities for Tanzanians living in rural and remote areas. However, for last mile health platforms like ADDOs, sharing data can be a challenge. In 2019, the Sustaining Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) Plus project in Tanzania partnered with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) to support their unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) mobile reporting platform. USSD enables ADDOs to directly report malaria, pneumonia, and child health service and commodity indicators into DHIS2. Working with government stakeholders and CHAI, SHOPS Plus amplified the ADDOs reporting capacity by providing virtual support to them, co-leading trainings, and expanding the DHIS2 platform to include family planning indicators. The poster will share insights from activity implementation including how to successfully and sustainably engage low-level providers and increase the visibility of their contributions to healthcare systems. The poster will also demonstrate how mobile phones can be used to make commodity and service data from last mile health platforms available for use local, district, and national level decision making.
