Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) and USAID MOMENTUM Safe Surgery project have developed a dashboard on national District Health Information Systems (DHIS2) to monitor fistula and Caesarean Delivery data from health facilities across states.

Dr. Gbenga Ijapdola, Head, Monitoring and Evaluation, Department of Planning, Research and Statistics, FMoH, revealed this at a two-day review meeting in Abuja with stakeholders from Bauchi, Ebonyi, Sokoto, Kebbi and the FCT.

The meeting was done in collaboration with USAID-Momentum Safe Surgery in Family Planning and Obstetrics (MSSFPO) project, implemented by EngenderHealth, Nigeria.

Ijapdola revealed that the participants will discuss progress and challenges in reporting as the ministry prepares to develop the next national strategic framework 2024- 2030 for the elimination of obstetric fistula in Nigeria.

He said: ” this is to ensure we raise awareness and to make data available to policy makers and health administrators to increase use of evidence data for planning and management of services.

” We are going to look at the challenges we are facing in terms of making the data available, and what we need to do to improve on that.

“And ensure this forms part of the core towards reducing maternal mortality and morbidity in Nigeria.”

He added that the data will be used for planning, evaluation and enable them develop strategies and refine implementation in fistula and safe motherhood programs in Nigeria.

Mr. Jumare Abdulaziz, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Manager, MSSFPO, said the meeting is to review progress made in strengthening Health Information System (HIS) and use of evidence-based data across intervention states.

” The meeting also allows us to co create a National fistula tracker with key stakeholders from the Federal Ministries of Women Affairs, Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty alleviation as well as Social Registry Units.

” Last year we have seen report from the DHIS2 national system that some fistula centres conducted less than 20 fistula repairs between January to December 2021.

” So as at now, we have data that is entered every month from those fistula centres and we have seen that we have 100 -150 fistula repairs that have been conducted in one of the facilities in the last 10 months,” he said.

According to him, the data will enable the government to know the number of fistula cases, number of fistula repairs conducted.

He added that it will help in planing based on data, as well as make provision for budgeting in their annual operation planning and budgeting processes to address all the health system issues that contribute to fistula in the country.

Prof. Johnson Obina, Medical Director, National Obstetric Fistula Centre, Abakaliki, Ebonyi state, expressed appreciation to the USAID MOMENTUM Safe Surgery for their support in contiruting to ending fistula in Nigeria.

” We want to thank the EngenderHealth team, we have really made a lot of progress, data was a problem because we were doing surgery, but there was no reporting at the center.

” But with their intervention, we now have access to the national dashboards and our programs are now being reported directly from the center.

” They have also supported our health management information system, what I met when I took over is not what is on ground now,” he said.

Similarly, Dr Haruna Lawal-Mohammed, Acting Director, Medical Services, Kebbi State, said: ” We are no longer talking about only surgical repairs because we have gone far beyond that.

” What we are doing is how to rehabilitate and reintegrate those clients into the society, so that they can survive on their own, gainfully employed, despite stigmatization trends,” he said.

Dr Mohammed Alkali, the Executive Chairman Bauchi state Hospital Management Bord (HMB), said: ” We have started seeing a lot of improvement in terms of reporting and awareness.”