iMMAP is an international not-for-profit organization that provides information management services to humanitarian and development organizations, enabling partners to make informed decisions that ultimately provide high-quality targeted assistance to the world’s most vulnerable populations. iMMAP’s mission is to harness the power of information to facilitate evidence-based decisions to improve people’s lives. By turning data into information, iMMAP aims to create knowledge for decision-makers operating in development contexts, situations of violence, post-disaster, and conflict recovery.
iMMAP in action
The violence and unrest in Burkina Faso began in 2015, but the highest peak of the conflict in 2019 lead to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians with an estimated 1.4 million people unable to meet their health needs due to the presence of armed groups. The demand for health services continues to grow while attacks further diminish the number of fully operational health facilities. As of December 2020, in the six regions affected by the conflict, 13% of health facilities are not functional and another 19% are operating at partial functionality. When the Health Cluster was activated in 2019, one of the core challenges was the lack of epidemiological data to guide evidence-based interventions.
In situations with a rapid escalation of humanitarian needs, standby partners such as iMMAP are essential to rapidly deploy highly skilled personnel to support the emergency work of WHO and the Health Cluster. Following the activation of the Burkina Faso Health Cluster, iMMAP sent surge support to respond to the expressed information management needs. The Global Health Cluster Public Health Information Services (PHIS) standards and associated toolkit guide the efforts of Information Management Officers (IMOs) to ensure Health Clusters can generate timely and high-quality public health information. iMMAP surge supports the Health Cluster to rollout and implement these standards in the short-term by identifying the gaps and potential solutions. In the long-term, the increased IMO capacity combined with newly implemented data products, aligned with global standards, ensure improved sustainable information management.
iMMAP’s deployment focused on supporting three information management tools: the 3W Matrix, HeRAMS and DHIS2. The aim of the 3 W Matrix (“Who does What, Where?”) tracks and maps partners and their thematic areas of activity (e.g. reproductive health), focusing on activities other than direct service delivery (e.g. training) to strengthen the analysis of gaps in the humanitarian response, supporting planning and enhance coordination of actors. The Health Resources and Services Availability Monitoring System (HeRAMS) is an initiative that aims to ensure that core information on essential health resources and services is readily available for decision-makers by mapping the availability of services at the level of each health service delivery point. The District Health Information System (DHIS) 2 is used by many Ministries of Health and leading humanitarian health agencies because once established, it can be modified very flexibly and can run automated reports to satisfy donor reporting requirements and to monitor health service performance.
One of the first priorities supported by iMMAP was to contribute to the HeRAMS, which was rolled out nationwide by the WHO and the Ministry of Health. Dan Kasendue, iMMAP standby IMO in Burkina Faso noted, “with the data from HeRAMS, the Health Cluster managed to generate a detailed dataset of nearly 3 000 health facilities, which allowed for the mapping of health facilities at national, regional and district levels.” Since the start of iMMAP’s surge, there are regular 3Ws to gather partners’ capacities on the ground and monthly Health Cluster Bulletins to keep all actors informed on the current situation. iMMAP also supported in ad hoc information management needs, such as identifying the People in Need (PiN) and other indicators for the Humanitarian Needs Overview.
These three tools have contributed greatly to the advocacy efforts of the Burkina Faso Health Cluster in sharing the current situations and needs with partners and donors. For example, when the Central Emergency Relief Fund was announced, the Health Cluster and the Protection Clusters (particularly via the Gender-Based Violence Sub-Cluster) were identified as priorities based on gaps in reaching vulnerable populations with high unmet needs. iMMAP worked closely with the Ministry of Health of Burkina Faso and other implementing partners to gather the required information on exactly how to target these funds to fill existing gaps in the Heath Cluster response. Jerry Jonas Mbasha, Burkina Faso Health Cluster Coordinator recognized that “thanks to the information generated with support from iMMAP, nearly 3.5 million USD were secured under the Central Emergency Relief Fund for six Health Cluster partners (Medecins du Monde Spain and France, ALIMA, Premiere Urgence International, Abbas International Healing Center and International Emergency Development Agency) to implement mobile clinics and support reopening health facilities, thus covering major gaps for health service provision."
Jerry Jonas Mbasha continued, "of the total award, 190 000 USD funded International Emergency Development Agency's cash transfer component, which included a package of secondary health services (e.g. C-sections, severe complications of acute malnutrition and acute emergency surgeries).” The cash transfer programme was recognized by health centres as particularly innovative in limiting admissions time and increasing access for key health services that are generally not covered by the public health programme, such as ultrasounds, blood tests and x-rays. It also covered the ambulance costs and all costs associated with the full duration of stay of both the patient and the patient’s caretaker. Further funding discussions are ongoing with both ECHO and World Bank based on their interest in indicators on health facility functionality.
Health Cluster engagement