Lagos, Aug. 7, 2023: Experts have pushed for improved data collection to optimise vaccine uptake in Nigeria.
They made the call at a webinar on “Expanding Access to Vaccines in Nigeria (part II)” organised by the Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund (NSSF) in Lagos.
The theme of the August edition of the webinar was: “Optimising Vaccine Uptake in Nigeria Through Increased Demand and Use of Data.”
In his opening address, Mr Eduardo Blanco, Chief of Health and HIV/AIDs, UNICEF, said that Nigeria, among other African countries, recorded remarkable success on vaccine improvement during the COVID -19 pandemic.
Blanco said that the declaration of Nigeria Polio free in 2020 was another achievement recorded by the country.
He said that beyond the successes recorded by the country, there were inequities being faced by Nigeria, especially from the point of view of vaccination coverage data in 2021.
According to him, there are huge inequities in a place like Sokoto compared to some states in South East and South West Nigeria.
He added that inequities existed between a state and within a state.
Blanco said that the second challenges observed were in the area of weak health systems, lack of nurses and midwives, community health workers; and lack of infrastructures.
He also said that there were great opportunities in the country especially in the current outbreaks of Diphtheria in some Northern States.
He noted that the government was doing its best to avoid these outbreaks.
“If we use the right analytics, we will see that the outbreak is an opportunity,” Blanco said.
He added that another area of opportunity the country could leverage on was data.
Also, Dr Chizoba Wonodi, Nigeria Country Director, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, explained the importance of data in making evidenced based decisions.
Wonodi said that data was useful in accessing vaccine coverage performance through the coverage rate.
“We need good data to know how well the coverage is going, and also to check the gaps; sometimes kids have not gotten the vaccines that are required.
“We need good data to ensure vaccine equity in ensuring that no child is left behind.
“Good data will help us to identify communities that are yet to be covered.
“We need data to ensure quality and safety and also to check negative effects of vaccines on persons, if there are any,” Wonodi said.
She said that data was required to track research and innovation to check how new approaches were working.
According to her, administrative data gives us a false picture, showing that we are doing well when probably we are not.
She said that the impact of data was very useful as it could help in making budgetary and financial provisions where the need was most.
Another expert, Jedydah Owino, a Data Specialist, talked on the impact of simulation exercise on the use of data-for-decision making and to inform vaccine delivery.
Owino also showed how the supply and demand sides of vaccine could be used to determine vaccine coverage.
During a panel discussion, panelists gave practical insights to how data had impacted vaccine expansion and delivery across the country.
Chisom Obi-Jeff, Principal, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Brooks Insight, said that there were training and competency gaps at the training of personnel at the primary health care development level.
Obi-Jeff said that the training does not meet the different learning needs of adults.
She said that adult learning principles were incorporated into trainings organized by her organisation
She said that through the use of tools, behavioural approaches to immunisation was considered.
Dr Ismail Abdul-Salam, Director of Epidemiology, Lagos State Ministry of Health, said that the strategies available in Lagos on the use of data for informed decisions depend on the different departments and situations.
Abdul-Salam said that the strategies progress from the community level to Local Government, State and then to the Federal level.
He underscored the place of research in informing the adopted strategies.
On the effectiveness of data accuracy, to strengthen the capacity of score cards, Blanco noted that UNICEF imports 400 million doses of vaccines yearly and stressed the importance of vaccine visibility to the UN body.
He said that that through improvement at the cold chain sectors, “now we have weekly live data on the number of vaccines at the LGA levels.”
On challenges collecting data in hard to reach areas, Wonodi said that data collection at every healthcare facility was still paper based, where tally sheets were mostly used in reporting data.
She also said that SMS was also used.
She said that through the use of GPS technology, the whereabouts of data collectors coulde be tracked.
She underscored the importance of training and capacity building for health personnel.
On the different interventions made to improve data collection and vaccine expansion, the panelists has the following to say:
Owino said that her organisation was supporting three portfolios instead of just one. She said the workshop identified the importance of behavioural change and domesticating the solution.
She said underscored the importance of stakeholder engagement and vaccine data collaboration.
She said that the process and the bureaucracy at the state level had been a major challenge.
Obi-Jeff said that the quality and availability of data remain a challenge, adding that training and retraining of healthcare personnel was important to bridge the skill gap in data collection and interpretation
Blanco said that vaccination required huge efforts from human resources to financial resources.
He said that the biggest step forward was to digitize data collection.
“The right of a child starts with birth registration.
“We need to move strongly from birth registration to tracking immunization,” Blanco said.
Abdul-Salam said that Lagos state was doing a lot in capacity building of cold chain officers.
He said that there was also the training and retraining of cold chain and immunization officers.
“This has really improved the quality of data that we get. We still have harmonized data platforms at the different systems,” Abdul-Salam said.
Dr Fejiro Chinye-Nwoko, General Manager/CEO, NSSF, in her closing remarks, said that the webinar was very insightful and elaborating on the importance of data for performance management.
Chinye-Nwoko said that, while there was focus on the gaps with intent to bridge it, there have been some recorded wins.
She noted that artificial Intelligence (AI) could do a lot in data collection.
She listed areas of advocacy to include, making sure that vaccines were utilized, standardized and synchronised with data tools for accessibility.
She urged the government to engage with NSSF on capacity building and the training and retraining of healthcare workers, data interpretation and utilisation and micro planning.
She expressed gratitude to the experts for their inputs.
