The Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program team in Bangladesh participated in the first Inter-Country Conference on Measurement and Accountability for Health (MA4Health), held on April 26-28, 2016 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The event was organized by World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the German agency for international development cooperation (GIZ), and the Asia e-Health Information Network (AeHIN) and hosted by the Management Information System Unit of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW). This conference, following the 2015 MA4Health global summit held in Washington, DC, was aimed at facilitating the regional and country response to data need, engaging with development partners to improve health data systems and sharing, and strengthening country-led monitoring and evaluation plans to address the health data collection and reporting requirements of the sustainable development goals (SDGs).
SIAPS played an instrumental role in organizing this event. SIAPS Senior Technical Advisor, Mohammad Golam Kibria, assisted in preparing the conference proceedings and was a member of the country preparation team, which included colleagues of USAID, MEASURE Evaluation, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) and Save the Children. This team developed the country paper for MA4Health entitled, “Status of Measurement and Accountability for Health in Bangladesh.”
The country action plan accentuated an integrated approach for health information system and human resource information system through developing an overarching IT Leadership, inter-operability and governance framework as well as facilitating open government data initiative to ensure transparency and accountability that will drive the national eHealth strategy.
SIAPS also hosted an exhibition booth in the two-day marketplace featuring health information system tools and results specific to Bangladesh. The marketplace served as an avenue for the dissemination of communication materials of SIAPS-related work.
Conference participants included more than 150 global health leaders and development partners, representatives from international agencies, government officials, philanthropists, and academics including software developers from Asian and African regions. Notable attendees at the closing ceremony included the Honorable Minister of MOHFW, Mr. Mohammed Nasim; the Honorable State Minister of MOHFW, Mr. Zahid Malik; and Ms. Melissa Jones, Director, Office of Population, Health, Nutrition, and Education, USAID Bangladesh. The closing ceremony celebrated Bangladeshi culture, food, and music.
