Representatives of ministries of health and partner UN agencies, distinguished participants and partners, colleagues from all levels of our Organization,
A very warm welcome to this conference on strengthening health information systems to support evidence-based policy and decision-making in the WHO South-East Asia Region.
We are delighted to hold this conference after several postponements due to the ongoing COVID-19 response, which we continue to aggressively implement. I appreciate your valuable time, interest, and active engagement.
The last 18 months have highlighted the critical importance of reliable and timely health data and intelligence for enhancing the COVID-19 response.
In fact, health information is a national asset. Real-time data on COVID-19 surveillance; test positivity; mortality; availability of personal protective equipment, oxygen and ICU beds; and vaccination coverage, have informed national response efforts, enabling policy makers to implement high-impact interventions to address both direct and indirect impacts of the virus.
Not long ago, before the pandemic, the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia convened a technical consultation with Member States on measuring the impact of WHO’s Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW13), with specific focus on the GPW13 Results Framework.
It was a dynamic and insightful event, catalyzing renewed, Region-wide commitment to utilize available health data for better reporting and use of priority indicators.
All participants recognized that robust, fully-functioning health information systems (HIS) are essential to our mission of promoting measurement and accountability for health, which will in turn accelerate progress on national priorities and policy objectives, the Region’s eight Flagship Priorities, the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the “triple billion” targets.
Commendably, all countries in the Region have in place national HIS solutions and platforms producing health information, which is reported from health facilities, districts, and provinces and states. But what’s too often missing is the capacity to maximize data quality, analysis, interpretation and use.
For example, the 2020 WHO Global report on national HIS performance identifies eight of the Region’s 11 Member States as having “moderate” or “limited” capacity in enabling data use for policy and action – precisely the function that produces better health outcomes.
This is a missed opportunity, especially considering the many strengths identified by the report in all countries of the Region.
It is for this reason that we have convened this conference, bringing together data producers, collectors and managers, with data consumers and users, to achieve our overall objective of strengthening country capacity to analyze, interpret and use health information for evidence-based policy and planning.
I cannot emphasize enough how important this task is.
Approximately 16% of the Region’s population – over 300 million people – experience catastrophic health spending every year. Rural households are significantly worse off than urban households, reflected in the fact that in rural areas there are between 25% and 35% fewer antenatal and postnatal care visits than in urban areas.
Children under-five years of age in the Region from the poorest households are two to four times more likely to die from preventable causes than those from the richest households. To take just one example, children in the poorest quintile receive antibiotic treatment for pneumonia 20% less frequently than those in the richest quintile.
A larger proportion of women in the Region tend to be diagnosed and put on treatment for hypertension and diabetes mellitus than men. Estimated TB incidence is higher in men than women in 10 of the Region’s 11 Member States.
I put it to you: What does this intelligence say about current health system and resource configurations? Are they achieving maximum efficiency, both in terms of overall gains, and in targeting the most vulnerable, leaving no one behind?
What opportunities does this knowledge give us to drive immediate, game-changing progress?
And in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 response, and the immense social and economic impact the pandemic has wrought, what clues does this give us as to where resources must be most urgently allocated, especially given the Region’s focus on maintaining access for all to essential health services and protecting and defending the Region’s many gains?
It is with good reason that this year’s World Health Day and the year-long campaign that has followed explicitly highlights the importance of building country capacity to collect and analyze disaggregated data to advance health equity and build a fairer, healthier world.
To help achieve that objective, over the next three days, you will address the state of HIS performance in the Region, reviewing and targeting for use different technical packages of tools, techniques, and good practices.
You will identify ways to increase capacity to interpret and communicate health data, and set country-specific priorities, recommending the way forward for better evidence-based health policy making, planning and management.
I urge you to act on three priorities.
First, with a focus on equity, consider how to improve the functionality of health information systems to generate better quality and disaggregated data.
Second, analyze and use the data you already have to produce more intelligence with clear, incisive interpretation and well targeted action.
And third, learn together how best to package the data and disseminate the results in innovative ways that better inform decision-makers.
You have before you a unique opportunity to accelerate progress in all areas of health, especially on achieving universal health coverage – the Flagship Priority and SDG target that underpins all others.
It is imperative that you make the most of that opportunity, ensuring that HIS capacities in all countries of the Region are of adequate strength not only to “hear the data speak”, but to see it drive real change at the grassroots and in the lives of the most vulnerable.
I wish you all success and look forward to being apprised of the outcomes.
Thank you.