On November 6-11, 2023, the Countdown to 2030 consortium members from APHRC, Johns Hopkins University, and Pelotas University, attended the 2023 annual HMIS workshop, organised by the West African Health Organization (WAHO) at Azalai Hotel, Guinea-Bissau.

The workshop aimed at promoting the production, sharing and use of quality health information across the ECOWAS region. Additionally, the workshop was an opportunity to strengthen analytical capacities of the HMIS managers on data quality assessment and adjustment, national coverage analysis, institutional mortality and service utilization, and health system strengths.

In attendance, were the Managers of National Health Information Systems and Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health programmes of 14 ECOWAS countries (Mali, Guinea, Liberia, Cabo Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau, and Côte d’Ivoire), technical and financial partners including UNICEF, UNFPA, UEMOA, and WHO AFRO.

The Countdown to 2030 team facilitated the main analytical sessions, specifically on HMIS Data Quality Assessment (DQA), and adjustment; Denominators assessment, Subnational coverage analysis; Institutional mortality; and Health system strength. Each country was supported to analyse a 5-year time series of HMIS data (2018-2022) and get an analytical report at the end of
the workshop.

The Countdown to 2030 consortium was represented by Cheikh Faye, Martin Mutua, Arsene Sandie, and Anne Njeri from APHRC, Roland Mady from Johns Hopkins University, Larissa Adna, and Franciele Hellwig from Pelotas University.