Kenya was on Saturday feted for its noteworthy development in the digitization of national health programs towards improving health services and outcomes.
During the ceremony in Ethiopia on the sidelines of the 36th African Union (AU) Summit in Ethiopia, Kenya was recognized for having the best reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health (RMNCAH) scorecard tool.
"Kenya has decentralized their RMNCAH scorecard down to county-level and shares the scorecard with key country partners at national, county, and health facility levels," read a statement.
Kenya was among seven countries that received the awards during the inaugural African Leaders’ Malaria Alliance (ALMA) Joyce Kafanabo Awards for Excellence and Innovation ceremony.
The event was presided over by the ALMA chair, Guinea Bissau president Umaro Sissoco Embaló.
Zambia won the best malaria scorecard tool award for generating and tracking actions through existing accountability mechanisms at national and sub-national levels.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) received an award for the best neglected tropical diseases scorecard tool.
DRC uses the tool to enhance collaboration and coordination among stakeholders, monitor interventions, identify bottlenecks, and stimulate action.
The African nations were assessed using the scorecard maturity assessment tool with the main areas being management use, decentralization, stakeholder sharing, institutionalization and political use, and documentation and evaluation.
Tanzania won the award for training MPs on scorecard use, translating scorecards into the local language, and developing a mobile app for scorecard data collection.
Ethiopia on its part received the best community scorecard tool award for its improved community engagement in health services.
Rwanda earned an award of best institutionalization of scorecard tools across malaria and RMNCAH.
"The country has regularly taken innovative approaches to its scorecard use, including integrated malaria and NTDs scorecards and their RMNCAH scorecard. The two scorecards are identified in the country’s strategic plan as key performance and management tools to track the progress of indicators.
Ghana was awarded for the best innovative use of scorecard tools, becoming the first to include community-generated scorecard data in its health management information system.
