About the session
Globally, NCDs account for 71% of deaths and each year 15 million people between the ages of 30 and 69 die from NCDs1. Also, between 1980 and 2016, the global burden of diabetes almost doubled with Low- and Middle- Income Countries (LMICs) having a higher percentage of deaths from diabetes2. More than half (55.8%) of all 20–79-year-old adults with diabetes in Africa live in one of these four countries (South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo).3 Nigeria has the second highest (2.7 million) number of persons living with diabetes in Africa3. Despite this challenge, there exists a dearth of diabetes data in the country.

In 2018, the Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria and Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF) designed a three-year Diabetes Awareness and Care (DAC) project which seeks to improve the awareness, access to care and utilization of Type 2 diabetes mellitus data in two states (Imo and the Federal Capital Territory – FCT) in Nigeria by 2021.

Project implementation began in May 2019, in 112 primary healthcare facilities and eight Local Government Areas (LGA) and Area councils in both states. Thus far, on this project we have deployed various strategies across national and sub-national levers of healthcare leadership aimed at improving the availability of diabetes data for decision-making in the country.

After this webinar, participants will be able to:
• Understand strategies to be deployed in designing a national data improvement program
• Identify and mitigate potential challenges that may be encountered in designing effective health data improvement programs and
• Develop effective alternative data collation systems for health facilities in times of crisis

About the presenter
Dr. Egekwu has deep experience with leading teams to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate programs aimed at improving data availability and quality for effective decision-making. She leads the national Diabetes Awareness and Care pilot program in Imo state, Nigeria which is a collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health to improve the availability and quality of Type 2 Diabetes and hypertension data for decision making in two states in Nigeria. Prior to this, she led the Maternal and Newborn National Health Quality Improvement Initiative (MNHQI) in Imo state and played a key role in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the program in other states (Lagos and Niger) in Nigeria. As a Public Health Advisor, she provides strategic technical advisory support to high-level national and sub-national public health and health systems’ technical working groups and steering committees aimed at improving leadership and governance for healthcare in Nigeria.

Watch the recording below: