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Experts at a session at the United Nations World Data Forum (UNWDF) 2021 underscored the needs for pandemic-related data initiatives to strengthen the public health system.
They said that vaccine development in the shortest possible time had been the prime focus while paving the way out of the Covid-19 pandemic. Data played a critically important role, both nationally and globally, in achieving the shortest deployment period.
The observations came up at the hybrid session titled “Data-driven Vaccination Strategy for a Covid-19 Free World” arranged by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in association with Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme, ICT Division and Cabinet Division, Government of Bangladesh; Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC), Argentina; Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh; Southern Voice; Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, USA and THE CITY, USA on Tuesday.
The UNWDF 2021 took place on October 3-6 in Bern, Switzerland. The Swiss Confederation, in cooperation with the United Nations, organised the event. The Forum aims to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with high-quality, accessible, timely and reliable data.
It brings together data and statistical experts and users from governments, civil society, the private sector, donor and philanthropic bodies, international and regional agencies, the geospatial community, the media, academia and professional bodies to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Moderating the session, CPD Distinguished Fellow Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya emphasised finding out how the impact of the pandemic will affect different sectors, different communities and groups (LNOBs, PNOBs, vulnerable people, minority groups).
“In the realm of data, there needs to be a new framework with new partnerships and rules of business with adequate attention to data privacy for an improved data ecosystem. The pandemic has created a greater opportunity to redesign a more resilient national healthcare system and social protection system,” he added.
CPD Senior Research Fellow Towfiqul Islam Khan showed that online pre-registration facilities and demographic data have been very important and effective in the vaccination efforts.
“Sixty-four per cent of the poll respondents opined that marginalised communities received an equal opportunity in vaccination,” he added.
Policy Advisor of a2i Anir Chowdhury said that the vaccine strategy in Bangladesh began with target group identification (gender, age, location etc) using the NID database and a database from the Ministry of Finance.
“In order to bridge the gap between the disconnected communities and digital services, Bangladesh leveraged their 14,000 community clinics and 4,500 union digital centres. Combatting resource constraints, knowing priorities, tracking after immunisation and coordinating between different ministries were crucial in Bangladesh’s vaccination drive,” Anir said.
Vice-Chancellor of University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda Dr Agnes Binagwaho stated that Rwanda proceeded using the ‘principle of implementation science’ which was based on knowing the context, barriers, data and evidence-based interventions that have been proved by science and are adaptable for use.
“The data was collected at the national level and process was monitored by the prime minister,” Binagwaho added.
Having a strategic vaccination plan open to the public can give a lot of structure to published data.
Natalia Aquilino, Incidence, Monitoring and Evaluation Program Director, CIPPEC, Argentina; shared four recommendations – coordination strategy amongst regional and national entities – both in a vertical and horizontal manner.
“Central open data policy to produce and standardise data and address state restrictions; development of monitoring and evaluation framework and adoption of open government data standards; and disaggregation standards to allow inter-operability of data and multi-dimensional strategising,” Natalia added.
