New Article from Ethiopia Shares Lessons on Data Triangulation for Immunization
June 9th, 2022 | news
JSI’s Adriana Almiñana, Amare Bayeh, Daniel Girma, Natasha Kanagat, Lisa Oot, Wendy Prosser, Belayneh Dagnew, and Disha Ali report the findings of a data triangulation activity in a journal article recently published by Global Health: Science and Practice.
Strengthening data use and quality is critical to achieving high, equitable immunization coverage. Ethiopia has had its fair share of data quality challenges, including a lack of timeliness, completeness, and accuracy, diminishing the ability to reach programmatic goals.
Data triangulation—the synthesis of two or more existing data sources to answer program planning and decision-making questions (1)— improves data use and quality by providing more information for decision-makers. JSI, through the Universal Immunization through Improving Family Health Services project, introduced a user-friendly Immunization Data Triangulation Tool (IDTT) and review process to improve data quality and programmatic decision making.
The data review process and IDTT were rolled out in two regions in Ethiopia. The health managers who used the tools reported clear benefits, including more accessible and synthesized data. In addition, it prompted meaningful actions to improve immunization services, such as expanding the number of immunization sites.
This experience provided lessons for establishing a systematic and recurring process to use triangulated data in immunization and for introducing tools and processes into health systems.
- Triangulation for improved decision-making in immunization programmes. TechNet-21. Updated July 2020. Accessed May 17, 2022. https://technet-21.org/en/topics/triangulation
