Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Plan for the Health Information, Policy and Advocacy (HIPA) Program

The program aimed to strengthen the Ministry of Health's (MOH) capacity to manage and use health information systems (HIS) for informed decision-making. The program focused on addressing several challenges in Cambodia's health information system, including the lack of quality data, inadequate data use, and poor data management and analysis capacity. The MOH's current HMIS has several shortcomings, including data sitting in reports, on shelves, or in databases, and not being sufficiently used in program development and improvement, policy development, strategic planning, or advocacy. Futures Group proposed to evaluate the current HMIS components and identify areas of improvement/enhancements for strengthening HMIS implementation and enhancing data use for informed decision-making by the MOH. The analysis of information needs from MOH and other relevant stakeholders will serve as a basis for new indicators development. The program also aimed to assess the HMIS solutions of other vertical programs and define integration strategies for data exchange and standardization across applications. The program's logical framework consisted of three main objectives: (1) fostering ownership by Cambodia's Ministry of Health (MOH) of health information systems (HIS) at the district, regional, and national levels; (2) building ministries' management and technical capacity with a focus on strong HIS oversight; and (3) bringing HIS partners together across vertical programs to better coordinate their resources to support the MOH. The program's approach was geared toward making actionable Cambodia's vision of a comprehensive HMIS capturing broad health data from all elements across the continuum of care. It aimed to empower decision-makers to achieve faster, better health assessments and evaluate the impact of service programs on Cambodia health populations. Reliable health data are needed for both policy decision-making and coordination of partner activities across the country. The program's expected outcomes included the MOH's effective planning, execution, and regulation of health programs, the building of sustainable human resources within the ministry to manage a national program, and the assumption of strong political commitment to implement national health information strategies. The program also aimed to bring partners together to achieve the objectives of the Cambodia HMIS strategy and hold itself accountable and responsible for the implementation of national health information strategies. The program's geographic focus was Cambodia, with a specific emphasis on the Ministry of Health and its stakeholders. The program's timeframes were from March 2014 to March 2019, with a focus on the implementation of the program's objectives and outcomes during this period.