Supporting Global Tetanus Elimination Efforts using EQUIST

Seth Davis, Programme Advisor, Community Systems Foundation

Shahrouh Sharif, Advisor-Data Analytics and Health Systems Strengthening, Community Systems Foundation

While global efforts to eradicate Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus (MNT) have drastically reduced the number of cases in the last 20 years, the World Health Organization reported that in 2018 (the latest year for which estimates are available) 25,000 newborns died from tetanus. As countries continue working together to eliminate MNT, UNICEF, with support from CSF, has further enhanced the Equitable Impact Sensitive Tool (EQUIST) to provide functionality to analyze risks related to MNT. 

This work builds on a long term UNICEF project to support health system strengthening and the use of data models to inform key health interventions at national and sub-national levels. With the introduction of the Maternal and Newborn Tetanus Elimination (MNTE) Risk Analysis module, EQUIST provides health policy planners and decision makers tools to harness their data to analyze the MNT situation in their country. [1] EQUIST allows users to visualize their data through maps and charts and identify populations most at risk of MNT. Subnational MNTE risk scores are calculated per country according to coverage levels of essential MNTE interventions. These scores allow health planners to determine risk levels of national and subnational populations.

The module can be configured to accommodate country specific MNT indicators and introduce wide ranging household surveys, as well as Health Management Information Systems (HMIS) data, strengthening the analysis and evidence-based insights to identify populations most at risk. This allows for more meaningful, contextualized analysis of national and subnational conditions. 

A webinar was held on 9 September, 2021 to introduce the module to government representatives and UNICEF health officers. The webinar aimed to provide orientation to the module, while gathering feedback towards continued improvement of the module to meet the needs of health planners. 

As the technology partner to UNICEF in the  EQUIST project, Community Systems Foundation congratulates UNICEF HQ, Health Section on the release of the new module and is excited to see the development and use of the module by health practitioners and planners around the world.

Recording of the UNICEF webinar is available here:
​<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ihUlLonXL_ek_JNAfoy2gXK1dNn_5qWn/view?usp=sharing>

[1] World Health Organization, Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination (MNTE), 2020. Accessed on 20 September 2021 at: https://www.who.int/initiatives/maternal-and-neonatal-tetanus-elimination-(mnte) ​