eHealth Africa Pilots Digital Innovation to Boost Planning of Public Health Campaigns

By Moshood Isah

One of the key lessons from the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, according to the World Health Organization, is that countries with effective plans fared better than those without. This principle applies broadly to every vaccination campaign and public healthcare intervention. Thus, the consistent effort to reach every settlement across Nigeria with vaccination and general public health services seems to be an unending journey. While the conventional challenges, especially in Northern Nigeria, revolve around vaccine hesitancy and insecurity, experience also reveals that a lack of accurate data for planning and resource allocation may be impacting on vaccination and public health campaigns.

A recent conversation with primary healthcare workers in Northern Nigeria revealed that a lack of accurate data remains a major reason why it is increasingly difficult to reach every settlement with vaccination activities. Additionally, the complex nature of micro-planning contributes significantly to this challenge. These healthcare workers, consisting of Local Government Area (LGA) and Ward Focal Persons responsible for planning vaccinations, revealed that it takes up to six days to manually develop a micro plan for health campaigns. Despite these efforts, the plans remain vulnerable to human errors, resulting in varying degrees of inaccuracy.

According to the World Health Organization, good data is crucial for mass-vaccination campaigns. Keeping it real-time and relevant requires the right software and systems. Recognizing that digitized data helps in planning and monitoring vaccination campaigns, eHealth Africa designed the Planfeld solution to enhance the planning of vaccination campaigns and ensure every child has access to the polio vaccine and other routine immunization services. 

Kicking off the Planfeld pilot workshop in Kaduna State, eHealth Africa’s Program Manager, Abubakar Shehu, and his team introduced the innovative application to primary healthcare workers and stakeholders. The demonstration showcased how Planfeld can streamline the creation of accurate micro plans and monitor vaccination activities more efficiently.

During the workshop, Abubakar explained, “The Planfeld application will allow us to know the exact number of settlements we are targeting, the number of children in those areas, and the amount of vaccine required for the activity. Previously, developing a micro plan manually, especially for polio vaccination, took at least four days. Now, with this digital tool, it takes less than 30 minutes.” 

He further emphasized that digitizing micro-planning will ensure that more settlements are reached with essential public health interventions. The pilot workshop, according to him, is being conducted in Kaduna, Niger, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara states. While appreciating the National and State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (N/SPHCDA), he said the organization looks forward to comments and feedback on how to further optimize the Planfeld solution to revolutionize the planning and execution of vaccination efforts.

Dr. Abdullahi Musa Garba, the Incident Manager of the Polio Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at the Kaduna State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (SPHCDA), expressed optimism about the successful deployment of the Planfeld application in the state. He highlighted that the digitization process would significantly improve accuracy in immunization efforts for polio and other diseases, minimizing errors that were common with manual micro-planning.

“Manual micro-planning is a difficult and error-prone process,” Dr. Garba explained. “With the deployment of the digitized micro plan, the work will become much easier for the teams managing immunization.”

Mr. Victor Obagunlu Adeleke, the Kaduna State team lead for polio outbreak intervention with the SOLINA Center for International Development and Research, emphasized the time-saving benefits and improved resource allocation that come with micro-plan digitization. “The significant reduction in time and energy spent on developing the micro-plan, coupled with the fact that it’s not a capital-intensive project, makes it a much easier process,” he explained.

He further highlighted that the traditional micro-plan development process—from the settlement to the ward, then to the Local Government Areas , and finally the state—requires considerable time to aggregate data across these levels. “With digitization, however, real-time analysis becomes possible,” Mr. Adeleke noted. “You can monitor data entry from the settlement or ward level and receive immediate feedback even at the state level.”

Microplanning is critically essential in the health sector. Thus, digitization of micro plans will enhance the capacity of the State and LGA team, facilitate a sustainable geodataba