Gis Driven Web Reporting: a Case Study of Nutrition and Hiv Program

Abstract

Nutrition is a fundamental factor in managing the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This study focused on the Nutrition and HIV program mainly due to the delicate, bi-directional relationship between nutrition and HIV. The program targets, pregnant and lactating mothers, adults (above 15 years) and Children (below 15 years). It also largely depends on Ante-Retroviral Treatment (ART) sites as the main Nutrition, Assessment, Counselling and Support (NACS) centres. The fundamental success factor in this program squarely rests in the ability of the program to provide a consistent and uninterrupted supply of nutrition commodities to the NACS centres. Current data in the Kenya Health Information System (KHIS) –MOH FORM 731- Care and Treatment Summary Tool, indicates that out of 3650 Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) sites, only 1900 report nutrition data at a rate of 65% compliance. Some of the challenges contributing to this poor reporting can be attributed but are not limited to; lack of a reporting system and structure at the at the NACS centres, low motivation, and a manual or bulky reporting process. This largely affects management and distribution of nutrition commodities in the program. This study aims to establish the main contributors to reporting challenges in NACS centers actively participating in the Nutrition and HIV program and use these findings to develop a GIS driven web reporting system to overcome the main challenges within the program. A study was done to establish these challenges in the Nutrition and HIV program and the main issues identified were used to develop a system that would streamline reporting, monitoring and distribution within the program. The methodology involved interviewing all the program actors. Data from the interviews was analysed to highlight the challenges in the program. One of the outstanding challenges found was lack of an efficient reporting tool which pointed to the need for the development of a GIS driven web reporting system. A system was thus developed with near real-time reporting and monitoring capabilities and web routing functionality. With this system, near real time reporting on nutrition commodities is possible at facility level and real time nutrition commodities monitoring can be achieved. The study came up with recommendations based on challenges faced during the study including multiple user sign in and reporting.