This document summarizes the results of support provided to district planning, monitoring and evaluation, and district-level partner coordination in Malawi's health sector. Key achievements included supporting national and district-level planning workshops, reviewing district implementation plans, and improving data quality and use for decision making. As a result, new planning guidelines were developed, data quality indicators doubled or increased, and partner coordination improved in several districts. Moving forward, successful district practices could be shared, and greater focus on gender is still needed in planning.

1. RESULTS OF SUPPORT TO DISTRICT
PLANNING, M&E AND DISTRICT-LEVEL
PARTNER COORDINATION
Malawi Health Sector Programme –
Technical Assistance Component
21st September 2018, Knowledge Café

2. Planning: Key Achievements
• Participated and supported national
level planning and consultation
workshops
• Supported DIP reviews at district
level
• Supported zonal peer reviews to
finalise DIPs

3. Planning: Key Outcomes
• New DIP guidelines
• Inputs into HSSP2
• Data used to inform planning at DIP
annual and quarterly reviews
• DIP peer reviews improved quality of
planning

4. M&E: Key Achievements
• HMIS reviews, supervision and mentoring at 3
levels (zonal, district and facility)
• Direct district supervision (DDS) and mentoring
• Data management capacity enhancement and
orientation targeted at:
– DHMT members
– Programme coordinators
– Facility staff
• Increased capacity is clearly shown in the
quantitative evaluation data on the next slide.

5. M&E: Key Outcomes
Indicator
Indicator scores
Baseline
2015
2016 2017 2018
% of health facilities in focus Districts
providing satisfactory coverage and
quality of data (timeliness only)
24%
(9/37)
57%
(25/44)
50.0%
(23/46)
48%
(22/46)
% of health facilities in focus Districts
providing satisfactory coverage and
quality of data (accuracy only)
7%
(2/28)
7%
(3/44)
23.9%
(11/46)
50%
(23/46)
Between 2015 and 2018:
 Accuracy of data increased from 7% to 50%
 Timeliness of data doubled

6. District level partner
coordination: Key outcomes
Indicator
Indicator scores
Baseline
2015
2016 2017 2018
Number of focus Districts reporting
improved health partner co-ordination
including a focus on gender-related
activities
0/6 0/8 3/8 5/8
Number of focus Districts reporting
improved health partner co-ordination (less
focus on gender-activities)
0/6 8/8 8/8 8/8

7. Ways Forward
• District councils were empowered to have control
over partner organisations to achieve well-
coordinated health sector interventions. Can this be
scaled up?
• Rumphi, Chiradzulu and Thyolo districts performed
well on data quality in 2018. Can these good
practices be used for learning purposes?
• Inadequate focus on gender and equity in district
and sector plans needs to be addressed at both
national and district level.

8. Thank you! Photo credit: 2011 Sally Zweimueller,
courtesy of Photoshare