PMI’s Quarterly Report FAQs

**Important Note: This FAQ document is a working draft and will be updated as we learn more about opportunities and challenges associated with the new PMI Quarterly Report process.**

Last Updated February 28th, 2020

1. What is the purpose of the PMI Quarterly Report? 

PMI has decided to implement a Quarterly Report in order to strengthen its data-driven approach within individual countries and across multiple countries and help shorten the data-to-action cycle. The immediate aim is to increase PMI accountability and stewardship of US Government funds. However, the purpose of the PMI Quarterly Report (QR) is multi-pronged:

• Monitor trends and learn across regions. PMI believes that the timely evaluation of change within a country and the ability to sum across countries will increase our accountability and stewardship of US Government funds. 
• Amplify and build on existing systematic data reporting and analytical efforts. Many countries are already implementing either monthly or quarterly reports (e.g. monthly bulletins). For such countries, PMI would like to augment in-country efforts by integrating data that they can use (such as survey and funding data) to triangulate with the data they typically use for their reports. For countries that do not current systematically analyze their data, the analytical output of the QR can serve that purpose.
• Track progress of implementing partners. The quarterly report will involve an effort to standardize indicators reported by implementing partners for each technical area and benchmarking programmatic results. Because US foreign assistance budgets are under ever-increasing scrutiny, PMI needs to improve our capacity to track progress and setbacks and demonstrate that we can address all issues in a timely fashion. 

 2. Who is the audience?

Since the immediate aim is to increase PMI accountability and stewardship of US Government funds, the primary audience for this QR is PMI. However, as we continue to learn with countries and improve the way we integrate and visualize data submitted through the QR, there will be multiple audiences including NMCPs and PMI, and in the long-term, if MOHs agree to share findings with the broader community, local stakeholders, and development partners. 

3. Who will have access to the data?

PMI takes data security and ownership very seriously. Data submitted by countries will not be shared outside of PMI without the approval of the host country governments. These data will be combined with data that is housed at PMI-HQ or available publicly (i.e. PMI financial data, PMI-procured commodities, Satellite Imagery, Climate, DHS, MIS) to develop the reports. NMCPs will also have access to the underlying raw datasets behind QR dashboards for their respective country. 

4. How will analytical outputs produced by PMI HQ be shared with countries? The visualization tool used for the QR analytical output will be via interactive dashboards --- housed on PMI’s Malaria Data Integration and Visualization for Eradication (M-DIVE) platform. NMCPs will be able to directly access these QR dashboards together with the underlying raw datasets via the PMI- supported M-DIVE platform.  

5. Is PMI rolling out a parallel data reporting system? No. PMI is requesting  NMCPs to share data from existing systems. PMI is deliberately not creating a parallel system to collect data at decentralized levels. Most countries already have their own data reporting systems (often DHIS2)  that enable data flow from facilities to districts to central levels. PMI is not asking countries to collect those data in a new manner or to collect additional data elements. Countries should use their own national reporting systems to download data to produce the PMI QR. Since M-DIVE is interoperable with DHIS2, PMI’s Data Integration will be working towards helping as many countries to automate QR data transmission. Until these database connections are established in your country, QR data do not need to be entered into the PMI QR template; the template is intended to serve merely as a tool for outlining which data and levels of disaggregation are desired, and secondarily, for countries unable to extract the data directly from their HMIS, as a template to be filled out.  For example, the MOH’s national DHIS2 instance can and should be used to generate a report containing the requested data on malaria cases and deaths disaggregated by district and by month, and the in-country PMI team can submit this same report to PMI HQ for the quarter. The MS Excel-based PMI QR data entry template is meant to serve as a tool to be completed at the central level --- only if other tools cannot be used to generate reports disaggregated by district. The PMI QR data entry template is not meant for district health officers to report their data. 

6. What types of capacity building efforts will accompany the QR? PMI will continue to support MOH and NMCP efforts to strengthen data reporting systems (e.g. HMIS, LMIS, entomological monitoring). PMI continues to explore ways to improve capacity.

7. What approach should countries use to gather the QR data for submission to HQ?  In-country PMI teams are strongly encouraged to work closely with their NMCP counterparts and, wherever applicable, other relevant MOH departments (e.g. HMIS unit or Central Medical Stores) to generate reports with the required data elements. In addition, in most countries, PMI is funding M&E and supply chain advisors through its various implementing partners, and these individuals can be tremendously helpful in generating the required reports. Ideally, the person most familiar with the national HMIS or LMIS database would play a role in generating the report.

8. Once the data are submitted to HQ, who is producing the QR? PMI HQ will be responsible for reviewing the data submitted and producing the data visualizations for the QR. Additional data will be provided from HQ levels (e.g. financial, climate, procurement and supply chain) for these visualizations, which we are continuously working to improve by incorporating more data sources and listening to your feedback. Working closely with their NMCP counterparts, it is anticipated that PMI in-country teams and NMCPs will also have a role in providing feedback into the analytical frame and in interpreting results from the analyses. 

9. What data use processes will be supported at HQ and country levels? Collecting data from countries and even creating dashboards does NOT inherently result in better data use for decision-making. Through the QR process, organizational processes must be put in place to ensure data received from countries are analyzed and discussed with country teams, and that insightful feedback via QR dashboards are provided to countries --- with a recognition that appropriate analytical interpretation can only be performed by individuals who work in the nearest proximity to where the data originated for decision-making.  At country levels, PMI will continue to support monthly or quarterly data review meetings at national and district levels. 

10. The new QR requirement will necessitate that PMI staff at country and HQ levels spend additional time on data gathering, cleaning, analysis, interpretation and acting on findings.  Will this new Quarterly Reporting effort be met with additional financial and human resources?  Yes, an additional Malaria Data Specialist locally-employed staff will be hired in each country to join in-country PMI teams in support of this new effort. PMI is also investing in the development of the M-DIVE platform for data warehousing and analytics and to automate data ingestion, integration and visualization processes required by the new QR.  

11. Why not implement semi-annual reports? Most of the countries we work in have highly seasonal malaria transmission. There are at least four times a year when we should explore, based on available data, whether PMI should be making changes or stay the course because there were no changes from previous years. Implementing QRallows PMI to become more responsive to changing situations in the countries it supports.

12. Why are we asking for sub-national data (district level of disaggregation)? In most countries, there is great variability in how malaria occurs geographically. Collecting geographically-disaggregated data will allow for more focused analysis and better allocation of resources. Moreover, PMI increasingly needs to become better at tracking the performance of PMI-supported country programs. 

13. Are we asking for results for both PMI-supported and non-PMI-supported programmatic results? Currently the QR will focus on PMI-supported programmatic results only (e.g. “ITN campaign implemented during the quarter” under the Programmatic Data tab). However, it is anticipated that HQ will soon also begin requiring results from activities supported by other partners since PMI needs to get a better, more comprehensive picture of what is happening in order to know if its investments are adequately distributed.

14. Do we run the risk of taking power away from NMCPs by collecting this data? PMI’s primary purpose is to strengthen NMCPs. By working together closely on collecting and analyzing the data for the QR, PMI intends to build on NMCPs existing efforts to improve data-driven decision-making and strengthen national malaria surveillance. To further inform national efforts, PMI HQ also intends to complement existing datasets available in-country with some of its other data sources (e.g. population-based survey MIS and DHS, funding levels by district, commodity procurements, IRS and insecticide resistance data from centrally-funded implementing partners) as well as provide insights into what is happening in neighboring countries. PMI intends to enhance NMCPs' existing efforts to use data to make decisions by integrating data sets that previously have been difficult to synthesize  (e.g. population-based survey MIS and DHS, funding levels by district, commodity procurements, IRS and insecticide resistance data from centrally-funded implementing partners). NMCPs can use these integrated data sets and visualizations in the quarterly reports to inform their  decisions.

15. If we believe data quality is poor and/or the monthly data has not been validated by the country, should we still submit to HQ? And will there be opportunities to re-submit validated data at a later stage? Recognizing that countries continually make efforts to address data quality issues, PMI HQ still firmly believes that insights can be gained by systematically compiling and analyzing data. Local context will be used to interpret results from these analyses. Each quarter, countries will have an opportunity to provide updated datasets (even if these were previously submitted).