WHAT WE DO
Health
Filling Data Gaps to Improve Public Health Outcomes
How do policymakers, local leaders, or community members make decisions when public health data is unreliable, difficult to use, or nonexistent? DG works to fill these gaps by building systems that translate high-quality data and evidence into policy and practice in public health, in close partnership with local universities and think tanks.
Developed through collaborative processes, DG’s health data visualization tools focus on the most vulnerable – women, children, adolescents, and newborns – to help advocates and decision-makers identify where interventions and investments can make the greatest impact.
Building on the methods we have developed through our continuing tobacco control portfolio, we are also supporting additional critical sub-sectors – such as climate services for health and non-communicable diseases – to fill data gaps for policy, connect disparate digital systems, and combat industry interference.
FEATURED PROGRAMS
The Tobacco Control Data Initiative (TCDI) aims to supply governments, civil society, and academia with improved access to country-specific data that will inform better tobacco control policy design and implementation. TCDI has developed six country-specific websites that display tobacco research through close collaboration with government ministries such as health, finance, and trade, as well as civil society organizations, academics, and local research firms. Through this work, DG has successfully provided key evidence and information in the lead-up to tax reform in several priority countries.
Through our Data on Youth and Tobacco in Africa (DaYTA) program, DG seeks to advance tobacco control efforts by gathering accurate data on tobacco use among 10- to 17-year-olds in Kenya, Nigeria, and the DRC. In collaboration with partners in governments, civil society, and academia, the DaYTA program empowers decision-makers to make timely, data-driven policies that, in turn, can lead to a healthier populace. The DaYTA program research findings can be accessed through the new youth-specific pages on the TCDI dashboards.
Des Chiffres et Des Jeunes (DCDJ)
The Des Chiffres et Des Jeunes (DCDJ) was a program led by DG and funded by the MCC-PEPFAR Data Collaboratives for Local Impact Program. The DCDJ program aimed to improve the data ecosystem in Côte d’Ivoire, increase the supply and demand for data – particularly health data – and to train and support data users.
Open Data Center for Health
With a coalition of partners and support from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), DG and Côte d’Ivoire-based partners collaborated to build a platform which uses data to improve how scarce health resources are allocated to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment at the community level. In addition to monitoring viral suppression, the tool also contains pre-populated dashboards focused on monitoring and managing the steps of care that people living with HIV/AIDS progress through, and indicators such as the number of people who receive treatments at each stage.