What eMIS data can tell about the impact of vacancies at the grassroots level of DGFP

The eMIS (electronic Management Information System), implemented by the Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is a digital eco-system comprising of a host of mobile apps and web-based applications. The eMIS tools are used by different category of users under the DGFP.

The eMIS mobile apps are assigned to specific category of users. A database is maintained to manage the users. The eMIS accordingly captures data relating to human resources, which include details of positions filled in or vacant. The Family Welfare Assistants (FWA) work at community level or rural areas where they provide, among others, domiciliary services to the ELCOS (eligible couples), pregnant women, adolescents and children. They are responsible for providing services in an administrative area called units. The units are located in a part of a ward, which is the lowest administrative unit of the local government institution called Union Parishad.

The FWAs visit the household to provide reproductive health commodities to existing clients when required by the client, collect data on pregnant women, provide counselling services to adolescents etc. They FWAs are supervised by the Family Planning Inspectors (FPI). The FPIS can perform host of inspecting and supervisory duties using their own app. The mangers at sub-district or district level can similarly review and monitor the performance of an individual provider or the entire workforce through app or web pages.

The eMIS tools provides a snapshot of vacancies in the monitoring site (a web page) intended for use by the managers, central level officials and policy makers. It has been known that in rural areas at community levels, about one-third of the positions are lysing vacant. To fill the gap and to ensure services, there is a system of assigning the FWAs additional responsibilities in units other than that of their own. This means that one FWA could be performing in more than one unit or multiple units (some times more than one).

The eMIS data are granular and allows drilling down to the individual records. As we mentioned earlier, the data could be analyzed quickly to review the vacancies. In addition, real time performance data are available in the eMIS databases. All combined, the eMIS data could be used to:

1. to quickly identify the number of community level vacancies at the union, upazila and district (including other positions whether supervisory or managerial),
2. to assess the number of households covered by the FWAs including the number of Eligible Couples (ELCOs), who are their principal clientele,
3. to review the number of visits undertaken by the FWAs in their catchment areas based on a monthly basis (or rounds, which is their duty roster in a two or three-month cycle),
4. the extent of home visits in the units could also be used to analyze their workload, and
5. finally, to find out gaps in service delivery, if any exists.

An analysis can form the basis for evaluating the type of solutions with basis for advocating with the concerned authorities for quickly filling out the vacancies.