By Kemi Akintokun

Alive and Thrive (FHI 360), an international NGO, has trained 20 Monitoring and Evaluation Officers on the National Health Management Information System (NHMIS) tools.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the three-day training was in collaboration with the Lagos State Government to equip the officers on the NHMIS tools for data collection and reporting.

Mrs Flora Awosika, Head of Health Statistics,  Lagos State Ministry of Health, said the objective of the training was to build capacity of participants on the Maternal, Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) indicators.

Awosika said :”We have been able to put the health workers through on the new version of the NHMIS tools for data collection, collation and reporting of MIYCN data.

“The NHMIS tools are registers used to collect data starting from health facilities to the state level and this data are used to monitor the growth of children starting from birth to age five.

“This stage is the most critical stage of a child and the indicators will help us to know if they are growing well, stunting or under-weight”.

She commended  Alive and Thrive for supporting the state on its programme on infants and mother nutrition.

Mrs Zanab Agbalaya, the Monitoring and Evaluation officer for Lagos Island Local Government Area, who commended the organisation for the training, said that infant and maternal health was pertinent to a healthy society.

“This training is a very good one as regarding generating data for MIYCN intervention in Lagos State.

“Capturing data for infants feeding is usually not something we actually give importance, but with this training, it is going to get better when it comes to data and reporting what is going on in facilities and communities,” she said.

Also, Mr Hassan Yussuf, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of Champagne Foundation, said the training would go a long way to improve the knowledge of health officers.

“Most of our data are not accurate because some officials don’t know how to fill it on the NHMIS tools properly.

“This training has further increased our knowledge and it will have a positive impact on our work.

NAN reports that participants were selected from Alimosho, Epe, Lagos Island, Badagry, Epe and Apapa local government areas. (NAN)

Edited by Folasade Adeniran