Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Objectives: The Micronutrient Initiative (MI) is supporting host governments to demonstrate effective strategies to strengthen zinc supplementation as adjunct to ORS for the treatment of diarrhea and IFA supplementation to reduce anemia among pregnant women across three Asian countries. The objective of this paper is to describe experiences related to designing and implementing a monitoring framework in these programs in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Methods: A monitoring framework was developed with two key components. Key indicators on coverage and stocks were incorporated in the government HMIS. Data on knowledge, and practices were collected through MI district field officers with short and simple checklists. Regular feedback based on this information was provide to the health system managers for program improvements. Results: In Bangladesh and Afghanistan HMIS was modified to record and report on coverage of zinc supplements in treatment of diarrhea among children 180 IFA tablets during pregnancy is being introduced. Conference Abstract Chaudhery et al.; EJNFS, 5(5): 896-897, 2015; Article no.EJNFS.2015.344 897 Monitoring checklists also provided programmatically useful information. For example, in Indonesia care-givers discontinuation of zinc tablets prior to the mandated 10 days was highlighted as a problem and necessary action was initiated. Conclusions: Monitoring systems need to be simple so that they can be implemented and sustained by government systems. Adapting the government HMIS and ensuring data flow takes time and requires technical support. Considering the utility of monitoring checklists, the Government of Bangladesh has adapted them for use by their health personnel. © 2015 Chaudhery et al.; This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Chaudhery et al. (Sat,) studied this question.