©Jilson Tiu/IDinsight
IDinsight is committed to generating high-quality, reliable data and insights that can be used to inform and improve policy- and decision-making. Through a combination of strong partnership foundations, strategic project activities, and just the right amount of luck, our partnership with the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) on the National Health Promotion and Literacy Longitudinal Study (HPLS) is beginning to fulfil this goal after its first year. Through this partnership, a culture of data and evidence use is growing within DOH, and the department is already beginning to make key decisions based on data we are generating with them.
In this blog post, we share highlights of what we’ve been able to accomplish in our first year of partnership, along with tips and takeaways on putting data use at the center of a research project.
HPLS is a five-year longitudinal study on health literacy and knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of health behaviors across DOH’s seven pillars of health promotion. Past research has identified low levels of health literacy among Filipinos, with limited and infrequent data on how individuals access and use health information to make informed decisions for themselves and their families. The goal of the study is to fill data and evidence gaps for frequent data on health literacy and healthy behaviors that DOH can use to adapt programs and policies towards 2030 health targets. Year 1 of HPLS ran from October 2022 to December 2023, and at the end had produced data and insights across a variety of health topics.
For further background on HPLS, see here, and for an overview of what topics are covered in the study, see here.
Because of the breadth of topics included in HPLS, with topic areas falling under the responsibility of multiple bureaus and offices under the DOH, we knew that converting data collection to data use would be challenging. The results of HPLS will be used by multiple decision-makers across DOH to inform different policies, programs, and campaigns throughout the 5 years of the study.
However, by building strong relationships with DOH counterparts and playing an active role in helping to brainstorm how our data could be used, we’ve made significant progress. Findings from the first year of HPLS are currently being used by the DOH Health Promotion Bureau (DOH-HPB) to inform a variety of programmatic decisions. Some examples include:
Moving from data collection to data use did not happen overnight, but required many moments of reflection, course correction, and optimism. Below we share a few takeaways that helped us get where we are today:
We’ve spent years building strong relationships with their team, making ourselves available (oftentimes in-person), advocating for the use of data and evidence – all in a way that builds trust and credibility in IDinsight and keeps us connected to key decision makers. This close proximity to key teams also helped to keep us apprised of DOH top policy priorities and evidence needs. This not only helped land us the project, but ensured that DOH was prepared to be a key thought partner with us as we progress.
We typically present to senior decision-makers on the client side, because of limited time and because senior management is usually the final decision maker. For HPLS, we found it really helpful to allocate time to talk to program officers and implementers within DOH HPB. These staff members are typically more involved in day-to-day planning and implementation, and our insights were helpful to them as they planned for upcoming programs and campaigns. These discussions helped us understand how the data will be used, and how we can continue to make our survey more decision-relevant in the future. We found out, for example, that DOH’s hand washing campaigns had been focusing on critical handwashing times, but had not considered invisible dirt or grime in their campaigns. Based on our results, they already began planning to update concept notes for future campaigns.
In DOH, budgeting and planning typically happens at a certain time of the year (Q1), and the rest of the year is primarily spent executing projects, programs, and campaigns. Results discussions for HPLS Round 2 were held in January 2024, and we were able to set two whole days with DOH for results discussions with focal persons for various DOH campaigns. These meetings happened to coincide with DOH planning and budgeting for the coming year, which meant that our findings could directly be used to inform upcoming decisions.
We co-created the survey questionnaires with DOH to ensure that the data we collected was actionable and useful. During discussions, DOH outlined priority health topics in current program and policy dialogues where having more data to inform those decisions would be helpful. We then tailored our questionnaire around their evolving policy needs. We prepared a spreadsheet that linked each question in the survey to a policy decision to make sure that we were making the most out of the time that we had with respondents. We also invested time into understanding DOH initiatives related to our findings, which allowed us to tailor our recommendations and make them as action-oriented as possible.
Lastly, we’ve found it really helpful to document how our data is being used. We’ve started a round-by-round documentation of our findings and the policy decisions they are being used for. This helps us keep ourselves accountable to our end goal of informing client decisions and creating impact, and helps us understand how we can continue to work towards this in future rounds. While making these investments come with financial costs that need to be budgeted for, for us it has been one of the most important steps to tracking our work and making sure we’re aligned to DOH’s needs and priorities. We expect this will continue to prove to be useful in advocating for designing collaborative research based on decision-making needs.
As we move forward into future years of HPLS, we’re continuing to reflect on the wins (and challenges) we’ve had to date, and do what we can to further data use and evidence-based decision making.
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HPLS is powered by IDinsight’s DataDelta. DataDelta deploys sampling innovations, highly-trained data collection teams, and custom-built software to provide decision-makers with top-quality survey data at scale when they need it.
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We collaborate with government leaders to develop and roll out data-driven policy solutions aligned with their priorities and within their budgets.
IDinsight's partners with the Philippines Department of Health to conduct a 5-year study to monitor the health literacy of Filipino adults.
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