Gambia

The malaria season in the Gambia starts in August after the rainy season in July; as such, the implementation of SMC commences in August. The country is divided into 3 strata based on the burden of malaria: no malaria, moderate, and high burden. However, some areas with "no malaria" burden are becoming "moderate" burden zones. SMC is being targeted in the high transmission areas.

In 2023, four cycles of SMC were implemented, targeting children aged 3 to 59 months in 23 districts. Overall, the coverage level was 53%.

Due to data quality issues and the immense work involved in collating data on paper, the NMP commenced digitization of SMC in 2015 based on previous experience from the 2014 LLIN campaign supported by CRS. In August 2022, the team moved from Commcare to DHIS2 Tracker for the 2023 SMC campaign as Commcare requires a subscription payment. DHIS2 is an open-source platform that is free to use.

Real-time data collection was made available, allowing for daily analysis to identify areas that were not reached. Audit trails enable tracking of supervisors with issues, making monitoring easier. DHIS 2 is also used for COVID-19 tracking, and the Ministry of Health monitors other health data.

The challenge of internet connectivity poses a significant hurdle for simulating data. However, offline access to data is feasible. DHIS2 experiences performance and functionality-related challenges, including server capacity issues due to data load. Partners are providing support to IT teams for data analysis.