The Data Impact Program conducted a 5-day training workshop on Data Brief Development in March 2024 for the National Department of Health in Papua New Guinea. The training was attended by the staff of the Strategic Policy Division and Performance Monitoring Branch of the Department of Health. The 26participants included health planners, policy officers, health economics team, legal officers, and the staff from Performance, Monitoring and research branch. The participants formed teams to develop 4 data briefs each on pressing public health issues in the country —improved facility infrastructure for reducing maternal mortality, data quality assurance for immunizations, supervised birth deliveries, and addressing the budget gap for health sector performance.

Four teams presented their data briefs to the Executive Manager, Strategic planning and Policy Planning, NDOH at a data brief forum in July 2024. Government representatives noted the importance of the data briefs for informing public health and discussed potential interventions to reduce maternal mortality and improve immunization coverage to the District Development Authorities for funding support. In an exciting milestone, the Executive Manager committed to advance the data briefs for policy decisions.