Innovative Insecticide Tracking in Mali

This week’s Fist Bump goes out to the VectorLink Mali team for strengthening their insecticide tracking system during the 2019 IRS campaign. In the months leading up to the indoor residual spray (IRS) campaign, the country Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) team developed an Excel-based tool to compute insecticide utilization rates in each of the 35 health areas based on the daily performance management tracking (PMT) reports. They compare the insecticide utilization rates to the expected utilization on which the insecticide quantification was based. The tool was designed to visually alert the team if a health area was consuming more insecticide per structure than expected; different colors indicated different levels of overconsumption.

The M&E and Operations teams worked together to develop a protocol to ensure all members of the team were appropriately informed of any red flags or operational decisions made based on the consumption data.

In addition to developing this tool, the VectorLink Mali team implemented a mandatory meeting in each health area between the community supervisor, the Community Health Center Director (known as DTCs), and the secondary storekeeper to review their performance and insecticide utilization, as well as to compare the reported insecticide consumption against the physical inventory. The results of these meetings were promptly reported to the VectorLink District Coordinators. The VectorLink Mali leadership team noted a dramatic improvement in the community supervisor and DTC’s engagement in monitoring their health area’s performance. This increased accountability resulted in fewer cases of insecticide mismanagement and allowed the team to exceed 100% progress by the end of the campaign.

Congratulations to the Mali team for introducing an effective management tool to the PMI VectorLink repertoire and for safely and successfully completing the 2019 campaign!