MoMMI - Monitoring Maternal Mortality Indicators

MoMMI Dashboard – “Monitoring Maternal Mortality Indicators” MoMMI is a one stop data dashboard application.  It stands for ‘Monitoring Maternal Mortality Indicators’ providing a rich set of maternal health and related indicators. Having access to meaningful, easily understandable and reliable data is the key to facilitate policy makers in their complex task of achieving Millenium Development goals.  World Bank provides a number of health and health-related indicators which are extremely reliable and useful.  MoMMI uses WorldBank’s Health and Nutrition Indicator dataset, HNPStats and is developed using Tableau 5.2.  MoMMI can be accessed via www.healthpolicytools.info. Maternal health (MDG-5) is the primary concern of MoMMI.  But it also draws attention to issues aimed by other MDGs such as reducing poverty (MDG1), access to education (MDG2), empowering women (MDG3) and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases (MDG6). MoMMI emphasizes the fact that all these goals and the paths to achieve them have impacts on each other. To policy makers – government officials, NGOs, Donors – and to the concerned public, MoMMI serves as a visual reminder of the intricate interrelations at play. First, the user selects a country and the dashboard is populated with data specific to that country from the World Bank’s Health Indicator dataset.  The maternal mortality data is presented on a map as well as on the dashboard.  The data include estimated maternal mortality rate (MMR) per 100,000 live births in 1990 and 2008. The calculated data shows the MDG goal as reduction by three quarters of the 1990 MMR. The dashboard shows latest available country level data and corresponding world median values for comparison.  The data indicators on women’s health include percentage of women receiving prenatal care, percentage delivered by skilled health personnel, percentage of pregnant women with anemia, unmet need for contraception, HIV prevalence in females and their knowledge about the disease, and smoking prevalence.  The adolescent health indicators include percentage of teenage pregnancy and adolescent fertility rate.  These health indicators show the health status of pregnant women, their access to care and contraception as well as other health related behaviors. It also draws attention to adolescent health which is a precursor to future issues in maternal health. The infrastructure of a country is extremely important in providing access to care and in fostering a healthy atmosphere. The infrastructure indicators include percentage with access to clean water and sanitation facilities. They also show the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people and outpatient visit per capita which indicate health care access and utilization. It is proven time and again in literature that availability of at least skilled midwives can reduce maternal mortality rates dramatically. Human capital indicators show the availability of health personnel such as physicians, nurses and midwives per 1,000 persons within the country.  Overall health care expenditure as well as how it is distributed between public and private sectors varies widely from country to country. The dashboard shows the percentages of total healthcare expenditure borne by public and private sectors within a country. This helps understand the within-country dynamics of health care financing.  In poorer economies, higher spending by private sector often translates to higher out-of-pocket costs borne by general public which does not bode well for their general economic well-being.  Policy indicators show aspects of policy that empower women. Women’s literacy rate is well known to be tightly intertwined in various aspects of maternal health.  Policy indicators also include maternity related policies such as availability of maternity leave and wages during maternity leave period.

Built With

• world-bank-data