Using TIPAC Data to Drive Resource Mobilization

July 30th, 2015

The Togo NTD Program and END in Africa team working with the TIPAC in Notse, Togo
Photo courtesy of Deloitte Consulting LLP

Getting people excited about the prospect of learning how to sift through and analyze complex data can be a tough sell. However, they tend to become more interested in getting trained once they begin to understand how data analytics and visualization can help them solve difficult problems.

In Togo, such training has helped the national Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Program team identify funding gaps and cost out its NTD portfolio. Before receiving the training, the country’s robust NTD Master Plan was underfunded and the NTD team was often unaware of specific funding gaps, which hampered the country’s ability to meet its NTD control and elimination targets. However as part of the END in Africa project’s support to Togo, Deloitte Consulting LLP worked with 10 members of the Togo NTD program to use the Tool for Integrated Planning and Costing (TIPAC) in resolving these problems. Through this training, financial officers and technical programmatic heads on the Togo NTD team learned to cost the country’s 2015 NTD Plan and define funding gaps across its NTD portfolio.

In the space of just one week, the participants learned how to translate TIPAC data into useful information through basic data visualization and analytics training, which helped them begin to more easily use the complex data and findings to accomplish NTD country program goals. Along with improving team members’ understanding of the TIPAC data, the collaborative dialogue in the exercise encouraged the team to reconsider budget priorities given current resource limitations, and to think about new ways to use resources to solve problems.

Before the exercise, NTD program managers used to operate in independent silos, with little communication and coordination even when talking to potential partners or investors. By providing the first holistic and accurate landscape of the costs and funding gaps across all the NTD programs served by the END in Africa project, the exercise enabled Togo’s NTD team to begin discussing ways to collaborate on leveraging resources and filling financial gaps.

The participants were quick to appreciate the value of using program data to strengthen NTD program sustainability. As one participant said, “the TIPAC is truly a powerful tool to help us put all the moving parts together and see our budget gaps—once you know how to use it!”

The week ended by identifying next steps for kick-starting the NTD resource mobilization strategy and advocacy campaign. As the team collaborated on the strategies they would use to approach potential donors and partners, armed with a set of clearly articulated program needs and opportunities and backed by TIPAC data, their strong commitment to carrying forward what the group had started at the workshop spoke volumes about the true power of data.