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The importance of collecting reliable data for the development of effective public strategies in the care of citizens was highlighted by the Minister of Health, Abdelhak Saihi, on the occasion of the meeting organized to celebrate World Population Day, celebrated on July 11 each year.
In a speech read on his behalf by the Director General of Prevention at the Ministry of Health, Professor Djamel Fourar, the Minister of Health stressed that this year’s theme, namely “Data: measurement, analysis and action to strengthen progress for all”, was adopted to highlight the crucial importance of “investing in quality, reliable and accessible data to inform decisions and guide public policies”.
The Minister noted that data, in all its forms, constitutes an “indispensable tool for understanding the demographic, health and socio-economic realities of the country”. Stressing that by having precise information, decision-makers can better identify the needs and challenges of the population, and thus “develop more relevant and more effective policies”.
Furthermore, the Minister stressed that in light of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, data, especially those related to population, are more important than ever, ensuring that currently more than 240 indicators are used to monitor the implementation of these goals.
In this context, the head of the health sector specified that his department “is working to ensure all data relating to the third sustainable development goal, namely to enable everyone to live in good health and promote well-being for all at all ages”, both at the national and local levels, and this through “supporting health departments in the wilayas as well as health establishments to achieve the objectives according to their priorities”.
He illustrated his remarks by citing the example of his department’s efforts to achieve the goal of reducing the maternal mortality rate to less than 20 per 100,000 live births by 2030.
Concretely, the establishment of a system of mandatory declaration and verification of maternal deaths in 2013 allowed a better understanding and measurement of this phenomenon.
He explained that the collection of this data helped identify the medical and environmental causes behind these deaths. He said that this valuable information was then used to guide targeted interventions and significantly reduce the maternal mortality rate in Algeria.
Furthermore, Mr. Saïhi considered that the establishment of the issuance of the medical certificate of death by executive decree, on April 28, 2022, and its identification number, as part of the digitalization which is currently being finalized, “will undoubtedly make it possible to obtain more detailed data on the medical causes of death, in accordance with international standards.”
As part of improving data collection, he called for a collective mobilization of public and private actors to create a broad and transparent debate around the issue of data. He stressed the need to “highlight the challenges encountered in collecting, analyzing and using data”, and to “find innovative solutions to improve the reliability and quality of this data”.
Despite the challenges, the Minister was keen to highlight the significant progress made by Algeria in data collection and analysis. He cited, as an example, the establishment of an integrated health information system. Mr. Saïhi affirmed that “these initiatives will enable the country to better exploit the potential of data to improve the health and well-being of the population.”
It should be noted that during this meeting, the Deputy Director General in charge of the management of the National Office of Statistics, Moussa Mahdjoubi, indicated that the survey, conducted by the Office on the demography of Algeria over the last four years (2020-2023), highlighted “an improvement in a number of indicators, in particular life expectancy at 79.6 years in 2023”.