Monitoring continuity of maternal and child health services, Indonesia.

Objective: To implement an online system to evaluate the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on maternal and child health and nutrition essential health services in Indonesia.

Methods: We developed an electronic monitoring and evaluation system to assist district health offices in making rapid assessments of the impact of COVID-19 on maternal and child health and nutrition programmes in their area and in developing policy and programme responses. This implementation research was conducted from September to December 2020 in 304 districts. The strategies consisted of technical assistance for district offices by 21 partner universities and development of an online dashboard for rapid situation analyses and reporting. We collected qualitative data on feasibility and adherence to the intervention, as well as quantitative data from routine health databases to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on maternal and child health and nutrition indicators.

Findings: In the majority of districts key maternal and child health and nutrition services were moderately or severely affected by the pandemic, particularly child growth monitoring and antenatal care services. Adherence to the protocol of the intervention varied across districts but the system is a feasible approach to be scaled up to other regions and health programmes. High uptake by the health ministry, district office and university partners provided the platform with collaborative efforts for health-systems strengthening.

Conclusion: The electronic monitoring and evaluation system could be implemented and completed with several modifications to accommodate district offices and universities. There is a potential to scale up the intervention with better implementation planning and training.