Kenya has been awarded for having the best RMNCAH (Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent health) scorecard tool in the inaugural African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) Joyce Kafanabo Awards for Excellence and Innovation. 

During the award ceremony held at the 36th African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Saturday, Kenya was praised for its significant progress in the digitisation of national health programmes to improve health services and outcomes.

"Kenya has decentralized their RMNCAH scorecard down to county-level and shares the scorecard with key country partners at national, county, and health facility levels," read part of a communique to newsrooms.

Kenya was among seven states that received an award in the ceremony presided by ALMA chair, Guinea Bissau president Umaro Sissoco Embaló.

Zambia won the best malaria scorecard tool award for generating and tracking actions through existing accountability mechanisms at national and sub-national levels.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) received an award for the best neglected tropical diseases scorecard tool, which it uses to enhance collaboration and coordination among stakeholders, monitor interventions, identify bottlenecks, and stimulate action.

Ethiopia was honoured with the best community scorecard tool award, due to its improved community engagement in health services which has been introduced in 55% of districts across the country.

Rwanda also bagged the award for best institutionalization of scorecard tools across malaria and RMNCAH. 

"The country has regularly taken innovative approaches to its scorecard use, including integrated malaria and NTDs scorecards and their RMNCAH scorecard. The two scorecards are identified in the country’s strategic plan as key performance and management tools to track the progress of indicators.

Ghana won the award for best innovative use of scorecard tools, becoming the first to include community-generated scorecard data in its health management information system.

Tanzania won the award as Ghana for training MPs on scorecard use, translating scorecards into the local language, and developing a mobile app for scorecard data collection.

Each country was assessed using the Scorecard Maturity assessment tool based on five criteria: Management use, Decentralisation, Stakeholder sharing, Institutionalisation and political use, and Documentation and evaluation.