Managing and Using Information

Every manager, at every level of a family planning program, needs up-to-date, reliable, and complete information about all aspects of the program in order to make well-informed management decisions about program performance and operations.

Managers rely on both informal and formal ways of obtaining the information they need to make decisions. Informal information includes rumors and unofficial discussions with colleagues. Personal experience, education, common sense, intuition, and knowledge of the political and social environment are also part of the informal means of gathering information. In contrast, formal information usually reaches managers in the form of routine statistical and management reports. These reports, which are generally standardized in format and produced on a regular basis, constitute the most visible part of what is called the management information system (MIS). Unfortunately in many organizations, both big and small, the MIS is not as effective as it could be. As a result, managers often do not receive the type of information they need, or it arrives late or in a format that is difficult to interpret.

A functioning management information system is particularly important in today's economic and social environment, where family planning managers need to make decisions concerning financial self-sufficiency, client satisfaction, and quality control. If the management information system does not produce complete, accurate, and timely information, managers may not be able to make decisions that will ensure the survival, expansion, and sustainability of their programs and their organizations. Such decisions include:

• Selecting appropriate target groups in order to meet demographic and fertility goals;
• Selecting the most appropriate mix of temporary and permanent contraceptives;
• Selecting appropriate modes of family planning service delivery, such as community-based distribution;
• Coordinating public and private sector program activities;
• Setting fees to cover the recurrent costs of programs in order to ensure sustainability;
• Setting standards for client satisfaction and service delivery.

An effective management information system will provide the information which allows managers to analyze current situations, identify immediate problems and find solutions, discover trends and patterns so they can formulate appropriate goals and objectives for the future, and make intelligent choices about using scarce human, financial, and material resources.

To see whether your management information system is effective, answer the following questions:

This chapter will guide you through the process of setting up a management information system. This includes the process of choosing the information which is most pertinent to the manager's needs, designing methods for collecting and analyzing the necessary data, and establishing procedures for reporting the information to the appropriate managers.

A management information system gathers together information on a variety of different functions in an organization in order to permit a manager to plan, monitor, and evaluate the operations and the performance of the family planning program as a whole. A management information system doesn't need to be complex. It should provide you with only the information you need to help you make decisions. The information you will need for planning, monitoring, and evaluating will come from several sources of information.

Information is usually generated by the different "subsystems" of an organization, such as the services facilities (clinics), the personnel department, the finance department, the commodities management department, the buildings and grounds department, etc. The information comes through many different types of records, registers, forms, monthly summaries, official reports, surveys, and special studies which are prepared by staff at different levels and in different departments.

If the information is complete, timely, accurate, and can be integrated, the manager can determine whether the family planning program is meeting its objectives, whether resources are being used efficiently and appropriately, and ultimately whether the organization is on the right path in helping the country achieve its health, demographic, and socioeconomic goals.