GENEVA — In a decisive move to strengthen health information systems and improve global health outcomes in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a comprehensive new approach to enhance access to life-saving data. Designated as the SCORE for Health Data Technical Package, the initiative arrives as nations worldwide grapple with the profound disruptions and operational strains of a global health crisis that has laid bare persistent vulnerabilities in public health infrastructure.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forcefully underscored the urgent, ongoing need for timely, reliable data to drive strategic health action and emergency response. According to the WHO, too many countries around the globe still lack both the foundational infrastructure required to routinely gather essential health data and the necessary analytical capacity to translate that information into effective health policies and emergency interventions.
"Countries must be able to measure progress to make progress," said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. "Particularly during COVID-19, reliable data is the best way to coordinate response efforts and improve health in all areas."
Accurate health data remain vital not only for understanding specific, localized country needs to improve overall health outcomes and save lives, but also for directing scarce financial and operational resources precisely to where they are needed most. Without robust data systems, public health officials are effectively navigating blind, struggling to allocate resources efficiently or evaluate whether interventions are achieving their intended goals.
A Harmonized Approach to Data Challenges
Designed to directly address these systemic challenges, the SCORE Technical Package—which stands for Survey, Count, Optimize, Review, and Enable—aims to radically improve the availability of timely, reliable, validated, and comparable health data across member states. For the first time, this initiative consolidates all the key elements required for optimized health information system performance into a single, harmonized package. Simply put, SCORE is intended to help governments around the globe set high benchmarks and steadily improve standards in healthcare delivery and public health monitoring.
The development of the package comes in direct response to the alarming gaps in data availability highlighted in the WHO World Health Statistics 2020 report. To bridge these divides, SCORE incorporates more than 90 universally accepted tools and standards specifically tailored for strengthening health information systems.
"Using data to inform public health priorities and strategies has never been more important," said Dr. Kelly Henning, Director of Public Health Programs at Bloomberg Philanthropies, which provided vital funding to support the development of the SCORE for Health Data Technical Package. "The SCORE Technical Package provides country governments around the world with high-quality, essential technical guidance so that countries can strengthen their own data systems."
The World Health Organization has expressed strong pride in its partnership with the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative to deliver this timely resource to countries striving to upgrade their statistical and health infrastructure.
Keeping Score to Save Lives
The initial release of the package includes foundational documents designed to help national authorities evaluate and restructure their existing health data architectures. However, the overarching vision extends far beyond technical documentation, emphasizing an urgent cultural and institutional shift toward data-driven decision-making at every level of governance.
"We must keep score to save lives. WHO is committed to working with countries and partners to rapidly scale up capacity for data collection and use in order to improve policy and performance," said Dr. Samira Asma, Assistant Director-General for Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact at WHO. "We must act now to invest in statistical systems in countries, respond to this pandemic and meet the SDGs and the Triple Billion targets. Our window of opportunity is closing, and we cannot wait to address data gaps. Data use to address country needs has to be a priority today."
Dr. Asma’s remarks reflect a growing consensus among international public health leaders that country-owned, disaggregated data will be absolutely essential for building more resilient, sustainable health systems going forward. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has functioned simultaneously as a harsh wake-up call and a stark reminder of the complex challenges that remain unaddressed in global health governance. At the same time, international health authorities view the pandemic as a unique historical opportunity to "build back better" through enhanced international solidarity, transparent information-sharing, and cross-border collaboration.
The SCORE package exemplifies how a cooperative approach can directly benefit individual countries by providing a standardized, common set of tools rooted in shared global standards. Rather than imposing rigid, unyielding structures, the initiative has been engineered to be practical, actionable, and flexible enough to adapt to diverse national contexts, resource levels, and institutional capacities. Public health experts emphasize that the global community will only be successful in combatting COVID-19 and future health emergencies if nations work together using common, reliable metrics.
Looking ahead, additional components of the SCORE Technical Package are scheduled for release later in the year. These forthcoming resources will include the SCORE Assessment Instrument alongside comprehensive global, regional, and country status reports. Together, these elements will constitute a complete, integrated package of information designed to help governments meticulously plan and monitor progress against national and subnational priorities, as well as broader global targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals.
As nations continue to navigate the complexities of the current pandemic and prepare for future health threats, the rollout of the SCORE Technical Package marks a critical milestone in the ongoing global effort to ensure that data is no longer treated as a secondary administrative task, but rather as an indispensable instrument for saving lives.
(Reporting by Alyssa Palmquist, World Health Organization)
