Implementing Best Practices (IBP) initiative, a partnership by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), was created with a mission to dedicate efforts in the scaling up of works in the area of family planning and reproductive health. The regional New Delhi meeting was held from February 13-15th and was well-represented by the Health Governance and Finance project (HFG) India team.

As a part of the knowledge café, the HFG team (Lysander Menezes, right, and Pratyaya Mitra, center) conducted a twenty-minute briefing and discussion on data visualization. There were three such rounds with 8-10 participants in each. To open the discussion, key points explaining the concepts and principles of data visualization and their application were discussed. Participants then engaged in an exercise where they were asked to infer and compare conventional data presentation charts (like bar graphs, tables etc.) with data visuals. In the end, participants agreed that data visuals were much easier to understand quickly and were more impactful than conventional graphs. The exchange of data visualization ideas and concepts was well received by the audience.

Dr. Rashmi Kukreja also presented (below) to the consortium on Indices on Family Planning using data visualization, based on the result of a new HFG report by Avenir Health: Understanding District-level Variation in Fertility Rates in High-focus Indian States. The session was well received by the stalwarts of family planning topics present at the meeting.