The Data Literacy Training Project aims to enhance the capacity of public health professionals in the Americas to effectively use respiratory virus surveillance data for evidence-based decision-making. This initiative focuses on addressing critical gaps in data collection, management, analysis, interpretation, and communication among Ministry of Health personnel across the region.
Building on existing efforts, the project offers an adaptable training catalogue and allows countries to develop tailored data literacy training curricula. These resources empower professionals to transform routine surveillance data into actionable insights, strengthening public health response to respiratory viruses.
About the project
The project focused on:
Defining a framework of core data literacy competencies.
Mapping existing initiatives to create a resources catalogue.
Conducting a needs assessment to identify target audience and existing data literacy knowledge, skills, tools, technologies and gaps.
Core Data Literacy Competencies
Core competencies are combinations of minimum “pre-requisites” in terms of knowledge, skills and abilities that professionals must acquire to perform their work effectively. Developing a regional capacity-building curriculum based on a set of defined core competencies contributes to harmonizing respiratory virus surveillance data management, analysis and interpretation practices for Member States in the Americas. The core competencies are grouped into five domains related to respiratory virus surveillance data:
Data Literacy Training Resources Catalogue
The training catalogue builds foundational data literacy competencies for technical staff involved in respiratory virus surveillance at the national/central level. This resource is available both in English and Spanish.
This course catalogue is flexible and can be used to design specific training curricula adapted to each country’s specific needs. Countries can select resources to strengthen competencies in specific domains to develop a specific training curriculum, and tailor learning objectives to meet their unique requirements.