Costing Tool for Digital and Paper-based Smart Start Counseling in Ethiopia

A 2026 costing dataset from a cross-sectional mixed-methods study in Ethiopia's Sidama, Amhara, Oromia, and South Ethiopia regions. It compares financial and programmatic inputs for digital and paper-based contraceptive counseling tools for adolescent girls and young women, drawing data from 275 health posts and 55 health facilities. The dataset was authored by Meghan Cutherell and is shared under a CC-BY-4.0 license.

Use Cases

• Compare program costs between digital and paper-based counseling tools based on financial and programmatic inputs.
• Analyze the relationship between counseling tool type and client outcomes based on the Method Information Index Plus (MII Plus) metric.
• Assess the cost structure of community health programs in Ethiopia based on data from health posts and centers.

Strengths

• Data is drawn from a substantial sample of 275 health posts and 55 health facilities across four Ethiopian regions.
• The study design includes both quantitative client exit interviews (over 300 clients) and qualitative key informant interviews (18 KIIs).
• Costing data is sourced from both implementing partner (PSI) and government records.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The data is specific to the Smart Start intervention in selected Ethiopian regions, which may limit generalizability.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Data was collected via client exit interviews, key informant interviews, health management information system (HMIS) records, and program cost records.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-12 14:05:18; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Sidama, Amhara, Oromia, and South Ethiopia regions, Ethiopia.