News & Updates

There is a high risk of failure with any software implementation project. In my experience, there are two main reasons why software projects fail (there are plenty of other reasons as well, but these are the ones that seem most prevalent): No one "owns" the data: No one is responsible, as part of their job, for entering the data and keeping it up-to-date. Everyone wants the data; no one wants to put the data in. For every project, we need to be...

The appropriateness (or not) of open source in international development and global health is one of my favourite conversations. Despite our large investment in open source and active promotion of it, I still believe that open source can’t yet touch proprietary models for their innovative potential. One of the most innovative technologies I know, the iPhone, is also one of the most proprietary and restrictive. It leaped mobile interface, human...

This Technical Brief, published by the Capacity Project, describes the human resource management (HRM) problems that contribute to the health worker crisis, identifies specific strategic actions to address these HRM challenges and concludes with examples of innovations to stimulate programmatic funding opportunities for strengthening human resources for health. Read the full technical brief Human Resources for Health: Tackling the Human Resource...

The Capacity Project HRIS Strengthening Team is pleased to announce the publication of the HRIS Strengthening Implementation Toolkit. The goal of the Toolkit is to provide a package of HRIS strengthening procedures and tools to HRH stakeholders, HR managers and software developers to facilitate applying the HRIS strengthening processes and implementing the iHRIS software developed by the Capacity Project.The Toolkit is organized into five...

Cost is not the win it first appears to be to the newcomer to open source. Thankfully, countries appear to be recognizing this. In one country’s recent public sector eHealth workshop, the attendees recommended to the health system leadership that they ‘encourage, coordinate and support’ more use of open source for several reasons. Affordability was the least of them. The real value that countries are seeing in open source is adaptability.The...

Over the last two years, the Capacity Project has planned and facilitated workshops in several countries to build the capacity and skills of human resources for health (HRH) planners and managers in data analysis and use.From February 4-6 in Kenya, 36 participants took part in “Data-Driven Decision-Making: Using HRH Data to Make Effective Collaborative Decisions.” Representing the public sector, faith-based organizations, training institutions...

One of our goals in distributing open source HR information systems is to put the power of designing and customizing systems into the hands of their stakeholders. Because our software carries an open source license, anyone can modify the software in any way, resulting in a customized solution developed by its own users.When we design our own systems, we make extensive use of use cases to help us plan out what features we need and how they will...

The Capacity Project broadened its strategy for strengthening Tanzania’s human resources information systems (HRIS) to include both central and district-level offices. To develop a complete picture of health workforce data available in the country, the Project conducted meetings in January with key stakeholders from the ministries of health and social welfare in mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, the Prime Minister’s Office for Regional and Local...

DataDyne’s EpiSurveyor is one of the most usable and adaptable mHealth applications. Whether you are tracking health supplies, ART compliance, or disease incidence, EpiSurveyor can be quickly customized and applied to most health data collection efforts. DataDyne's commitment to Open Source technologies and Open Standards are commendable and essential to the sustainability and adaptability for developing world solutions. Open Source applications...

Data quality, or "fitness for use," can be compromised if the data include duplicates, unnecessary variations, misspellings or omissions. Data coding, the process of organizing data in preparation for analysis, is a key step to ensure data quality. When data are categorized in a standard, consistent way, they are more easily aggregated for use in creating reports and making comparisons across facilities, districts and countries.Oftentimes...