News & Updates

How many doctors are working in Rwanda’s rural areas, and where are they working? In February, the Capacity Project’s human resources information systems (HRIS) team made finding an answer to this question much easier for the Ministry of Health by finalizing a pilot version of iHRIS Manage, the Project’s newly developed software that tracks detailed information about health workers. After reviewing the data for accuracy, Project staff...

In February, the Capacity Project’s human resources information systems (HRIS) team met with more than 40 stakeholders in Namibia to assess HRIS needs in the Ministry of Health. The team found an existing paper-based information system that is functional but extremely labor- and time-intensive. For example, in order to report on retirees, staff must pull the relevant records from around 10,000 cards and manually calculate the figures. “They fold...

The Capacity Project has published an article in their Voices series about our HRIS strengthening work in Uganda. Here is an excerpt: In Uganda and other developing countries, the demand for medical professionals is increasing while the supply is decreasing. Only about half of Uganda’s approved public sector positions for nurses are filled, while HIV and AIDS continue to take a toll on health workers as well as the rest of the population. To...

Amy Hagopian, acting on behalf of Capacity Project (Uganda) and supported by HRSA , organized two workshops for young researchers in Uganda (8/4/06 and 9/20/06), and intends to offer a third workshop in January (2007). She worked with Aga Khan nursing instructor Wesley Too as a collaborator. Participants included members of the field teams who collected data for the retention study--primarily junior and senior faculty at Aga Khan, students at...

Drs. McQuide and Mukooyo (Chair, Stakeholder Leadership Group in Uganda) participated in a panel discussion at APHA on “Is it a human right for health workers to migrate from poor countries?” Dr. McQuide discussed elements of a national health worker registry system needed for effective policy making, including the involvement of key stakeholders from inception and the types of health worker policies that can be addressed with information from a...

The Capacity Project co-hosted a conference for leaders in HRH information systems from September 26-29th in Arusha, Tanzania, to continue development of "The Africa Health Workforce Observatory." The participants represented 15 African countries and included human resources directors, researchers/academicians, heads of HMIS/HRIS and professional regulatory bodies. Other key partners who participated include the WHO, World Bank, the ECSA Health...

The Africa Health Workforce Observatory meeting was co-hosted by the Capacity Project, East, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) Health Community, World Bank and World Health Organization . Held September 26-29, 2006, at the ECSA headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, the meeting focused on developing mechanisms to create up-to-date and reliable information that enables evidence-based decision making for HRH. Participants from 14 African countries...

Pam McQuide and Paul Ruwoldt presented Capacity’s HRIS Strengthening methodology and solution to the Namibia Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) August 24th. Representatives from the Office of the Prime Minister, CDC, MSH, I-TECH, and the USAID/Namibia Mission attended the session. Participants expressed a high level of interest in the presentation and agreed the MOHSS needed the type of functionality and integration provided by...

Dr. Pamela McQuide gave a presentation on the Human Resources Information System at the Eastern Central and Southern African Colleges of Nursing (ECSACON) meeting in Kampala, Uganda August 13th-16th. Nurses from all fourteen ECSA countries and neighboring countries such as Rwanda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and S. Sudan attended the conference. The Chief Nursing Scientist, Dr. Jean Yan from WHO Geneva and her counterpart from WHO/AFRO, Margaret Phiri...

A Capacity Project IT team (Matthew McMichaels, Vanessa Spann and Luke Duncan) installed the first field-deployed HRIS server in the Rwanda Ministry of Health. Matthew trained MOH HRIS staff (Gilbert Uwayezu, seconded from the Capacity Project to the MOH) in the use and support of the server. This means that the MOH is not reliant on the Project information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure for hosting and managing their HRIS.