Developer to Developer: Creating a Regional Support Network at the Unconference

September 2010 by Carl Leitner
TAGS: Global Partnerships, Health Systems Strengthening, HR Information Systems, Open Source

Read about the first days of the Unconference.

Carl Leitner at the unconference, GhanaClosing the iHRIS track on Tuesday, CapacityPlus staff Dykki Settle asked how many of the participants were excited to come back tomorrow. In reply, the 25 participants—from Sierra Leone, Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Togo, and more—including human resources (HR) managers, information technology staff, and HR directors—universally and sincerely expressed their enthusiasm for the Training Workshop/Unconference for Interoperable Applications for Health Information Systems. As this is a western African regional conference, both French and English speakers were present. Many thanks to Romain Tohouri who provided excellent translation to and from French on technical areas such as HR and software development, as well as health sector terminology.

iHRIS implementations
On Thursday in the iHRIS track, Dr. Ousmane Ly presented the work that the Mali Ministry of Health had accomplished using the software. Dr. Ly learned about the iHRIS software, and together with his team customized it significantly to meet the country’s needs, including adding French translations, a self-service model, and other new functionality.

Following this, Professor Kayode Odusote, director of HR development, West African Health Organization, presented the customizations performed to iHRIS Manage for Togo and iHRIS Qualify for the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.

Regional collaborations formed
Through this training, local developers now have a solid foundation for implementing and customizing iHRIS in their countries. Of equal importance, by linking these developers together, we have created a regional support network so that we can have true South-South collaboration.

Learn more about the Training Workshop/Unconference for Interoperable Applications for Health Information Systems on CapacityPlus's Global HRIS Strengthening Blog.


Photo: Dykki Settle. (Leitner leads a review of the iHRIS data map with HRIS developers and implementers)