🤖 AI Generated Summaries for each #DAC2025 session + Deep Dive Audio for Day 1

[Gassim (AL-Gassim Sharaf Addin)]

In this dac2025 AI Summaries series we will provide you with:

1. Deep Dive Audio AI Summary for the entire conference day
2. Summary for each session (ordered in the same sequence as in the agenda).

Please note that it’s possible that these AI generated summaries contain errors; therefore, this post has been made as a wiki so that necessary modifications can be made by other community members especially speakers.

Thank you, and enjoy!

AI Generated summaries for #DAC2025 sessions Day 1 (You’re here! )
AI Generated summaries for #DAC2025 sessions Day 2
AI Generated summaries for #DAC2025 sessions Day 3
AI Generated summaries for dac2025 sessions Day 4 (soon)

Day 1 Deep Dive (AI Audio Summary):

_{NOTE: This AI audio is an experimental feature using Gemini, so this audio deep dive (including the voices) are AI-generated and there might be inaccuracies and audio glitches. This audio is not a comprehensive or objective view of a topic, but simply a reflection of the YT videos and other material from the conference. We simply hope that you enjoy the audio overview of the whole day and that it sparks your curiosity!}

Plenary Sessions:

Welcome & Conference Logistics: 🎉

Welcome & Conference Logistics: Opening the DAC2025 Journey

Introduction and Overview:
The DAC2025 conference commenced with a warm welcome from Max Krafft, Communications Director for the HISP Centre at the University of Oslo, and Ola Hodne Titlestad, Deputy Director & DHIS2 Implementation Lead. They introduced the conference’s structure, logistics, and extended a global welcome to all participants.

Conference Agenda & Structure:
The conference spans four days, featuring plenary sessions in the mornings from Tuesday to Thursday and on Friday afternoon. Parallel sessions will take place in the afternoons from Tuesday to Thursday, and on Friday morning. Notably, this year includes longer coffee breaks to foster networking and mingling, encouraging attendees to prioritize session attendance when they resume. A record 267 abstracts were received, leading to 155 speakers presenting across 64 sessions. New “lightning talk” sessions (15-20 minutes) have been introduced to showcase innovative projects. Interactive activities like a quiz and Community of Practice (CoP) events are planned for the mornings. The agenda is available in print, on the conference website (dacc2025.dhis2.org/program-schedule), and via a mobile app for personalized schedules.

Logistical Essentials:

• Venues: Plenary sessions are held in Sophus Lies Auditorium. Parallel sessions and poster displays are in Vilhelm Bjerknes hus (Auditoriums 1, 2, 4, 5). Side sessions are in Niels Henrik Abels hus (rooms 107, 108).
• Dining & Breaks: Lunch is served on the 2nd floor of the Frederikke building. Coffee breaks occur in the Sophus Lies lobby (mornings) and VB lobby (afternoons).
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi is available (network: “conferences”, password: “perigeum”).
• Amenities: Tap water in Norway is safe to drink. A convenience store is located in the cafeteria building.
• Safety: Emergency exits are clearly marked, with a main plaza rally point for fire incidents. Staff in blue badges and a help desk are available for assistance, or contact oslo2025@dhis2.org.
• Online Access: All plenary sessions are livestreamed on the DHIS2 YouTube channel, and all parallel sessions are accessible via Zoom. French interpretation is available through Zoom for selected sessions.

Who’s Here?
Despite a financial crisis, the conference boasts impressive participation numbers. Over 300 in-person participants attended (approximately 320 on the day), with 226 guests from outside the University of Oslo, representing 68 countries and 124 organizations. Additionally, over 1,200 individuals registered for remote participation. 27 governments were officially represented, including Ministries of Health, Education, and Agriculture. A special welcome was extended to Africa CDC. The participant breakdown by organization type includes a significant presence from NGOs (22%), Ministry of Health/Government (18%), and HISP groups (13%).

Social Engagements & Recognition:
A social event is scheduled for each day. This includes a Tuesday afternoon session with snacks and drinks, featuring a video corner for “What does DHIS2 mean to you?” interviews. Wednesday and Thursday will have shorter networking sessions. The conference culminates in a wrap-up party at Sognsvann lake on Friday afternoon. A WhatsApp group is available for informal networking.
The App Competition features three finalists, with voting open on the Community of Practice until Friday noon. Awards will be given out on Friday to recognize engaged participants and the best photo submitted during the conference. Poster presentations, including a special display of 10 posters from the Climate and Health project, will be available for viewing.

Key Themes and Outlook (from Conference Opening):
Kristin Braa’s opening address emphasized the importance of unity, solidarity, and collaboration in navigating a global aid crisis. The core message centered on “going back to basics”: strengthening governmental systems, fostering local ownership, making data for decisions, building capacity, and encouraging local innovation. Sustainability is a recurring theme, with a new contributing partnership model being launched to ensure the platform’s future. The expansion of DHIS2 to new use cases like agriculture and climate health was highlighted. The conference also paid tribute to the late Kala Heberg, a pioneer in the DHIS2 community.

Conference Opening: 🎤 A Call for Unity, Solidarity, and Collaboration

Conference Opening: A Call for Unity, Solidarity, and Collaboration

Welcome and Context: Navigating a Global Crisis
The DAC2025 conference officially opened with an address by Kristin Braa @Kristin_Braa, HISP UiO. She reflected on the 31st year of the HISP network and emphasized the critical global aid crisis, noting a 7% reduction in global aid last year with a prospect of a 30% decrease this year due to global conflicts. This serious context underscored the importance of the conference as a time for unity, solidarity, and collaboration.

Back to Basics: Core Principles for DHIS2’s Future
Kristin Braa highlighted the need to “go back to basics” to navigate these challenging times. This involves several key principles:

• Strengthening governmental systems.
• Fostering local ownership.
• Making data for decisions.
• Building local capacity and encouraging local innovation.
• Sharing innovations, recognizing that solutions from one country can be customized for others’ needs.

DHIS2’s Resilience and Expansion
The speaker noted the network’s resilience, even during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, during which 8 new HISP groups emerged. DHIS2’s adaptability allowed it to support disease surveillance and vaccine delivery, demonstrating the value of digital infrastructure and local competence. The platform continues to expand beyond health, with new use cases in agriculture and climate health being emphasized. The “Climate and Health” initiative, funded by Welcome Trust, has already engaged 10 pilot countries in exploring climate-sensitive diseases and leveraging AI for predictions. A dedicated “Climate Health Day” is scheduled during the conference to delve deeper into these innovations.

Sustainability and New Partnership Models
Sustainability emerged as a key theme for the conference. Discussions will focus on building sustainable local capacity within governments and universities, moving away from less sustainable secondment strategies. A new contributing partnership model is being launched during the conference to foster closer collaboration within the DHIS2 community and ensure the platform’s long-term viability, prioritizing country needs.

Global Reach and Notable Achievements
The conference serves as the largest gathering for DHIS2 experts, users, and stakeholders.

• 68 countries and 27 governments are officially represented, including Ministries of Health, Education, and Agriculture.
• A special welcome was extended to Africa CDC, signifying a new partnership for strengthening DHIS2 across the continent.
• Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) have been established with CaribHealth Agency (CARPHA) to build DHIS2 capacity in the Caribbean, and with PAHO for DHIS2 collaboration in the Americas.
• The Norwegian Red Cross also has an MOU to collaborate on capacity strengthening.
• DHIS2 has seen continued adoption and innovation globally:
  • Cambodia is piloting the transition of its HMIS to DHIS2 nationally.
  • Syria is rebuilding its national health system with a plan for one DHIS2 for the whole country.
  • Madagascar is partnering on developing a one-health system.
  • The Philippines is using DHIS2 for nutrition.
  • Laos marked its first anniversary of using DHIS2 as a national electronic immunization registry.
  • High-income countries, including several European nations and the United States, are exploring DHIS2-based systems, prompting discussions on new business models for their contributions to the global public good.
• The App Competition finalists will be introduced in the “What’s New in DHIS2” session, with voting open on the Community of Practice until Friday noon.
• A special display of 10 posters from the Climate and Health project will be showcased.
• The conference will conclude with an awards ceremony to recognize engaged participants and the best photo submitted.

The session concluded with a moment of remembrance for @Calle_Hedberg, a pioneer in the DHIS2 community, acknowledging his foundational contributions.

Remembering Calle Hedberg

What's New in DHIS2?: ✨ Unveiling v42 and Mobile 3.2 Innovations

What’s New in DHIS2?: Unveiling v42 and Mobile 3.2 Innovations

**Introduction and Core Focus:** 🗣️ The "What's New in DHIS2?" session, opened by **Marta Vila**, Product Team Lead at HISP UiO, focused on new features in **DHIS2 v42 and Android app 3.2**. The presentation highlighted improvements across platform, configuration, data collection, analytics, and extensibility, emphasizing the collaborative effort of developers, implementers, and product managers. A key objective is to integrate web and Android user experiences.

Key Highlights and Enhancements:

• Platform Updates (Markus Bekken):

  • Unified Rule Engine: Provides a consistent experience and configuration across both Android and web, allowing cross-platform code development.
  • Global App Shell: A new shared container for all web applications, ensuring a consistent user interface, navigation menu, and header bar across all DHIS2 apps. This simplifies development and allows for universal features like session expiry.
  • Core Enhancements: Includes upgrades to the Spring Framework for a more secure and faster platform, and complete support for ID schemes in Tracker endpoints for improved external system integration.

• Configuration Updates (David Kennedy):

  • Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) via Email: A highly requested security feature allowing codes to be sent to an email address for 2FA, with an option to enforce unique email addresses for all accounts.
  • New Maintenance App: Expanded with more features and categories, including aggregate data configuration. It’s on continuous release, with new functionalities being added throughout the year.
  • Metadata Merge Feature: Users can now merge duplicate metadata elements directly through the user interface, consolidating references and cleaning up data.
  • Program Indicator Disaggregations: A significant new feature that simplifies combining Tracker data with aggregate data. It allows mapping a single program indicator to a category combination, reducing the need for numerous individual program indicators (e.g., Ghana reduced nearly 600 to 27). This also enables transferring Tracker data into the aggregate model using the Aggregate Data Exchange app.
  • Web App Android Sync Troubleshooting: A new app to help administrators identify and resolve synchronization issues between web and Android, providing detailed error information.

• Collect (Data Entry) Updates (Nancy Espinoza & Karolina Tufte Lien):

  • Fractional Numeric Values: Numeric value types can now be configured as fractions of days, useful for tight deadlines (e.g., 0.5 days).
  • Custom Form Options: Continued improvements for data entry forms, including titles and subtitles, instructional content before and after sections, pivoting tables (full transpose or moving categories to rows), and vertical/horizontal tabs or disabling grouping to maintain data element order. These features are largely available in v42 and Android v3.2.
  • Capture App UX Improvements: Enhanced navigation with a launch page and breadcrumb bar, organization unit contextualization (hover to see hierarchy), and direct organization unit selector in event forms for easier changes.
  • Improved Changelog: Event changelogs now include history of changes to report date, scheduled date, and geometry, with filters by user or data item.
  • Linked Events/Related Stages: A “two event workspace” allows viewing and managing linked events on a single page, with the ability to unlink them.
  • User Assignment for Program Stages: Enables filtering by assigned users in program stage working lists for better task management.

• Analyze (Analytics) Updates (Karolina Tufte Lien):

  • Dashboard Redesign: Updated app design with a streamlined, fixed dashboard bar, an improved left-hand menu for dashboards, and an enhanced grid for better space utilization.
  • Dashboard Slideshow/Full Screen Mode: Allows presentation of dashboards in full screen with navigation options.
  • External Dashboards: Supports displaying external dashboards (e.g., Superset via a BAO Systems connector), allowing DHIS2 to be a central point for various data sources.
  • Option Set Counts in Data Visualizer: Users can now select and count specific options within event data items with option sets, providing direct analysis without creating numerous program indicators.
  • Data Definitions: A new “i” button provides relevant information and definitions for data types within the Data Visualizer, aiding user understanding.
  • Maps Improvements: Aligned with other analytics apps, including the same period component, combination of org unit filters, and support for enrollment location in the event layer. Users can also manage visible Earth Engine layers.

• Extend (Extensibility) Updates (Austin McGee):

  • Dashboard Plugins: Updated mechanisms for building plugins, allowing apps to include plugins.
  • Capture App Extension Points: Added two (soon three) extension points in the Capture app to expand data entry capabilities.
  • Calendar Component: A generically available component supporting multiple non-Gregorian calendars (Ethiopian, Nepali), improving date input experience.
  • Routes API Enhancements: A powerful API for authentication and authorization, now supporting custom headers, query parameters, and OAuth 2 client authentication with backend services. A Route Manager app is available on the App Hub for managing these routes.
  • Data Store Manager App: A new bundled app in v42 for managing the flexible key-value store available to DHIS2 applications, supporting both global and user-specific data stores with sharing capabilities.
  • FHIR IG Generator App: An app available on the App Hub that exports DHIS2 Tracker metadata to create FHIR Implementation Guides, facilitating interoperability.
  • App Hub Features: Now includes change logs for application versions, making it easier to see what has changed between updates.
  • New Apps Menu and Global Appshell: A revamped apps menu within the global appshell for consistent navigation, full keyboard compatibility, and the ability for apps to expose shortcuts.

• Climate Health Services (Kristen Braa):

  • New Area: Climate Health is a new focus area, leveraging existing DHIS2 data and combining it with climate, environmental, and weather data using AI and machine learning for prediction and assessment.
  • Climate App: Has over 4,000 installations, capable of fetching and harmonizing climate data into DHIS2 from organizational units, providing analytical tools for data triangulation.
  • CHAP (Climate Health Analytics Platform) Modeling Platform: An open-source, customizable, and agnostic predictive modeling platform developed for climate health, but usable independently. It’s designed to assess models and share them collaboratively, with researchers exploring its use for demand forecasting. Pilot countries are actively using it for climate-sensitive disease monitoring and prediction (e.g., Dengue outbreaks in Nepal).
  • Modeling App: The visualization output for the CHAP platform, allowing users to assess different models side-by-side and train models with historical data for prediction.

• App Competition (Austin McGee):

  • Three finalists were selected from over 20 impressive submissions for the annual app competition.
  • The finalists include the ArcGIS connector app by Ezri, the AI Insights app by FRC, and Flexi Portal by HISP Tanzania.
  • Voting is open on the Community of Practice until Friday noon, with winners to be announced at the closing session.

Parallel Sessions:

Metadata Integrity: 🛡️ Fortifying the Foundation of DHIS2

Metadata Integrity: Fortifying the Foundation of DHIS2

**Introduction and Core Focus:** 🗣️ The "Metadata integrity" session, presented by **Jason Pickering** and **Olav Poppe** from the HISP Centre at the University of Oslo, alongside **Barnabas Akumba** from HISP Nigeria, focused on the critical importance of metadata integrity in DHIS2. The session outlined why implementations should be concerned about metadata integrity, discussed its root causes, and presented approaches for monitoring and solving related issues. Metadata is described as the "foundation of everything" inside DHIS2, impacting data entry, analysis, integrations, and system maintenance.

Key Highlights and Enhancements:

• Why Metadata Integrity and Quality Matter:

  • System Functioning and Failures: Poor metadata can lead to system errors, such as analytics jobs failing, incorrect calculations, program rules not triggering correctly, or performance degradation. Examples include multiple default category options causing “weird issues” or GIS setup problems hindering upgrades.
  • Negative Impact on Use and Management: It can make it difficult for users to find relevant information due to duplication or poor naming conventions. Outputs might be wrong or misleading, and the ability to analyze data can be limited if groups or dimensions are not managed properly. Interoperability also becomes more complicated when metadata mapping is required between systems.

• Metadata Integrity as a Growing Problem:

  • DHIS2 is easy to customize and modify, often leading to more metadata being added than removed over time.
  • Implementations are increasing in size, but often with limited long-term change management strategies.
  • Users leaving “stale” metadata (visualizations, dashboards) and development work being done directly in production environments contribute to degradation.
  • A lack of clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and little use of metadata integrity checks (which were often non-functional prior to v41) exacerbate the issue, leading to configuration quality degrading over time.

• Approaches to Metadata Integrity and Quality: The framework categorizes approaches into four areas:

  • Identifying: New metadata integrity API (v40-41), new metadata integrity app (v41), manual review, and custom tools.
  • Fixing: New metadata merge functionality in v42, manual interventions, and custom tools.
  • Preventing: SOPs for metadata change management, naming conventions, and improved metadata API validation and feedback.
  • Monitoring: Tools for monitoring metadata integrity and custom integrity checks in the new API.

• New Metadata Integrity API and UI:

  • Rewrite: Integrity checks have been completely rewritten from the ground up in DHIS2 v40+.
  • Performance: Previous Java-based checks (prior to v39) were often non-performant, memory intensive, and could destabilize production environments. The new checks are SQL-based and run directly on the database, offering better performance and stability.
  • Extensibility: Checks are written with YAML-based configuration files and are extensible via custom checks. This allows administrators to write their own checks for specific requirements, such as ensuring valid email addresses or correct naming conventions.
  • API Functionality: Checks consist of a summary and details. They can be triggered in bulk or individually, and results are cached for an hour.
  • User Interface (UI): A new UI is available in DHIS2 versions >41 (may require an app update). For versions 39-40, an app is available on the DHIS2 App Hub. The UI displays the number of flagged objects, assigns an importance level (severity), and provides recommendations and explanations.

• Solving Metadata Integrity Issues:

  • Solutions range from lowest risk (DHIS2 native user interface) to highest risk (direct SQL queries on the database).
  • Other methods include community apps (e.g., User Extended app), ad-hoc API queries (e.g., Postman), export/edit/upload methods, bespoke tools/apps, and custom API scripts (e.g., Python, R, Node.js).
  • The implementation team has developed bespoke tools (e.g., “prune stale or empty dashboards,” “whitespace remover,” “program rule validator”) to simplify tasks for administrators. These are available on GitHub but should be used with caution and tested in development environments.

• Nigeria’s Metadata Cleaning Exercise:

  • HISP Nigeria, in collaboration with HISP UiO and HISP WCA, conducted a metadata assessment on Nigeria’s national HMIS database, which houses over 40,000 health facilities and 13+ years of data.
  • The metadata integrity app and custom checks were used to identify issues, categorized by effort level required to fix.
  • Issues Identified: Most high-effort issues were related to organization units, reflecting how they are managed in the country.
  • Resolutions: Various approaches were used, including the native DHIS2 UI, export/edit/upload, ad-hoc API queries (Postman), and apps like the “pruning empty dashboards” tool and the User Extended app. Issues like duplicate organization units were resolved using the merge API.
  • Next Steps: Focus on prevention through developing SOPs for metadata management, updating the Health Facility Registry (HFR/MFL), and using custom data integrity checks to monitor metadata over time.

Lightning talks - Training, supervision and health facility strengthening: ⚡ Empowering Capacity & Data Systems

Lightning talks - Training, supervision and health facility strengthening: Empowering Capacity & Data Systems

**Introduction and Core Focus:** 🗣️ The "Lightning talks - Training, supervision and health facility strengthening" session, moderated by Alex Alinaitwe, showcased innovative uses of DHIS2 to enhance data management, capacity building, and oversight within health and education systems. The session primarily focused on addressing challenges posed by fragmented data sources and manual processes through the implementation of digital solutions leveraging DHIS2.

Key Highlights and Enhancements:

The session featured three distinct lightning talks, each highlighting a unique approach to system strengthening:

• Tracking Healthcare Worker Training with LifeNet International (Alex Alinaitwe):

  • Problem: LifeNet International, a non-profit operating in six African countries (Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Burundi, DRC, Ghana), faced fragmented data from multiple sources like Moodle (e-learning), IAZO (ODK-based surveys), national DHIS2 systems, Kobo Collect, and Excel, limiting real-time insights for program efficiency and accountability.
  • Solution: They leveraged OpenHexa, an open-source integration tool, to extract data (user information, courses, grades, enrollments, certificates) from Moodle and IAZO, and import it into a centralized DHIS2 data warehouse. DHIS2 serves as the primary platform for analysis, reporting, and visualization of this training data.
  • Impact: By December 2024, the system had registered 3,550 healthcare workers, with 2,652 enrolled in at least one lesson and 1,324 completing at least one lesson. Notable improvements were observed in medical and management skills, such as 95% in newborn care and 69% in administrative management. These improvements are measured using health facility scorecards that assess changes in knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP). The innovation demonstrates that integrating e-learning platforms with DHIS2 significantly improves the tracking of capacity building programs in low-resource settings.

• Strengthening Health Facility Sync via DHIS2-MFR in Ethiopia (Habib Bushira, JSI Partnership Project):

  • Problem: Ethiopia experienced critical inefficiencies in synchronizing health facility data between its Master Facility Registry (MFR) and the DHIS2 system, leading to data inconsistencies, delays, and increased administrative workload due to traditional manual processes. The MFR contained over 49,000 facilities while DHIS2 had over 42,000, with differences in naming and IDs.
  • Solution: An automated interoperability solution was developed, utilizing OpenHIM as a mediator and a custom-built DHIS2 Connector App.
    • OpenHIM, customized for Ethiopia, facilitates secure, scalable, and standard-compliant communication (authentication, validation, routing, logging).
    • A fuzzy logic approach was used to map facilities, achieving 90% alignment and requiring manual mapping for approximately 11,000 facilities.
    • The DHIS2 Connector App, developed natively within DHIS2, manages facility data synchronization, detects changes, validates MFR IDs, and performs corresponding actions, including assigning datasets and users to new organization units.
  • Implementation & Achievements: The project involved a phased deployment, beginning with a bulk migration of MFR data to DHIS2, followed by daily synchronization. It took approximately 6-7 months for development. Key achievements include automated facility synchronization, improved data governance, enhanced capacity building, and stronger system ownership within the Ministry of Health. The approach highlights the transformative potential of digital health innovations in resource-constrained settings.

• School Observation Tool in Togo (Jerry Azawa, HISP West and Central Africa):

  • Problem: Prior to 2021, pedagogical monitoring of teachers was paper-based, hindering real-time analysis and trend identification. This led to difficulties in efficiently planning school visits and providing targeted support.
  • Solution: A digital school observation tool was implemented using DHIS2, leveraging its open-source nature, flexibility, and existing use in Togo for other education data (annual sensors, human resources, exam data).
  • Functionality:
    • Decentralized Level: Allows for efficient planning of school visits, offline and online data capture of observations, and real-time analytics for local monitoring by school inspectors. It enables comprehensive coverage of teacher monitoring.
    • Central Level: Provides aggregate data for national analysis, helps identify regions needing support, and informs the planning of teacher training and mentoring.
  • Implementation & Support: The tool was rolled out nationwide, with 82 inspections using DHIS2 Android for real-time school observation. A WhatsApp-based support group was established to foster collaboration and rapid issue resolution among school inspectors.
  • Key Takeaways: This model offers a scalable solution for other countries, unifying fragmented education data systems. It promotes enhanced monitoring, data-driven decision-making, transparency, and accountability through custom dashboards. The offline capability with real-time analytics ensures data accessibility even in remote areas.

LMIS: Leveraging DHIS2 for Logistics: 🚚 Streamlining Supply Chains with DHIS2

LMIS: Leveraging DHIS2 for Logistics: Streamlining Supply Chains with DHIS2

**Introduction and Core Focus:** 🗣️ The "LMIS: Leveraging DHIS2 for Logistics" session, primarily presented by **Brenno Horsth** and **George McGuire** from the HISP Centre at the University of Oslo, aimed to showcase how DHIS2 can be effectively leveraged for logistics and supply chain management. The core focus was on **improving the use and collection of data for logistics**, with an emphasis on using the DHIS2 platform to **reduce overlap with existing tools** and contribute to the overall health information system landscape, rather than creating entirely new, redundant features. The session also included presentations from implementers in Comoros, Open Function, JSI, and Malawi, highlighting various real-world applications.

Key Highlights and Enhancements:

• DHIS2 for Logistics Update (HISP Centre UiO):

  • mSupply/DHIS2 Collaboration: A letter of intent for close collaboration has been signed, focusing on joint country proposals and improving integration features, such as synchronizing product catalogues. Implementations retain the flexibility to choose their preferred solution. The integrated mSupply/DHIS2 project in Comoros is being finalized.
  • LMIS Academy Kigali: A planned academy in October 2025 in Kigali, Rwanda, is intended for technicians, implementers, and program managers. It will cover DHIS2 Real-Time Stock Management, mSupply configuration, and opportunities for system integration.
  • Equipment Monitoring System (EMS): DHIS2 is being explored as a feasible option for hosting, sharing, and analyzing EMS data. This system became mandatory for new equipment in January 2024 and will be for all equipment by January 2026. Solutions are being explored to integrate data from EMS-compliant devices using tools like the Varo app and OpenFn.
  • Predictive Modeling - Demand Forecasting: The Climate Health Analytics Platform (CHAP), an open-source predictive modeling platform using machine learning and AI, is being explored by researchers from Cardiff University for improving demand forecasting to enhance stock availability at health facilities.

• Implementing DHIS2 & mSupply in Comoros (Amine Chamsi, Ministry of Health):

  • The project aims to implement a real-time eLMIS system to manage the flow of healthcare products by improving end-to-end management and visibility.
  • The solution involves mSupply at central and regional medical stores and hospitals, with DHIS2 at health centers and health posts, and dashboards providing visibility across all levels.
  • The implementation followed a phased roadmap, including analysis, configuration, piloting (Oct-Dec 2024), and deployment (Jan 2025 onwards).
  • Key results include daily reports, visibility of stockouts, automatic reporting by DHIS2, and offline Capture Analytics, providing comprehensive end-to-end visibility via dashboards. As of June 2025, mSupply was deployed in 12 sites, and DHIS2-LMIS in 81 sites.
  • Challenges encountered included procurement delays, discovery of multiple price lists, and technical issues with program indicators. Future plans involve strengthening capacity, integrating program products into a single national supply chain, and extending DHIS2-RTS to more facilities.

• Cold Chain Data + DHIS2 (Aleksa Krolls & Benson Miller, Open Function / New Horizons):

  • This presentation highlighted the automated integration of cold chain equipment (CCE) monitoring data to improve vaccine logistics.
  • OpenFn, an open-source data integration platform, is leveraged to create a Cold Chain Data Interoperability Layer (CCDX).
  • The workflow involves collecting raw temperature data from CCE devices (e.g., via the Varro app and email), which OpenFn then fetches, converts to EMS standards, and loads daily indicators (min, max, average temperatures, alarms) into DHIS2 Tracker for CCE monitoring. This automated data exchange helps to identify issues and trigger maintenance workflows.

• Deep Dive into Understanding Vaccine Wastage Rates and Resupply Decisions (Laila Akhlaghi & Wendy Prosser, JSI):

  • A study in Mozambique analyzed existing data from LMIS, DHIS2, and stock cards to understand vaccine wastage, which is rarely recorded and often misunderstood.
  • The research found that existing data in DHIS2 and LMIS can provide greater insight into immunization programs, despite initial data quality issues.
  • Opportunities identified include piloting alternative methods for calculating resupply decisions (e.g., consumption-based forecasts, site-specific wastage rates) and using DHIS2 for continuous monitoring of wastage, reducing the need for costly ad-hoc surveys.

• Integration of Temperature Data (Rajab Billy, Malawi Ministry of Health):

  • Malawi has implemented a DHIS2-CCE MIS (Cold Chain Equipment Management System), a Tracker application for CCE management and monitoring.
  • The system integrates temperature readings daily from ColdTrace, a remote temperature monitoring solution, into DHIS2 via API.
  • Key metrics sent to DHIS2 include minimum/maximum/average temperature, hot/cold alarms, and uptime. This data helps to detect underperforming equipment, optimize vaccine delivery, and prioritize maintenance.

EMIS: Leveraging DHIS2 for Education: 📚 Digital Transformation & Data-Driven Policies

EMIS: Leveraging DHIS2 for Education: Digital Transformation & Data-Driven Policies

Introduction and Core Focus:
The “EMIS: Leveraging DHIS2 for Education” session, featuring speakers like Aluka Teras from HISP Nigeria, Am Gangnam from UNESCO IIEP, and implementers from Sri Lanka and Togo, focused on the transformative potential of DHIS2 in strengthening Education Management Information Systems (EMIS). The central aim was to overhaul how educational data is collected, managed, and utilized, moving from fragmented, manual processes to unified, digital platforms to empower stakeholders with real-time, accurate data for evidence-based planning and decision-making.

Key Highlights and Enhancements:

The session showcased diverse applications and strategic approaches:

• Nigeria’s Digital DHIS2-EMIS Project in 12 States (HISP Nigeria):

  • Problem: Nigeria’s education sector faced fragmented data from multiple systems (including Excel), inconsistent reporting, and a lack of proper coordination, hindering effective data management and decision-making. Previous efforts with other applications had failed, and issues with governance and accountability existed.
  • Solution: A web and mobile-enabled DHIS2 EMIS platform was implemented, designed to harmonize data from annual school censuses, non-formal, and Quranic education.
  • Implementation & Achievements: The project began 7 months prior to the conference. It involved a cascade training model, with a national core team training state and local education officers. Over 55,000 schools have been enrolled into DHIS2 across 12 northern states, with ongoing school-level training. Over 55 education sector staff were trained as core system administrators, and 321 state and local government area (LGA) level officers were trained for cascade trainings. The system provides customizable dashboards and user-friendly analytics tools, leading to quick data availability and improved reporting.
  • Future Plans: Discussions are underway to scale up the system across all 36+FCT states (37 states) and 774 local governments, aiming for a nationwide student registry.

• UNESCO IIEP’s EMIS Progress Assessment Tool:

  • Focus: Emphasized that EMIS must connect technology and data with policies, norms, and standards, and interoperability needs to extend beyond the education sector to areas like health, climate, and geospatial data. Highlighted the increasing importance of addressing confidentiality, privacy, and data ethics as data granularity increases.
  • Solution: Introduced the EMIS Progress Assessment Tool (PAT), a multi-layered diagnostic tool. The PAT assesses EMIS across four dimensions: Governance, Management, Technical Architecture, and Data and Information Products, each with five progress levels (Initial, Emergent, Established, Optimized, Transformative). It includes over 140 questions for a comprehensive evaluation.
  • Impact: The tool aims to identify strategic improvement areas and generate actionable recommendations, leading to tailored roadmaps for transformation. The methodology, benchmarking, and reports (Factsheet and Analytical Report) are designed to be publicly available through a global EMIS observatory within UNESCO.

• School Meal Program in Sri Lanka (Ministry of Education & Ministry of Health):

  • Problem: A government initiative to provide free school meals required a robust system to monitor its implementation, financial progress, and impact. Crucially, it needed interoperability with existing health and education information systems to track nutritional status, attendance, and exam performance.
  • Solution: DHIS2 was chosen for its rapid implementation and scalability, leveraging the Ministry of Health’s extensive DHIS2 expertise. The project adopted a three-phase approach: Phase 1 (aggregate data for program and financial management), Phase 2 (health data for impact monitoring, supervision, surveys), and Phase 3 (individual student and supplier data, voucher management).
  • Implementation & Achievements: Phase 1 involved developing aggregate datasets, custom tri-language forms (Sinhala, Tamil, English) with JavaScript for skip logic validation. A cascade training method was used, training national, provincial, zonal, and divisional focal points. The system now covers 8,796 schools (97.1% of total) and 1.5 million students (37% of total student population), monitoring the SDG4 goal 4.a.4. It fostered collaboration between the Ministry of Health and Education.
  • Challenges: Key challenges included HR turnover (trained staff leaving or transferring), ICT infrastructure limitations (connectivity, device availability, leading teachers to use personal mobile data for data entry), and complexities in achieving interoperability with other existing systems like the Department of Examination.

• School Observation Tool in Togo (HISP West and Central Africa):

  • Problem: Before 2021, pedagogical monitoring of teachers was paper-based, which hindered real-time analysis, trend identification, and effective decision-making. A scalable, digital solution was needed.
  • Why DHIS2: It’s an open-source, flexible, configurable, and scalable platform already used in Togo for annual census, human resources, and exam data, allowing for enhanced data integration and system interoperability.
  • Functionality & Impact: The tool uses the DHIS2 Android app for offline and online data capture by school inspectors. It provides real-time analytics on mobile for local monitoring and aggregate data at the central level to identify problem regions and plan teacher training. The nationwide rollout saw 82 inspections using the app, with WhatsApp-based support fostering rapid issue resolution. It has improved classroom teaching by linking teacher performance to observation data, supported data-driven decision-making, and promoted transparency. The model is seen as scalable for other countries and unifies fragmented education data systems by bringing departments together to harmonize data (e.g., master school lists).
  • Challenges: Initial resistance to the digital transition, varying levels of digital literacy among users, and limited infrastructure (e.g., non-working government-provided tablets, leading to personal device usage).

• Enhancing Education Data in West Nile, Uganda (Aga Khan Foundation Uganda):

  • Problem: Education systems in West Nile (Arua and Yumbe Districts) faced fragmented data collection, inconsistent reporting, and limited analytical capabilities, impacting decision-making and resource allocation. Many partners used different tools (like Kobo Collect), leading to a “mocktail cocktail” of problems and quality issues.
  • Solution: DHIS2 was adapted to provide a comprehensive education data management system, aiming to integrate various data sources and improve reporting.
  • Implementation & Achievements: The platform was introduced to senior management and local governments, gaining buy-in. Over 200 schools (90% coverage) were introduced to the system, leveraging existing tablets previously distributed (transitioning from Kobo Collect). Key early successes included quick availability of data at the institutional level and improved reporting, including real-time insights for board presentations. The system has also helped identify children with special needs and improve resource allocation.
  • Challenges: The project faces challenges with limited resources for expanding DHIS2 to other sectors like agriculture and early childhood education.Here’s a summary of the “EMIS: Leveraging DHIS2 for Education” session, using the requested format:

EMIS: Leveraging DHIS2 for Education: Digital Transformation & Data-Driven Policies

Introduction and Core Focus:
The “EMIS: Leveraging DHIS2 for Education” session, featuring speakers like Aluka Teras from HISP Nigeria, Am Gangnam from UNESCO IIEP, and implementers from Sri Lanka and Togo, focused on the transformative potential of DHIS2 in strengthening Education Management Information Systems (EMIS). The central aim was to overhaul how educational data is collected, managed, and utilized, moving from fragmented, manual processes to unified, digital platforms to empower stakeholders with real-time, accurate data for evidence-based planning and decision-making.

Key Highlights and Enhancements:

The session showcased diverse applications and strategic approaches:

• Nigeria’s Digital DHIS2-EMIS Project in 12 States (HISP Nigeria):

  • Problem: Nigeria’s education sector faced fragmented data from multiple systems (including Excel), inconsistent reporting, and a lack of proper coordination, hindering effective data management and decision-making. Previous efforts with other applications had failed, and issues with governance and accountability existed.
  • Solution: A web and mobile-enabled DHIS2 EMIS platform was implemented, designed to harmonize data from annual school censuses, non-formal, and Quranic education.
  • Implementation & Achievements: The project began 7 months prior to the conference. It involved a cascade training model, with a national core team training state and local education officers. Over 55,000 schools have been enrolled into DHIS2 across 12 northern states, with ongoing school-level training. Over 55 education sector staff were trained as core system administrators, and 321 state and local government area (LGA) level officers were trained for cascade trainings. The system provides customizable dashboards and user-friendly analytics tools, leading to quick data availability and improved reporting.
  • Future Plans: Discussions are underway to scale up the system across all 36+FCT states (37 states) and 774 local governments, aiming for a nationwide student registry.

• UNESCO IIEP’s EMIS Progress Assessment Tool:

  • Focus: Emphasized that EMIS must connect technology and data with policies, norms, and standards, and interoperability needs to extend beyond the education sector to areas like health, climate, and geospatial data. Highlighted the increasing importance of addressing confidentiality, privacy, and data ethics as data granularity increases.
  • Solution: Introduced the EMIS Progress Assessment Tool (PAT), a multi-layered diagnostic tool. The PAT assesses EMIS across four dimensions: Governance, Management, Technical Architecture, and Data and Information Products, each with five progress levels (Initial, Emergent, Established, Optimized, Transformative). It includes over 140 questions for a comprehensive evaluation.
  • Impact: The tool aims to identify strategic improvement areas and generate actionable recommendations, leading to tailored roadmaps for transformation. The methodology, benchmarking, and reports (Factsheet and Analytical Report) are designed to be publicly available through a global EMIS observatory within UNESCO.

• School Meal Program in Sri Lanka (Ministry of Education & Ministry of Health):

  • Problem: A government initiative to provide free school meals required a robust system to monitor its implementation, financial progress, and impact. Crucially, it needed interoperability with existing health and education information systems to track nutritional status, attendance, and exam performance.
  • Solution: DHIS2 was chosen for its rapid implementation and scalability, leveraging the Ministry of Health’s extensive DHIS2 expertise. The project adopted a three-phase approach: Phase 1 (aggregate data for program and financial management), Phase 2 (health data for impact monitoring, supervision, surveys), and Phase 3 (individual student and supplier data, voucher management).
  • Implementation & Achievements: Phase 1 involved developing aggregate datasets, custom tri-language forms (Sinhala, Tamil, English) with JavaScript for skip logic validation. A cascade training method was used, training national, provincial, zonal, and divisional focal points. The system now covers 8,796 schools (97.1% of total) and 1.5 million students (37% of total student population), monitoring the SDG4 goal 4.a.4. It fostered collaboration between the Ministry of Health and Education.
  • Challenges: Key challenges included HR turnover (trained staff leaving or transferring), ICT infrastructure limitations (connectivity, device availability, leading teachers to use personal mobile data for data entry), and complexities in achieving interoperability with other existing systems like the Department of Examination.

• School Observation Tool in Togo (HISP West and Central Africa):

  • Problem: Before 2021, pedagogical monitoring of teachers was paper-based, which hindered real-time analysis, trend identification, and effective decision-making. A scalable, digital solution was needed.
  • Why DHIS2: It’s an open-source, flexible, configurable, and scalable platform already used in Togo for annual census, human resources, and exam data, allowing for enhanced data integration and system interoperability.
  • Functionality & Impact: The tool uses the DHIS2 Android app for offline and online data capture by school inspectors. It provides real-time analytics on mobile for local monitoring and aggregate data at the central level to identify problem regions and plan teacher training. The nationwide rollout saw 82 inspections using the app, with WhatsApp-based support fostering rapid issue resolution. It has improved classroom teaching by linking teacher performance to observation data, supported data-driven decision-making, and promoted transparency. The model is seen as scalable for other countries and unifies fragmented education data systems by bringing departments together to harmonize data (e.g., master school lists).
  • Challenges: Initial resistance to the digital transition, varying levels of digital literacy among users, and limited infrastructure (e.g., non-working government-provided tablets, leading to personal device usage).

• Enhancing Education Data in West Nile, Uganda (Aga Khan Foundation Uganda):

  • Problem: Education systems in West Nile (Arua and Yumbe Districts) faced fragmented data collection, inconsistent reporting, and limited analytical capabilities, impacting decision-making and resource allocation. Many partners used different tools (like Kobo Collect), leading to a “mocktail cocktail” of problems and quality issues.
  • Solution: DHIS2 was adapted to provide a comprehensive education data management system, aiming to integrate various data sources and improve reporting.
  • Implementation & Achievements: The platform was introduced to senior management and local governments, gaining buy-in. Over 200 schools (90% coverage) were introduced to the system, leveraging existing tablets previously distributed (transitioning from Kobo Collect). Key early successes included quick availability of data at the institutional level and improved reporting, including real-time insights for board presentations. The system has also helped identify children with special needs and improve resource allocation.
  • Challenges: The project faces challenges with limited resources for expanding DHIS2 to other sectors like agriculture and early childhood education.

DHIS2-FHIR Updates

The “DHIS2-FHIR Updates” session at the DAC 2025 conference was held in Auditorium 4 on Tuesday, June 10, from 15:00 to 16:00. The session aimed to provide updates on recent work and the roadmap for DHIS2-FHIR integration. The presenters included Jose, the FHIR expert, and Johan, who detailed the updates.

Key Concepts and Tools Discussed:

• What is FHIR?

  • FHIR stands for Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources.
  • It is a free and open healthcare data API designed to facilitate data sharing between different systems.
  • FHIR builds on earlier HL7 standards and uses modern web standards like JSON, XML, and HTTP restful API, making it easy for new developers to use.
  • FHIR resources are designed to cover 80% of use cases, with the remaining 20% handled by profiling (constraining or expanding resources) to fit local contexts, such as making specific fields mandatory.
  • The focus on FHIR is driven by its ability to standardize interoperability, align with WHO guidelines, support EU collaboration with the Xt-EHR consortium, offer extensive tooling support, and aid in metadata governance.

• Logical Models:

  • These are a FHIR way of representing abstract data structures.
  • They are used to model the DHIS2 tracker model, including data elements, attributes, cardinality, data types (mapping from DHIS2 data types to FHIR data types), data constraints, and option set bindings.
  • Logical models do not assume a specific FHIR resource mapping and describe data requirements from a functional perspective.

• Implementation Guides (IGs):

  • IGs act as a “rule book” on how to use FHIR for a particular use case.
  • They contain rules, documentation, and examples of proper use of FHIR resources and profiles, including which profiles comply with national standards and what terminologies should be used (e.g., SNOMED CT, ICD 10/11).
  • IGs are both machine-readable and human-readable and are part of the SMART Guidelines approach (Layer 3: Machine-readable recommendations).

• FHIR IG Generator App:

  • This app aims to automate the generation of FHIR artifacts, making it easy for users to produce a list of fire artifacts with a simple button press.
  • It is also useful for exposing DHIS2 tracker metadata in a FHIR-friendly way.
  • The app allows users to select DHIS2 tracker programs to express in their implementation guide.
  • For example, a DHIS2 program can be mapped to a logical model, and program stages to questionnaire resources.
  • It can generate logical models and resources like questionnaires (representing program stage forms) and code systems based on DHIS2 option sets.

• App Testing with HISP Groups and Feedback:

  • The IG generator app was tested with HISP groups on larger DHIS2 systems with historic data.
  • Most metadata was found to be clean, with few to no validation errors.
  • Common metadata issues identified during testing across different HISP IGs included:
    • Whitespace in option set options (needs normalization/trimming).
    • Typos.
    • Non-alphanumeric characters in data element names.
    • Lack of description fields for certain metadata elements.
  • Feedback indicated that the app works well for generating a lightweight representation of DHIS2 tracker metadata.
  • However, improvements are needed: it’s currently troublesome to download the entire IG bundle to run validation and view the Quality Assurance report.
  • Ideally, validation should be included directly in the app, and configurable mapping should be allowed.
  • There is a risk of stopping at the logical model level without a clear mapping strategy, as IGs define structure and documentation but do not provide transformation logic to actual FHIR resources.

• FHIR Tooling:

  • The session highlighted several tools that can assist with FHIR-to-FHIR mapping:
    • TermX: An open-source platform for terminology management, FHIR-based model design, and data transformation. It provides a visual way to map logical models to FHIR resources and can be used for development and terminology hosting.
    • Firely Facade: Can implement a FHIR Server as a FHIR Facade, speaking FHIR on the front-end and communicating with native data on the back-end.
    • Simplifier.net: A web-based platform for creating, validating, and publishing FHIR specifications.
    • FUME FHIR converter: A no-code FHIR conversion engine that allows data analysts to define expressive data transformations without programming skills.

Roadmap and Key Takeaways:

• Immediate Roadmap:
  • Compiling feedback from HISPs.
  • Improving Logical Model generation and including more metadata (like IDs).
  • Including metadata validation within the app.
• Strategic Priority:
  • Integration of data from external individual-level systems using FHIR.
• What is NOT on the Roadmap: Creating a separate DHIS2 FHIR export wizard. The focus is on creating good logical models that can be mapped to and from DHIS2, which can then be used with FHIR tooling for further mapping.
• Key Takeaways:
  • IGs and logical models provide a strong foundation, enabling the use of external FHIR-to-FHIR mapping tools.
  • Mappings are use-case specific, making generalization and automation of transformations to FHIR resources challenging.
  • It is crucial to have FHIR metadata validation support to ensure source metadata complies with the FHIR spec early on.
  • The DHIS2 approach allows for documenting discrepancies in metadata across different programs, enabling governance to resolve semantic issues.

The session concluded by encouraging attendees to provide feedback and highlighted that more discussions on metadata integrity and related tools would occur in expert lounges later in the conference.

Lightning talks: Innovative uses of DHIS2 in education settings

The session “Lightning talks: Innovative uses of DHIS2 in education settings” at the DAC 2025 conference was held in Auditorium 2 on Tuesday, June 10, from 15:00 to 16:00. This was the second education session of the day, following an earlier session on leveraging DHIS2 for education. The session featured presentations on various innovative uses of DHIS2 to address challenges in education systems globally.

The overarching theme of the session was addressing the global education crisis, which includes over 600 million school-aged children unable to read and write, and over 250 million children globally out of school. Initiatives discussed aimed to enroll and retain marginalized children, with a focus on individual tracking and cross-sectoral collaboration. Presenters emphasized the crucial role of data availability for decision-making and the need for user-friendly and sustainable digital solutions. The potential of digital transformation, e-learning platforms, and AI to improve education systems was also explored.

Here’s a summary of the key use cases and innovations presented:

• Nigeria’s Digital DHIS2-EMIS Project (Presented by Aluka Teras, HISP Nigeria):

  • Problem: Nigeria’s education sector struggled with fragmented data collection, inconsistent reporting, and limited analytical capabilities.
  • Solution: A unified, web and mobile-enabled DHIS2 Education Management Information System (EMIS) platform was developed to harmonize data from annual school censuses, non-formal, and Quranic education. It supports both online and offline data collection with strong data validation.
  • Implementation: A cascade training model was used, starting with a national core team and extending to state, local government (LGA), and school levels.
  • Results: Over 55,000 schools have been enrolled into DHIS2 across 12 northern states, with ongoing school-level training. Customizable dashboards and user-friendly analytics tools are now in use.
  • Future: Plans are in discussion to scale up the system nationwide across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), aiming for a student registry.

• UNESCO IIEP’s EMIS Progress Assessment Tool (Presented by AM Gangnam, UNESCO IIEP):

  • Concept: Defined EMIS as a coordinated network of elements (individuals, organizations, technologies, processes) working to produce quality data for education system planning and management. The presentation highlighted the evolution of education information systems towards interoperability and data modeling for predictions.
  • Tool (PAT): The EMIS Progress Assessment Tool (PAT) was introduced, designed to assess EMIS systems across four dimensions: EMIS Governance, EMIS Management, EMIS Technical Architecture, and EMIS Data and Information Products.
  • Assessment: The PAT uses a matrix questionnaire with over 140 items to evaluate systems and identify strengths and weaknesses. It assigns progress levels (Initial, Emergent, Established, Optimized, Transformative) to each dimension.
  • Outcome: The tool aims to identify strategic improvement areas, provide actionable recommendations, and create a roadmap for transformation, supported by detailed analytical reports and evidence.

• Sri Lanka’s School Meal Program (Presented by Ms. Dakshina and Dr. Promeill, Ministry of Health Sri Lanka):

  • Context: A government initiative to provide free school meals to address nutritional problems among students.
  • Need: Required a rapid, scalable system to monitor program implementation, financial progress, and to be interoperable with existing health and education information systems.
  • Solution: DHIS2 was chosen and implemented with technical expertise from the Ministry of Health. The project was driven by the presidential secretary and coordinated with various national departments and UN agencies.
  • Phases: Phase 1 involved a rapid deployment of an aggregate data system with custom tri-language (Sinhala, Tamil, English) forms using JavaScript for skip logic, dashboards, and analytics for program management and financial monitoring. Phases 2 and 3 are planned for impact monitoring (using health data) and individual-level data tracking, respectively.
  • Challenges: HR turnover affected trained personnel availability, and ICT infrastructure (connectivity, devices) posed difficulties.

• Togo’s School Observation Tool (Presented by Jerry Azawa, HISP West and Central Africa):

  • Background: Before 2021, school observation data for pedagogical monitoring was paper-based, hindering analysis and decision-making.
  • Why DHIS2: Selected for its open-source nature, flexibility, scalability, and existing use in Togo for annual census, human resources, and exam data.
  • Implementation: Achieved nationwide rollout with 82 inspections using DHIS2 Android for real-time school observation. Offline functionality was crucial for remote areas. Dashboards are available on both mobile and web for real-time insights. WhatsApp-based support was used for collaboration and rapid issue resolution.
  • Outcomes: Improved classroom teaching by linking teacher performance data with human resource records. Facilitated data-driven decision-making for staff allocation and teacher training.
  • Key Takeaways: Emphasized enhanced monitoring, promoting transparency via custom dashboards, providing a scalable model, unifying fragmented data systems, and leveraging offline capabilities.
  • Challenges: Initial resistance to change from paper, varying digital literacy among users, and limited infrastructure (e.g., non-functional tablets).

• Gambia’s Early Warning System for Dropout Prevention (Presented by CDI, Ministry of Education Gambia):

  • Innovation: Developed an early warning system using DHIS2 to identify children at risk of dropping out from school.
  • Risk Score: The system calculates a risk score based on attendance (absence) and academic performance, with a higher weighting given to attendance in the Gambian context (e.g., 75% attendance, 25% performance).
  • Implementation: Deployed in 60 schools, where headteachers and class teachers use mobile phones for daily attendance recording. Visual indicators (green, yellow, red) are generated to pinpoint at-risk children.
  • Challenges: Connectivity issues in rural areas and the initial need for manual data processing were noted.
  • Next Steps: Plans include automating data processing through dashboards and establishing a link with health data to track children from birth through their educational journey.

• Rwanda’s Waliku System (Student Absence Tracking) (Presented by Moini Wenatesh, Save the Children):

  • Context: Part of the “zero out of school children” initiative, aiming to improve access and retention in primary education across all 30 districts and 3,213 primary schools.
  • Digital System: Utilizes a suite of solutions: ODK/Kobo forms for out-of-school child data collection, the Ministry of Education’s existing School Data Management System (SDMS) as the upstream master data system, and DHIS2 Seamus (student absence tracking system) as the downstream system. Data is integrated from SDMS to DHIS2 via a backend ETL process.
  • Visualizations: Both DHIS2 built-in dashboards and PowerBI are used, catering to different stakeholder needs for individual and aggregated views.
  • Lessons Learned: Emphasized the importance of close collaboration among all stakeholders and highlighted that the upstream data system significantly impacts the downstream DHIS2 system. User-friendliness was identified as crucial for teacher adoption.

• Uganda’s Enhancing Education Data in West Nile with DHIS2 (Presented by Ibrahim Njuki, Aga Khan Foundation Uganda):

  • Background: Education departments in Uganda’s West Nile region faced fragmented data, inconsistent reporting, and limited analytical capacity, necessitating a shift from tools like Kobo Collect.
  • Solution: DHIS2 was adapted for education, leveraging its flexibility and scalability through collaboration with the Ministry of Education, HISP Uganda, and other partners.
  • Outcomes: Enabled digitization of data collection, real-time reporting via mobile devices, and improved resource allocation through DHIS2 dashboards. It also supports monitoring key education indicators, providing insights for targeted interventions.
  • Challenges: Identified limited resources as a challenge for expanding DHIS2 implementation to other sectors like agriculture or early childhood development.

• Tracking Healthcare Worker Training using DHIS2 (Presented by Alex Alinaitwe, LifeNet International):

  • Context: LifeNet International works in 6 African countries, providing medical and management training to healthcare workers, but faced fragmented data from multiple sources.
  • Innovation: Utilized OpenHexa, an open-source integration tool, to consolidate data from their Moodle e-learning platform and IAZO (an ODK-based platform) into a centralized DHIS2 data warehouse.
  • Impact: This system enabled the tracking of 3,550 registered healthcare workers, their enrollment in and completion of training lessons, and measured significant improvements in various medical and management skills (e.g., 95% improvement in newborn care, 59% in pharmaceutical management).
  • Key Takeaway: Demonstrated that integrating e-learning platforms with DHIS2 can effectively improve the tracking of capacity building programs in low-resource settings.

• Strengthening Health Facility Sync via DHIS2-MFR (Presented by Habib Bushira, JSI Partnership Project Ethiopia):

  • Context: Ethiopia aimed to address inefficiencies in health facility data synchronization between its Master Facility Registry (MFR) and DHIS2, which was traditionally manual.
  • Solution: Developed an automated solution integrating OpenHIM as a mediator and a custom-built DHIS2 Connector App for data validation and secure, scalable communication.
  • Data Mapping: Achieved 90% alignment of health facilities between DHIS2 and MFR using fuzzy logic and manual mapping for complex cases.
  • Deployment & Achievements: Implemented a phase-based approach involving a bulk migration of MFR data to DHIS2 followed by daily synchronization. Key achievements include automated facility synchronization, improved data governance, and enhanced system ownership.
  • Lessons Learned: Highlighted the importance of standardization, prioritizing governance, designing for scale, automating metadata, and embracing iteration and feedback.

The session concluded by emphasizing the need for strengthened collaboration across systems and sectors, recognizing the vast opportunities and challenges in managing and analyzing digital education data, including leveraging data science and cross-country learning.

Data quality

The session “Data quality” was held in Auditorium 5 on Wednesday, June 11, from 13:20 to 14:20. This session provided an update on recent improvements to DHIS2’s data quality (DQ) checks and discussed why metadata integrity is crucial. It covered approaches for monitoring and solving metadata integrity issues, including best practices.

The session featured presentations from:

• Dr. Anh Chu from WHO, who provided an overview of the WHO Data Quality Assurance Framework.
• Shurajit, Jason Pickering, and Olav Poppe from HISP UiO, who introduced the DHIS2 Data Quality Toolkit.
• Yayra from HISP West and Central Africa (WCA), who discussed the DQ Supervisory Tool.
• Kwame and Oswald Dachaga from Ghana Health Service, who presented on the implementation of the toolkit in Ghana.
• Eric Allade from HISP Côte d’Ivoire, who talked about DQ implementation in Côte d’Ivoire (though his presentation was in French, the content focused on the digitalization of supervision tools and their benefits).
• Barnabas Akumba from HISP Nigeria, who shared reflections on metadata integrity improvements and recent cleaning activities in Nigeria.

The overarching theme emphasized the shift towards data that can be trusted and used, regardless of its source, acknowledging the global education crisis and the critical role of data for decision-making. The discussion highlighted the importance of addressing data quality across the entire data life cycle, from design and collection to analysis and reporting, rather than only at the reporting point.

Here’s a summary of the key areas and innovations presented:

• WHO Data Quality Assurance Framework (DQAF):

  • The framework was developed due to challenges with previous data quality review processes, which often identified problems but lacked funding for improvement, and didn’t sufficiently address system-level issues.
  • The DQAF emphasizes cross-cutting data quality across different programs (e.g., malaria, MCH) and aims to bring data from various collection methods together as part of the data life cycle.
  • It incorporates the UN Data Quality Dimensions, which are agreed upon by UN member countries’ statistical offices and include completeness, timeliness, consistency, relevance, accuracy, uniqueness, and integrity.
  • The goal is to build trust in data regardless of its source (e.g., RHIS, surveys, census, logistics, surveillance, big data, GIS, admin data), ensuring it meets common quality criteria and is trusted.
  • A framework is needed for data quality assurance to define quality standards, provide guidelines and protocols, establish measurement metrics and indicators, and support a continuous improvement cycle. Strategic shifts include focusing on routine DQ review, optimizing data volume, incorporating DQ across the data life cycle, and focusing on DQ from both routine and non-routine data sources.

• DHIS2 Data Quality Toolkit:

  • This toolkit has been significantly updated, with new metrics and visualizations. It offers guidance, training material, a demo instance, and supplementary tools (apps).
  • New metrics include data element completeness (checking individual variables within a dataset, not just dataset completeness), facilities consistently reporting, consistency analysis visualizations, outlier identification, and guides on denominators.
  • An Outlier Table is a new functionality in DHIS2 versions that helps produce outlier analysis using the median, which can be seen directly in the Data Visualizer.
  • A Data Quality Index (DQI) has been introduced as a single indicator value to represent an overall assessment of critical data quality, calculated as an average of data element completeness and data element value excluding outliers. This index can be applied program-by-program or system-wide, and used in quarterly reviews and performance monitoring.
  • A Python script and the DHIS2 API can be used to monitor validation rules and outliers over time by taking snapshots of violations and persisting them as data values within DHIS2, enabling visualization on dashboards. This provides visibility into quality issues for administrators and helps track improvement.

• Metadata Integrity in DHIS2:

  • Metadata is the foundation of DHIS2, and its integrity and quality are critical for system functioning, maintenance, analysis, and interoperability. Issues like duplicates, incorrect geography, wrong formulas, or unclear user roles can lead to system errors or failures and negatively affect use.
  • Metadata integrity is a growing problem due to easy customization, increasing implementation size, lack of long-term change management, users leaving stale metadata, development work in production, and lack of coordinated administration.
  • In DHIS2 v40+, integrity checks have been completely rewritten from Java to SQL-based checks for improved performance, stability, and extensibility via custom YAML-based configuration files.
  • The Metadata Integrity UI provides a summary of issues and detailed lists of flagged metadata objects, assigning a subjective severity level to each check.
  • Approaches to solving metadata integrity issues include DHIS2 native UI, community apps, ad-hoc API queries, export/edit/upload, bespoke tools/apps, and custom API/SQL scripts.
  • The core team has added features like metadata merge functionality in v42 to deduplicate elements.
  • HISP Nigeria’s experience demonstrated categorizing issues by effort, using native UI, API queries, and custom apps to fix problems like duplicate org units (using the merge API). They emphasize developing SOPs, automating facility listing synchronization, and using custom DQ checks for prevention and monitoring.

• Routine Data Quality Assessment (RDQA) / Supervisory Tool:

  • RDQA was originally an Excel-based tool used for routine data monitoring in many countries, checking reported data accuracy and evaluating functional aspects.
  • Its digitalization aims for faster, standardized, and secure data collection, improving traceability, planning, and analysis of health service performance.
  • The DHIS2-based supervision application allows nationwide rollout with offline capabilities for real-time school observation, which was crucial for remote areas in Togo. It provides dynamic dashboards for transparency and can be used on Android devices offline.
  • The tool enables supervision planning based on indicators and criteria, including the selection of high-performing or low-performing establishments, allowing for data-driven allocation of staff and teacher training. It also facilitates following up on recommendations from previous supervisions.

• Ghana’s DHIS2 Data Quality Toolkit Implementation:

  • Ghana initiated the DHIS2 Data Quality Toolkit under Global Fund GC7 support, in collaboration with GHS, HISP Ghana, and HISP UiO.
  • They set up the toolkit for six programs (EPI, HIV, Malaria, MCH, OPD, TB) as a test case, testing new measures like denominators, outlier and validation rule monitoring, and the data quality index.
  • Training involved national core teams and cascaded down to state, local government, and school levels.
  • Outcomes: Digitization of data collection, real-time reporting, improved resource allocation, and enhanced monitoring of key education indicators through DHIS2 dashboards. Dashboards increased visibility of data quality issues, leading to immediate buy-in from program leads and forming the basis for developing data quality improvement plans.

Key Discussions and Insights:

• Data Quality Culture: A significant point of discussion was the need to foster a culture of data use among healthcare professionals and policymakers, beyond just technical staff, to ensure data is trusted and demanded by users.
• Proactive vs. Retroactive Checks: It was clarified that some data quality checks (like validation rules) can occur during data entry, while others (like outlier analysis) are retroactive. DHIS2 does not prevent entering bad data; therefore, administrator effort in setting up validation rules and user training is critical.
• Impact Measurement: There’s a strong desire to measure the actual impact of data quality interventions. Tools enabling monitoring of trends in outliers and validation rule violations are seen as a step towards quantifying improvements in data quality itself.
• Program Indicator Disaggregations: A new feature in DHIS2 v42 allows mapping category combinations to a single program indicator, significantly reducing the number of program indicators needed (e.g., Ghana’s instance could reduce from ~600 to 27) and enabling automatic disaggregation of individual-level data into aggregate models. This also allows data transfer from tracker to aggregate models for combined analysis.
• Configurable Forms: DHIS2 v42 and Android app v3.2 introduce enhancements to data entry forms, allowing custom titles/subtitles, instructional content, pivoting tables, vertical/horizontal tabs, and disabling grouping, which improves user-friendliness and adaptability.
• System Strengthening: Several presentations, including those from Nigeria, Togo, and Uganda, highlighted the need for DHIS2 to unify fragmented data systems and strengthen governmental information systems, advocating for local ownership and capacity building over external short-term support.
• Digital Transformation: The potential of digital transformation, e-learning platforms, and AI to improve education and health systems was explored, emphasizing the need for user-friendly, sustainable, and interoperable solutions.
• Interoperability: Ethiopia’s project on strengthening health facility sync between DHIS2 and the Master Facility Registry (MFR) showcased an automated solution using OpenHIM as a mediator and a custom DHIS2 Connector App. This achieved 90% alignment and automated daily synchronization, improving data governance and system ownership. The DHIS2-FHIR updates session also discussed the IG Generator app which helps export DHIS2 metadata into FHIR-friendly logical models, aiding in documentation and future interoperability.

Integrated Health Campaigns and Immunization 💉🛡️

Integrated Health Campaigns and Immunization

The session "Integrated Health Campaigns and Immunization" was held in **Auditorium 1** on **Tuesday, June 10, from 15:00 to 16:00**. This session aimed to highlight recent work in the DHIS2 software and documentation that enhances its utility for the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of integrated health campaigns. It also provided insights into practical solutions, challenges, and lessons learned from implementations, and demonstrated how new DHIS2 software features can address country-specific needs and gaps in campaign management. The session was part of the DAC 2025 conference and also served as a Gavi-sponsored DHIS2 for immunization webinar series.

The session featured presentations from:

• Karoline Tufte Lien from DHIS2, who discussed enhancing the DHIS2 platform for health campaigns.
• Ola Arinola from UNICEF HQ, who presented on monitoring immunization and catch-up campaigns using DHIS2.
• Ismail Koleleni from HISP Tanzania, who shared a country case study on the impact of electronic immunization registries (eIR) in Somalia.

Partnerships and Development Focus

The work to strengthen DHIS2 for campaign use cases over the past 15 months has been significantly supported by a partnership with the Clinton Health Access Initiative, funded by the Gates Foundation. Key activities within this collaboration included:

• Gathering requirements and user stories for various health campaign use cases, such as bed net distributions, mass drug administrations, and vaccinations.
• Conducting functional analysis, scoping requirements for the v42 roadmap, and developing/releasing identified, generic DHIS2 features based on collected input.
• Ensuring quality assurance, collaboration, usability testing, and early adopter user feedback with partners.
• Documenting and publishing campaign guidance, including configurations, workarounds, and limitations.
• Strengthening local applicability of DHIS2 for campaigns by supporting the developer community, custom app development, and extension points.
• Partners contributed to a feature backlog, identifying gaps, requests for software improvements, and suggestions, which served as a pool of ideas for design and release planning.

New DHIS2 Functionality for Campaigns

Several new features in DHIS2 v42 and Android v3.2 enhance its capabilities for health campaigns, many of which were directly influenced by the campaign use case collaboration:

• Configurable Forms on DHIS2: Offers flexible layout and styling options for tailored data tables. This includes adding custom titles/subtitles for clarity, placing instructional content before/after sections, pivoting tables (transposing rows and columns, or moving a specific category to a row), choosing between vertical/horizontal tabs, and disabling grouping to maintain defined data element order. These improvements are available across web and Android, improving user-friendliness and adaptability for data entry in campaigns.
• Option Set Counts: This feature was developed to address the challenge of disaggregating data by option sets (e.g., travel history, team names), allowing users to count occurrences of selected options for event data items directly in Data Visualizer without needing to create numerous program indicators.
• Data Definitions & Info in Data Item Selector: Provides users with an “i” button next to data items, offering descriptions, definitions, and configurations (like numerator/denominator expressions for indicators), helping users understand and interpret the data they are viewing, especially crucial in complex campaign datasets.
• Improved Coordinate Accuracy for Android: The Android app now provides greater granularity when capturing coordinates for events, including real-time location accuracy display and the ability for administrators to set accuracy thresholds and disable manual capture, improving the precision of location data for campaign mapping.
• Organization Unit Data Elements in Maps (Sneak Peek): Soon, DHIS2 will support mapping event data based on organization unit data elements, which will allow visualizing cases based on their source of infection (a data element of type org unit), even if the case was notified at a different facility, enhancing malaria planning for campaigns.
• Row-Based Data Entry (Sneak Peek): This upcoming feature will enable bulk data entry for tracked entities receiving the same intervention (e.g., households receiving items, children receiving the same vaccination), significantly expediting data entry time for campaigns.
• Bulk Operations (Complete and Delete): Users can now perform bulk operations on enrollments and events, such as completing or deleting multiple records at once, which is beneficial for managing campaign activities and closing out large numbers of related events or enrollments.
• Dashboard Full Screen/Presentation Mode: Dashboards can be viewed in a full-screen slideshow mode, which is valuable for campaign planning and review meetings, allowing for easier presentation of key indicators.
• Metadata Deduplication/Merging: The system now allows merging duplicate or overlapping metadata elements (like category options) through the user interface, transferring all references to the chosen target and automatically updating connections, which helps clean up campaign-related metadata accumulated from different rounds or sources. This functionality has been specifically introduced to address issues such as differing names for the same age group category option (e.g., “U5y” and “under five”).

UNICEF’s Big Catch-up Campaigns Perspective

UNICEF supports digital health interventions globally, focusing on solutions that reach marginalized children and leverage open-source digital public goods. The Big Catch-up initiative, launched in 2023, aims to close immunization gaps caused by pandemic-related backsliding and strengthen immunization systems so that catch-up activities become an integral part of routine immunization programs.

Key Aspects of UNICEF’s Approach and Findings:

• Digital Tools Utilized: Countries employed various digital tools for planning, implementing, and monitoring Big Catch-up (BCU) campaigns, including DHIS2 for target setting, zero-dose/under-immunized mapping (often with DHIS2 tracker and ODK), aggregate coverage reporting (DHIS2, KoboCollect), individualized immunization registries (DHIS2 tracker, NEIR), and supportive supervision (ODK, EPIMIS).
• Barriers and Drivers:
  • Barriers included short customization timeframes for DHIS2, preferring tools like ODK for perceived easier customization, inadequate infrastructure (funding, devices, connectivity), delayed/inconsistent reporting with other tools, data backlogs, and data quality issues from incompletely integrated data.
  • Drivers for successful DHIS2 use included local technical capacity, unified DHIS2 data models, realistic reporting windows (e.g., 3-day window in Burundi), regular in-country data reviews, and effective trainings.
• DHIS2 BCU Module: UNICEF developed a DHIS2 BCU Module to support countries in providing timely data on Big Catch-up and routine catch-up activities. This module includes customizable metadata (pre-designed data elements, category combinations, indicators), ready-to-use dashboards and analytics for real-time monitoring, and flexible adaptation for different country contexts.
• Leveraging DHIS2 for BCU: Using DHIS2 and routine systems for BCU offers several advantages:
  • Monitoring Catch-up: Integrates catch-up into HMIS and tracks zero-dose children through community networks.
  • Maximizing Investments: Builds on years of investment in digital health infrastructure, tools, and training, reducing costs and time associated with new/parallel systems.
  • Tapping Local Capacity: Health workers are already familiar with DHIS2, minimizing disruption and building trust/ownership.
  • Evolving HMIS: Enriches routine systems for broader use cases and enables adaptations like zero-dose mapping and campaign-specific needs.
  • Resilience: DHIS2 successfully adapted to unprecedented demands during COVID-19 campaigns, demonstrating reliability under high-pressure situations.
• Integration Challenges: A common challenge is the capacity of countries to integrate fragmented systems (e.g., stock for campaigns vs. routine, where a vaccine is a vaccine and a baby is a baby).

Somalia’s Electronic Immunization Registry (eIR) Case Study

Somalia, until 2023, relied on a paper-based immunization registration system, leading to inefficiencies, delayed reporting, and inaccurate record-keeping. The Ministry of Health invested in a DHIS2-based eIR system to address these challenges.

Key Features and Adaptations:

• Offline Data Entry: The eIR supports both online and offline data entry, crucial for low-connectivity areas.
• Automated Aggregation: It automatically aggregates routine EPI data, easing reporting burdens for healthcare workers and enabling program indicators.
• Adaptability: The system is adaptable for special vaccination campaigns and mobile outreach initiatives.
• Phased Rollout: Implementation began with a phased approach in 14 health facilities in the Banadir region (Mogadishu being part of it), serving as a pilot.
• Vaccination Tracking: Healthcare workers can view, update, and manage individual child vaccination schedules.
• Follow-Up Mechanisms: Built-in features enable follow-up for missed doses, including integration with local SMS gateways for automated reminders to caregivers, significantly reducing missed appointments.
• Routine Data Analysis: The system generates weekly eIR reports and provides enhanced dashboards and analytics for data-driven decisions.
• Unique Identifier: Every child receives a unique identifier printed on their card, helping track them even if they move between vaccination centers, assuming the system is scaled nationally.

Impacts:

• Improved Service Delivery: Reduced errors and delays from manual data entry, allowing healthcare workers more time for patient care.
• Efficient Data Management: Centralized digital system supports seamless continuity of care and informed clinical decision-making, reducing burden at district and central levels.
• Enhanced Data Integrity: Shift to digital record-keeping improved data accuracy, accessibility, and reduced risk of information loss.
• Reduced Drop-out Rates: From 2023 to 2024, the vaccine dropout rate decreased by 0.9% (from 32.8% to 31.9%) across the 14 pilot facilities.

Future Direction:

• Plans are in progress to scale up the eIR system across the entire country, aiming to strengthen immunization service delivery through improved data availability, accuracy, and timeliness.
• Ongoing efforts aim to integrate the eIR with the national Health Management Information System (HMIS), positioning eIR as the primary source of immunization data for comprehensive health reporting and decision-making.
• There are also plans to integrate with stock management systems, which are currently separate but will be integrated in the future.