This abstract has been accepted at the 2024 DHIS2 Annual Conference
Extending the use of DHIS2 Maturity Profile Assessment Tool Beyond Health: A case of District Case Management System (DCMS) in Tanzania
Over many years, DHIS2 platform has been successfully used in Health information systems by various countries and has become a global public good being used for implementations beyond the health sector. The DCMS System is a tracker-based case monitoring system meant to provide detailed electronic recording and reporting suitable for the process of identifying, referring, and responding to cases of child abuse. Sustainability is the key in information System (IS) implementation and thus, there is a need to consider and assess the organization’s technical and non-technical factors that require IS strengthening. Recently, DHIS2 experts from UiO developed a DHIS2 Maturity profile tool that enables countries to assess their HMIS implementations and establish maturity profiles to support planning next steps and investments for sustainability. The tool has been helpful as many countries and stakeholders shared their testimonies on how the findings have helped strengthen their DHIS2 implementation. These testimonies prompted the Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Group (MoCDGWSG) to engage UDSM DHIS2 Lab experts to conduct a maturity assessment to enable them to expand DHIS2 DCMS system to establish a Comprehensive Social Welfare MIS (CSWMIS). Given that the social welfare domain is a non-health use case, the process involved customization of the tool to fit in this context. The assessment team customized the Maturity profile tool to the social welfare context as it was made for DHIS2 implementation in health. Then, they used focused group discussion and document review to respond to a set of questions in the tool grouped in various domains. The responses and observations were then used to create an overall Ministry’s maturity profile for promoting an integrated approach to CSWMIS. Finally, the team came up with recommendations on key areas that require immediate strengthening. The maturity profile was established, details of the current status of the implementation of IS were provided, and critical areas that required strengthening were highlighted to ensure the sustainability of the IS. Findings from each area were documented to highlight the current practices, strengths, and gaps that need to be addressed. The Ministry can now use these findings to plan the next steps for establishing CSWMIS. The DHIS2 maturity profile tool is beneficial for identifying areas that need strengthening, but there is a need for further guidance and documentation for its adaptation and application beyond the health sector.
Primary Author: Lilian Nkonyi
Keywords:
DHIS2 Maturity profile tool , DHIS2 DCMS system, Comprehensive Social Welfare MIS, Tanzania
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