Implementation of DHIS2 in Iraq, Progress and the way forward
Dr. Ahmed ZOUITEN, WHO representative- Iraq Country Office
- *Date and time: Monday 20 June, 13:00
Summary:
More than a thousand year ago, Iraq was a pioneer in the world of Health Information System that was first used by Abu Bakr Al Razi.
Many years later, this country built a health system that was the pride of the region for providing top quality health services. Yet, years of political turmoil and protracted emergencies brought the system down on its knees. Because of ISIS and other political turmoils. altogether, resulted in certain time to having more than 6 million population internally displaced in the northern part of Iraq. While the health sector was attempting to recover from the successive crisis, COVID-19 pandemic emerged putting again the Iraqi health system under stress.
As any health system, Ira’s health system has strengths and some weaknesses, that led to internal reflections for a need to reform the health system. HMIS was identified as the priority pillar to strengthen Iraq’s health sector.
WHO started with HIS assessment in Iraq, then the need for an HMIS tool that agile and flexible that can respond to any need in the system from data warehousing, visualization, and generating real-time analysis to support evidence based decision making.
WHO and Iraqi MOH agreed that the DHIS2 platform is considered best suited tool to the needs of health sector in Iraq. DHIS2 implementation started with a full speed at 3 governorates in 2022, followed by national scale up plan including surveillance as a priority programme.
A joint Iraqi MOH and WHO vision is to go beyond and take implementation of DHIS2 one more step down to facilities and care provider.
