The SAHCD will continue to build on activities implemented in 2009 that will primarily focus on strengthening the use information for decision making and strengthening information systems. These activities will contribute towards improving health workforce development and health workforce planning and policy that will enable the national and provincial departments of health to rationally plan for training, recruitment, deployment and retention of health care workers who will in turn optimally contribute to improved health care for South Africa. The SAHCD coalition's planned implementation of HRIS activities will take into account South Africa's unique governance and leadership structures at national and provincial levels and use it's experience in the region to provide high level technical support and appropriate technology to enable managers and decision makers utilize relevant, accurate and timely information that will become the cornerstone of management decision making and defining health policy. Provincial Health Ministries and the South African Nursing Council will also receive technical support from the coalition through targeted support aimed at strengthening information systems. In 2010, SAHCD support to the South African Ministry of Health will cover the rest of the provinces and will include the following activities: 1. Roll out HRIS to remaining provinces - The lessons learnt from the rollout at the Ministry of Health and two provincial departments of health with be benchmarked and used a guideline for rolling out the HRIS systems in the planning departments of the rest of South Africa's provincial departments of health. This will pave the way for a rapid needs assessment in the provinces. 2. Rapid needs assessment for each province - SAHCD will conduct a rapid assessment of all the provinces in preparation of rolling out the HRIS system and also strengthen the professional council's information systems at facility level. This assessment will include both human and physical infrastructure requirements that are critical to the successful implementation of this project. This will form the basis of the planned capacity building initiatives. 3. HR Capacity building - HRIS Analysts will be identified in the provinces and will perform the critical role of assisting decision makers to extrapolate information from the system. Staff from the provincial departments of health with the requisite cognitive skills and knowledge will be identified to lead this initiative. An overall project manager supported by SAHCD will coordinate the implementation centrally. In addition, the analysts will be capacitated with both soft and professional skills which will be aligned to international benchmarks. This will then pilfer through to the health sector workforce, who will receive similar training.

4. Train health managers to use data - Apart from providing both soft and professional skills to health managers, the preliminary evaluation report which will be produced at the end of the 2009 will also act as a guideline for SAHCD to train health managers on the use of HRIS data for decision making purposes. This will also take into account the specific needs of each province given the fact that the management of health care varies from province to province. HRIS staff skills in analyzing and using data from the system will be strengthened and this will include the training of decision makers and users on how to access the HRIS system. Its at this stage of information awareness and utilization that preparations will be made for the establishment of stakeholder leadership groups. 5. Stakeholders Leadership Group to guide the HRIS - These groups will be set up in each of the provincial departments of health and will guide the decentralization of the HRIS system to the provincial health facilities. Both the evaluation report and the needs assessment mentioned above will play a pivotal role in ensuring the establishment and sustenance of these groups. This will mark a point of maturity which will necessitate creating a linkage between the National Department of Health and the Provincial Departments of Health. 6. Create link between the National Department of Health and the Provincial Department of Health - During 2010, a central point of information will be established and will use the existing state information technology network to ensure that data captured at the facility level in the provinces is seamlessly transferred to the Ministry of Health in real time. This system will reside within the Planning Unit of the National Department of Health and will pull together all provincial aspects of human resource information in the South Africa health sector. This will also enable the Ministry of Health to have a more accurate picture of the health sector workforce, in fulfillment of the 2009 strategic objectives 1 and 2.