This program will support the strengthening of national HIMS/M&E systems in four key thematic areas that include Management and coordination, ICT Technical support and services, Systems capacity development and Communication, Learning and Knowledge-based practices. The support to the strengthening of these host country national systems will be based on priorities identified in every performance year through the Annual Operation Plan development processes. It will contribute towards strengthening of national HIS to a strong, unified and integrated HIS essential to improving the quality of health service delivery through use of quality and timely information. Broadly the focus will include:

Management and coordination policy and coordination support and translation of the policies (National HIS Policy and National HIS Strategic Plan) into prioritized and budgeted implementation plans that are integrated into the health sector Annual Operating Plans and into the performance contracts of departments and their managers. It will also require the development of capacity for ongoing policy review and development of new policy directions as necessary, as well as the capacity to bring together and coordinate all stakeholders toward the unified HIS. A key area of policy development will be the development of a monitoring and evaluation strategy for the health sector, which will help coordinate all data needs, data collection tools, and analysis and data use for each level in the system. To facilitate implementation a key component will be the enforcement of policies and ensuring that all efforts and investments in information by partners go toward the single integrated HIS. In terms of resources management, the program will support one of the most important aspects of achieving sustainability for the GoK by making sufficient resources available to the HIS on a timely basis. The HIS functions are grossly underfunded and many of the activities in the AOP cannot be achieved without external development partner support. The current strategy proposes an additional 1550 or so staff over the next five years, which is a reasonable start. The program will therefore ensure that these staff receives appropriate training, supportive supervision and performance management.

ICT technical support and services supporting the host country to develop District Health Information System, deploy, train HRH to manage the system and systems maintenance and evolution. Broadly the host country government will be supported to develop standards that will ensure that ICT systems are open architecture and interoperable to facilitate communication with each other; develop data capture standards, such as the use of unique identifiers for facilities, patients, personnel and services to facilitate transfer of data across systems; support the development and implementation of hardware and software installation; set up of technical support for all users; and assist in the development of data storage capacity and access systems for each level. It will also look at institutionalizing the funding of the ICT through the Government planning and budgeting functions. The module will have four components: i) hardware, software and user services and infrastructure; ii) systems implementation and support; iii) data bases; and, iv) resource management.

Systems capacity development this support will focus on strengthening the implementation and operational level capacity of the HIS function at all levelsnational, provincial, district, facility and community level. The operational level capacity will include the logistics for supplies of HIS commodities such as data collection tools, and providing oversight and supervision over the HIS function at each level, and the resources to facilitate the implementation of all aspects of the HIS system. This will include facilitating the organization structure to function at each level. This will support the HIS through various means to i) strengthen data collection and quality control, ii) facilitate human resource development, and ii) institute effective supportive supervision

Human Capital Development, Learning and Knowledge Based Practices support the GoK to develop and implement trigger and facilitate a 'culture shift' to actually strengthen the demand for information at all levels, to devise and supply various information products to meet the demand, and to heighten the actual use of information; it will facilitate and strengthen the 'learning' and 'knowledge management' aspects of the human capacity development to address the issues of information and knowledge generation and their use; establish both on the job training and periodic retraining programs for all clinical and HRIO staff, and a one month pre-assignment training program for all clinicians (including physicians) on the various management tools they need to do their jobs, including health information, planning, patient care, pharmacy management, logistics etc.; and support GoK to establish supervision training and refresher training specifically for managing health information systems and the staff.

Human resources for Health will be a cross cutting with the other program areas as there will be need to train and build the capacity of health workers for recording, reporting and use of information.

Linkages to Partnership Framework-

This activity fits within the partnership framework objective of strengthening strategic information gathering and data utilization to improve targeting of programs and evidence based resource allocations.

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