The Ethiopia Data Use Partnership (DUP) is a collaborative endeavor of Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health (MOH) to advance the country’s healthcare through their Information Revolution vision, which focuses on cultivating an information culture; digitalization and the scaling-up of priority health information systems (HIS); and strengthening HIS governance. JSI leads the DUP partner consortium that provides technical assistance, resources, and partner engagement to implement the Information Revolution. JSI has built key alliances with local and external technical partners around health informatics, nutrition data, EMR, and mHealth solutions and has a decades-long collaboration with MOH on health system strengthening, health service delivery, and HMIS strengthening.
Over the past decade, the Government of Ethiopia, in collaboration with development partners, has invested in building an effective HIS. Despite the progress made, challenges remain related to data quality, availability, and use at all levels of the health system. The MOH recognizes how routine health information can advance national efforts to deliver quality healthcare, and created the Information Revolution to provide practical steps for moving forward.
ETHIOPIA DATA USE PARTNERSHIP
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the initiative aims to improve the collection and use of high-quality routine information in the health sector, contributing to improved quality, efficiency, and availability of primary health and nutrition services at all levels of the health system. DUP will conduct national-scale activities over five years in both urban and rural settings.
The project seeks to reform the information system architecture and build local capacity in governance, data management, and information use by supporting the government’s plans and working in partnership with the MOH to identify, introduce, and scale the most effective HIS solutions.
DUP is guided by four principles:
- Inclusive and collaborative engagement with a range of stakeholders inside the MOH and among the development partners and other non-health players in the country.
- Promotion of country ownership of and accountability for the national HIS to ensure sustainability.
- Deliberate investment in creating an information culture that facilitates information use at every level, both vertically within the health system and horizontally, at the level of interface of the health system with the community, civil society, and the political administration.
- Innovative and strategic change that builds on current investments in HIS governance, infrastructure, design and capacity, optimizes learning from local as well as global experience, and draws from the disciplines and theories of human-centered design and systems thinking.
Four related workstreams will be phased over the five-year period: data use, standardized HMIS, eHealth architecture, and HIS governance. The initiative leverages various support from several JSI projects being implemented in Ethiopia. Partners include: the University of Gondar, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.