On December 11-12, the Capacity Project’s human resources information systems (HRIS) strengthening team conducted the PEPFAR HRIS Inventory Workshop. Funded by PEPFAR, with support from WHO and World Bank, the workshop launched a comprehensive HRIS inventory and began building a community of practice. The 50 participants–including representatives from USAID, WHO, World Bank and a wide variety of NGOs and universities–developed a matrix of HRIS strengthening activities that are complete, under way and planned in PEPFAR focus countries, provided feedback on a draft inventory framework and gained insight into critical data elements. The Capacity Project will use this information to develop a web-based HRIS inventory database, which will begin with PEPFAR focus countries and expand to include others. Many participants expressed their desire to continue collaboration as the database is developed and to assist with data collection. Data specifications are currently being written, and the first iteration of the inventory database will be introduced to workshop participants for review this spring.
We are gearing up for two major workshops we are holding next week at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Both workshops are bringing together experts in health workforce planning and human resource information systems, and the results of both should greatly enhance our HRIS Strengthening program.
The first workshop, on December 11-12, is the initial meeting of the PEPFAR HRIS Inventory Project Working Group. This workshop will kick off an effort, led by the Capacity Project, to inventory the human resource information systems strengthening projects ongoing in PEPFAR focus countries. The result will be a database documenting HRIS strengthening efforts in many developing countries, with details about who is conducting the activities, what is being undertaken and their results. The database will be made publicly available on the Web and should greatly aid with coordinating these activities and increasing collaboration, which is very important in building successful systems.
The second workshop, on December 13-14, will bring together health workforce planning experts to agree on a projection model for workforce planning. This model will be used as the foundation for the next product in our iHRIS suite: iHRIS Plan. iHRIS Plan is intended to be an easy-to-use, Open Source software program that draws on data from the HR information systems iHRIS Manage and iHRIS Qualify to project the supply of health workers and the required health workers to meet the demand over time, and then graph the projected results of interventions to close the gap between the two.
The input of these experts in HRIS and workforce planning should be invaluable in producing two worthwhile products: a database of HRIS strengthening activities going on in countries around the world, and easy-to-use modeling and planning software that we can distribute free to workforce planners in developing countries. Stay tuned for the results!
What is happening with HRIS Strengthening? Get news about our ongoing work in the field, find out when new features and releases of the software are available, learn more about human resource information systems, and join the conversation. Your comments and questions are welcome.