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Open mSupply & DHIS2
Open mSupply is a fully featured open-source eLMIS — covering procurement, warehousing, distribution, cold chain, and dispensing — that automatically pushes key logistics indicators into DHIS2, eliminating manual data entry between systems and giving health programmes a live, unified picture of stock availability alongside service delivery data.
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About Open mSupply
Open mSupply is the world’s most widely used open-source Logistics Management Information System (LMIS) in low- and middle-income countries. Developed by the mSupply Foundation, a New Zealand-based non-profit trust, it builds on over 20 years of the mSupply system and is deployed in more than 40 countries across Africa, South East Asia and the Pacific.
At its core, Open mSupply records every stock movement at every level of the supply chain, from national procurement and warehousing through to distribution and dispensing at health facilities. It covers quantification and forecasting, purchase orders, inbound shipments, inventory management, outbound distribution, cold chain monitoring, patient dispensing, and programme-level stock control. It is designed to function more like a lightweight ERP than a traditional LMIS.
The same application runs on Windows, Mac, web browser, and Android tablet, with full multi-user support at every level, including on Android. Its defining technical feature is offline-first synchronisation: sites keep working when internet connectivity fails, then automatically catch up when connectivity returns. Central dashboards get up-to-the-minute data as soon as sites are back online. In low-resource environments, where a rat chewing a cable or an unpaid ISP bill can take a site offline, this is not a minor feature — it is what keeps the system usable.
Open mSupply is a Strategic DHIS2 Technology Partner.
DHIS2 use case
- Summary logistics data pushed to DHIS2: Open mSupply periodically sends aggregate supply chain indicators — stock on hand, consumption, months of stock cover, stockout days — to DHIS2 data elements, mapped via org unit codes. DHIS2 dashboards can then combine these logistics KPIs with epidemiological and programme data for joint analysis, without being overwhelmed by raw transactional detail. This supports the kind of analysis that matters: comparing stock availability against disease burden, or identifying facilities at risk of stockout before it happens.
- Integration with DHIS2 Real-Time Stock Management (RTS): Facilities already using DHIS2 RTS on Android record stock transactions in the interface they know. Open mSupply at the warehouse receives those facility requisitions, fulfils the orders, and confirms dispatch back into DHIS2. This creates a seamless order-to-delivery workflow with no duplicate data entry and no parallel systems for health workers to manage.
Real-world example
- Lao PDR. The Ministry of Health implemented mSupply across all drug warehouses at central, provincial, and district levels, alongside DHIS2 as the national HMIS. Once both systems were working well independently, the Ministry integrated them so that supply chain data from mSupply flows into DHIS2. Programme managers can now overlay months-of-stock data against maximum and minimum thresholds alongside testing and case data — for example, using malaria case counts to set stock thresholds — directly within DHIS2 dashboards. The integrated view enables more actionable planning and faster response to emerging shortages.
The same integration has been performed in multiple countries, as part of Open mSupply implementation project. - Comoros (2024–present). Faced with paper-based stock records across three islands and no national visibility of stockouts or distribution, the Ministry of Health launched an eLMIS project with HISP Rwanda, the DHIS2 logistics team at the University of Oslo, and the mSupply Foundation, with World Bank funding. Health facility staff now record stock transactions in DHIS2 RTS on Android. Central and regional warehouses manage inventory in Open mSupply. Within three months of go-live, nearly 30,000 transactions had been recorded across 58 of 74 facilities (78%), including over 20,000 medication distributions and 10,000 stock count corrections. For the first time, the Ministry has a unified view from national warehouse to last-mile facility, enabling real-time adjustment of buffer stocks and delivery schedules.