HISP Highlights May 2026

May was an active month across the HISP network, with training workshops on multiple continents, new implementation milestones, and growing engagement with global health and development institutions. From Sokoto to Kathmandu, teams were in the field and at the table — building capacity, advancing national digital health systems, and forging new partnerships with the ministries and agencies leading the work.

This month’s highlights include the official launch of Cambodia’s DHIS2-based health management information system; a new collaboration to strengthen Mauritius’s HIV program ecosystem; HISP UiO’s participation at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, where the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) announced it is becoming a DHIS2 Institutional Partner; and progress on the Africa CDC DHIS2 Toolkit for routine surveillance and outbreak response.

Scroll for updates in Training, Implementation, Partnership and Events.

Training

Digitization Training in Nigeria
HISP Nigeria facilitated a VCM Register Digitization Training in Sokoto State, as part of a UNICEF-funded initiative across 11 states in northern Nigeria. The training focused on improving documentation practices, data quality, reporting timelines, and the digitization of VCM data collection tools used for immunization tracking and community-level health activities. It also emphasized the importance of accurate DHIS2 reporting to support timely follow-up, analysis, and decision-making. More

eVLMIS Training in Rwanda
Through a joint training organized with the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) and supported by UNICEF, the HISP Rwanda team played facilitated capacity-building sessions for central-level teams, EPI supervisors from 46 catchment areas, and other partners. HISP Rwanda contributed technical expertise through hands-on demonstrations, system navigation sessions, practical exercises, and guidance on updated workflows designed to strengthen coordination between service delivery and vaccine logistics. More

ISS Tool Harmonization Workshop in Ethiopia
HISP Ethiopia joined partners from Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health and the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia for a three-day workshop devoted to reviewing, refining, and validating the Integrated Support Supervision (ISS) tools for RH/FP/AYH and advancing their transition into a digitized DHIS2-based system. This milestone sets the foundation for more coherent, efficient, and data-driven supervision processes within the program. More

Animal Health Surveillance System Workshop
As part of a national effort to enhance animal health surveillance, HISP Ethiopia contributed to reviewing system requirements, defining workflows, and aligning stakeholders around a unified digital approach during a May workshop, with partners from the Ethiopia Ministry of Agriculture, FAO, and Project HOPE. The action plan lays a clear roadmap for a DHIS2-based integrated surveillance system. More

Tracker Training in Congo
The Ministry of Health and Population, with the support of its technical and financial partners, is continuing to modernize health surveillance through the integration of DHIS2 Tracker in Congo. HISP WCA and HISP Rwanda lead a training workshop that allowed participants to strengthen their skills on the configuration, administration and use of DHIS2 Tracker. More

Events

IFIP WG 9.4 Doctoral Consortium
Several HISP Centre colleagues traveled to Kathmandu for the 2026 IFIP WG 9.4 Doctoral Consortium, hosted at Kathmandu University. The consortium brings together researchers and doctoral students working on ICT and development, and our team presented how digital tools strengthen health systems in low-resource settings. More

World Health Assembly in Geneva
HISP UiO colleague Mike Frost participated as a panelist at the “Accelerating Epidemic Intelligence: From Community Signals to Action” side event at the 79th World Health Assembly, held in Geneva. Dr. Petra Khoury, Health and Care Director at International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), opened the session with an announcement about IFRC becoming a DHIS2 Institutional Partner. More

ID4Africa in Abidjan
HISP UiO colleague Pamod Amarakoon traveled to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, representing DHIS2 and HISP UiO at ID4Africa 2026—one of the world’s leading forums on digital identity, bringing together 2,000+ attendees from 104 countries including governments, development agencies, technology providers, and civil society. Pamod presented during the session “Experiences and Lessons from Open Source Implementations” and joined a panel on Open Source and the Development Agenda, speaking about aligning development priorities with country needs. More

Incubator Workshop in London
HISP UiO colleague Rebecca Potter from the joined a collaboration of multidisciplinary experts at the Incubator Workshop on Global Heating & Neurological Disorders, convened in London by Wellcome Trust, University College London UCL and The Lancet Neurology. More

National Data Week Ethiopia
HISP Ethiopia participated in National Data Week 2026 in Ethiopia, presenting real-time HMIS reporting through the DHIS2 Tracker-based e-register, and participated in a panel discussion on advancing digital health transformation and national scale-up, highlighting governance, coordination, and the path to sustainable digital systems. More

Implementation

MoH Cambodia Official DHIS2 Launch
The Ministry of Health of Cambodia has officially launched its DHIS2-based health management information system (HMIS), with technical support from HISP Vietnam. The transition to DHIS2 is expected to help Cambodia improve data quality, timeliness, interoperability, and decision-making, and it supports stronger coordination across health programs, better visibility of service delivery, and more effective planning across the health sector. More

Mauritius HIV Program System
HISP Uganda is supporting a project with the Ministry of Health and Wellness of the Republic of Mauritius and the National AIDS Secretariat, together with other partners, to deliver a turn-key digital solution to strengthen the HIV program ecosystem using the DHIS2 platform. More

Climate & Health fieldwork in Nepal
HISP researchers explored how the Planetary Health Research Centre is working with DHIS2 and the Chap Modeling Platform to forecast dengue outbreaks.  More

Education system strengthening in Nigeria
A team from HISP UiO joined HISP Nigeria to meet with Unicef and Ministry of Education stakeholders to review training plans, optimize system design and user experience, and align on upcoming milestones for Nigeria’s national education management information infrastructure. More

Partnership

Education Planning in Nigeria
HISP UiO colleagues Sophia Kousiakis and Shurajit Dutta traveled to Nigeria, where they are working with education authorities to strengthen the country’s DHIS2-based education data systems. They met with officials from the Nigerian Education Management Information System, the Nigerian Education Data Initiative, the Universal Basic Education Commission, and UNICEF along with partners at HISP Nigeria to review training plans, optimize system design and user experience, and align on upcoming milestones for Nigeria’s national education management information infrastructure. More

Norwegian NGO Innovation Network
HISP UiO participated in the May meeting of the Norwegian NGO Innovation Network, joining partners like the Norwegian Refugee Council and Save the Children Norway to share experiences on embedding AI in humanitarian organizations. More

Africa CDC Meeting
Ola Hodne Titlestad from HISP UiO and Dr. Prosper Behumbiize from HISP Africa joined Africa CDC representatives Dr. Merawi and Dr. Mphatso to meet with Africa CDC Director for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, Dr. Tolbert G. Nyenswah. The meeting followed a successful three-day validation exercise held at Africa CDC Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and covered validation outcomes, governance arrangements, and next steps for collaboration on the Africa CDC DHIS2 Toolkit for routine surveillance and outbreak response. More

One Health System Working Session
HISP Tanzania attended a two-day technical working session at the Amref Health Africa offices to advance the One Health System, a shared platform integrating disease signals from human and animal health for coordinated zoonotic disease detection and response. The meeting brought together partners from HISP Tanzania, University of Dar es Salaam, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Amref Health Africa, the Ministry of Health, Zanzibar, and the Zanzibar Health Interoperability Layer team. More

National Malaria Data Repository in South Sudan
HISP Tanzania wrapped up four days of collaboration with the World Health Organization and the South Sudan Ministry of Health, focused on strengthening malaria control through the planning and development of the National Malaria Data Repository (NMDR). By bringing malaria data into a single platform, the NMDR will support faster decision-making, stronger surveillance, and more targeted interventions across South Sudan. More