HISP Centre completes DHIS2 system strengthening support in Madagascar with Data.FI

The HISP Centre at the University of Oslo (HISP UiO), together with implementing partner HISP Rwanda, has completed a five-month engagement with Data for Implementation (Data.FI), a project implemented by Palladium, to strengthen the national DHIS2 platform of Madagascar’s Ministry of Public Health. The work covered server administration and hosting, a redesigned monthly reporting form, data quality, and epidemiological surveillance, as well as a five-year development plan for the national DHIS2 core team.

Data.FI is a cooperative agreement funded by the U.S. Government through the State Department and implemented by Palladium. Its in-country technical team supports the national DHIS2 system and works closely with the ministry’s Direction des Études, de la Planification et du Système d’Information (DEPSI), the directorate for studies, planning and information systems. For the surveillance work, the team also worked closely with the Direction de la Veille Sanitaire, de la Surveillance Épidémiologique et de la Riposte (DVSSER), the directorate for health monitoring, epidemiological surveillance and response. Data.FI’s in-country team and DEPSI led implementation throughout, with HISP providing advice, quality assurance and mentoring.

Key areas of collaboration

HISP supported the Ministry of Public Health, through DEPSI and DVSSER, in assessing the servers that host the national routine and surveillance systems against the DHIS2 Server Certification Programme. Developed by the DHIS2 core team, the programme is a structured evaluation that checks whether a server meets recognised standards of security and good practice, giving ministries and their partners formal assurance about the infrastructure on which national health data depend.

Alongside this work, HISP advised on setting up the redesigned monthly activity report for basic health centres in DHIS2, then reviewed the resulting configuration and agreed with national teams a plan for the work still to be done.

Working sessions in Antsirabe and Tamatave led to a data quality assurance framework for the revised form, built on DHIS2 with the WHO Data Quality Review toolkit and with Madagascar’s own national data quality plan.

On surveillance, HISP assessed the system and the DHIS2 instance that supports it, together with DVSSER and other national counterparts, and proposed a roadmap for strengthening it.

Finally, building on a review of the skills of the core DHIS2 team, the engagement produced a five-year development plan for that team.