About DHIS2

The DHIS2 platform boasts data warehousing, visualization features, and the possibility for data users and policy makers to generate analysis from live data in real-time. DHIS2 development is coordinated by HISP UiO, with developers located around the world. Until 2011, DHIS2 was developed and maintained by PhD students and faculty members at the Department of Informatics at UiO, working closely with the users through implementation and research projects. From 2012 onward, in response to increasing national adoption of the platform as an HMIS, the core software development organization was professionalized by hiring full-time developers, architects and project managers. The result was that new user demands were captured and introduced through professional quarterly release cycles. From the very beginning, only generic requirements (e.g. requirements relevant across different geographical regions), were implemented in the core, while the flexibility of the platform allows for customized implementation locally. State-of-the-art tools are used to document and prioritize requirements from the variety of stakeholders involved. See the current software roadmap.

DHIS2 is released as free and open software under the BSD 3-clause license. This means that the application can be used free of charge, anyone can access to the source code and may even modify and redistribute the software. The only restrictions are that the copyright notice must be maintained in the source code, and that neither the name of the copyright holder nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

DHIS2 has a modular, layered architecture with a strong and open application programming interface (API). This means that DHIS2 essentially serves as a data warehouse with more than 60 native applications that pull or push data stored in the warehouse to perform different functions such as data quality checks or making scorecards. Software developers, working with this kind of system architecture and stable code base, are easily able to build their own native applications in DHIS2. Find out more on our Developer Resources page.

The open API also makes it easy to connect DHIS2 to other external software through an interoperability layer or with a direct API to API connection. There already exist many generic DHIS2 interoperability layers, such as OpenFN, as well as direct connection DHIS2 plug-ins for dozens of other external software systems, such as Tableau. More specifically, DHIS2 has turn-key interoperability with iHRIS, the most widely applied open source human resources information system, as well as OpenLMIS, the largest open source logistics management information system.

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To ensure that DHIS2 implementations result in sustainable health information systems that are used to support decision-making, HISP-UiO spends significant resources on institution and capacity building. To date, more than 70 PhD students from the Global South have graduated within HISP. These experts form the base for supporting DHIS2 systems in their home countries and regions through the global network of HISP groups. These groups also help build local DHIS2 capacity through the DHIS2 Academy program, by leading in-person and online training courses on key aspects of DHIS2, from analytics and system configuration to more specialized topics. Thousands of students have completed DHIS2 Academy courses in a variety of languages. Members of the HISP network and other DHIS2 experts also share knowledge and assistance through our only discussion forum, the DHIS2 Community of Practice. While UiO plays a central role in the DHIS2 project, the existence of this active, engaged, and truly global community has been the largest driver of DHIS2’s long-term success, and the sustainable use and uptake of DHIS2 around the world.

The development of the DHIS2 core platform has received funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the University of Oslo and the Research Council of Norway from the very beginning in 1994. In 2013, Norad, PEPFAR and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria committed to support the DHIS2 development together due to the footprint (30 countries and growing fast) DHIS2 had already established. Later, UNICEF, CDC, GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) came on board. Together, our donors provide a stable base of funding that has enabled the HISP project to expand and sustain over time, to have the flexibility to explore the newest of technologies, to develop a network of experts across countries and regions, and to commit to continue to deliver a stable and generic core platform.

Global adoption of DHIS2 is growing. We expect that additional countries will adopt DHIS2 due to network effects, such as the examples of neighboring countries and DHIS2 use by regional and international organizations. We also expect that use in each country will graduate towards a larger and more intensive application of the platform, potentially including more national and sub-national programs and increased data complexity, such as individual-level data and data collection on mobile devices. This means that countries and institutions implementing DHIS2 will need to deal with rapidly expanding data storage requirements and other data governance issues, and the DHIS2 software team will need to maintain system performance and stability while meeting increasingly complex system needs. The ongoing support of our network of donors makes it possible to ensure that DHIS2 remains a sustainable open-source solution, and a global public good available for use by all.