Discover how DHIS2 supports community health workers in their daily tasks, while also bringing the data they generate into the national health information systems used for facility reporting, so community-based care is visible from the village all the way to the national policy level.
Community health workers are often the first points of contact that people have with the broader health system. They register households, screen and treat common illnesses, follow up on pregnancies and immunizations, and refer clients to medical facilities when needed. A community health information system (CHIS) exists to support that work, helping community health workers record what they do, track individual clients over time, know who is due for a visit, and trigger action when someone needs it.
Data generated in communities has traditionally stayed disconnected from national health management information systems, or flowed in one direction only—upward, in aggregate, with little coming back. That leaves decision-makers without a full picture of a country’s health, and leaves community health workers filling in forms whose results they never see.
DHIS2 addresses both needs, as community health workers capture data on the same platform used for facility reporting, using the DHIS2 Android app for mobile data collection online or offline, or reporting basic data by SMS where smartphones aren’t available. Because it is one system rather than two, there is no parallel set of registers to maintain, no duplicate reporting, and no separate database to reconcile later. Their work becomes visible in national planning, budgeting and program management alongside facility data—and community health workers and their supervisors can see their own coverage and performance, not just submit numbers. This approach responds directly to a 2019 World Health Assembly resolution that called for aligning data and digital efforts around community health worker programs and building a stronger evidence base for their impact.
DHIS2 includes built-in functionality designed to reflect how community health programs actually work, from the realities of collecting data in a village with no connectivity to keeping community data aligned with national priorities and integrated with facility-level reporting.
The DHIS2 community health toolkit was developed with Unicef and the World Health Organization, with support from the Global Fund, accompanying WHO guidance on the analysis and use of community data for health service monitoring. At its core is a metadata package covering 21 modules and 37 datasets, spanning areas from immunization and malaria to mental health and water, sanitation and hygiene, each collected on a monthly or yearly basis. Because the services provided by community health workers can vary widely from one country to the next, the package takes a modular approach, with countries selecting and adapting the indicators relevant to their own frameworks. Community health dashboards and indicators are harmonized with related facility-level indicators already in use, so program managers can see community and facility data side by side, in the same system.
An accompanying implementation guide, developed by HISP UiO with support from the Global Fund and key partners, was informed by feedback from 25 countries and case studies from national programs, and supports national and local decision-makers through the full information cycle: data collection, analysis, dissemination and feedback, and use of data to take action.
While community health needs differ from country to country, the examples below show how governments are using DHIS2 both to support community health workers and to bring community-level data into their national health information systems.
Get started with DHIS2 for community health information systems using these helpful resources: