HISP Highlights August 2026

August brought sad news for the HISP network: the sudden passing of our friend and longtime colleague Bob Jolliffe, whose years of work on DHIS2 were defined by helping countries take full ownership of their own systems and data. It was also a month of steady, wide-ranging activity—technical training on two continents, implementation milestones spanning health and education, and new partnerships taking shape.

This month’s highlights include a national effort in Uganda to digitize patient-level data across 6,000 health facilities using DHIS2 eRegisters; the use of DHIS2 by health authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda for surveillance during the ongoing Ebola outbreak; a three-day training workshop on Togo’s national malaria data repository, hosted by the World Health Organization’s Centre for Training and Research in Public Health in Lomé; a new DHIS2-based hospital accreditation platform developed with Rwanda’s Ministry of Health; continued rollout of the DHIS2-based Digitized Nigeria Education Management Information System (DNEMIS); and a memorandum of understanding between HISP Pakistan and Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University.

Scroll down for these updates and more from Training, Implementation and Partnership.

Remembering Bob Jolliffe

In August, our dear friend and longtime colleague Bob Jolliffe passed away unexpectedly. Bob spent years developing and implementing DHIS2, and his most powerful work was supporting countries in gaining ownership and independence of their systems and data. To quote Oswald Dachaga from Ghana Health Services, “Bob taught by conferring trust.” 

Bob knew that many issues were budgetary or managerial, not technical—and that the technicians would see dangers long before decision makers. He empowered country teams to speak up and worked tirelessly and with little fanfare to keep those systems working. Bob left a lasting impact on countless people and embodied the ideals that we strive to meet. More

Training

DHIS2 Server Administration Training
HISP West and Central Africa (WCA) supported a DHIS2 server administration training for the government of The Gambia’s national technical team, with support from KOMIS. The training covered securing the DHIS2 server, and installing, configuring and optimizing resources, among other important technical topics. More

DHIS2 for Education Training in Nigeria
HISP Nigeria continues in its role supporting the ongoing rollout of the DHIS2-based Digitized Nigeria Education Management Information System (DNEMIS), facilitating user training on DNEMIS customization for the government’s core team. This week-long training builds local capacity for faster, more reliable education data for planning, funding and policy decisions, and was supported by Unicef Nigeria. More

National Malaria Data Repository Training
The Centre for Training and Research in Public Health at the WHO headquarters in Lomé hosted a training workshop on the Togo National Malaria Data Repository. The three-day training was funded by WHO and facilitated by experts from HISP WCA, supporting participants from Togo’s public health sector. More

Uganda Ministry of Health eRegister Training
HISP Uganda and the Uganda Ministry of Health have provided hands-on training and mentorship in the Greater Masaka region, with support from the Babies and Mothers Alive (BAMA) Foundation. The training included BAMA-supported districts and health facilities in the region, and provided practical training on data capture, reporting, and troubleshooting, as well as on-site mentorship to aid health workers in their everyday work environments. More

Implementation

Technical Engagement on Strengthening eRegisters
HISP UiO colleagues Stian Sandvold and Ameen Mohamed spent a week in Uganda, working to support a national effort to digitize patient-level data across 6,000 health facilities. The team worked closely with our partners at HISP Uganda and the Uganda Ministry of Health on strengthening eRegisters within DHIS2. They have been troubleshooting some challenges that were surfaced during rollout, and are now planning changes to the core software to support work at this scale. More

DHIS2’s Use in the Ongoing Ebola Outbreak
HISP UiO Communication Director Max Krafft published an article in the University of Oslo’s Titan magazine, detailing how health authorities in both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda are using DHIS2 for disease surveillance and data collection in the ongoing Ebola outbreak, aiming to track how it develops and respond quickly. More

DHIS2 Data Quality Workshop in Cameroon
HISP WCA, along with the Cameroon Ministry of Health and the Health Information Unit, conducted a technical workshop on the parameterization of data quality tools in DHIS2, with support from the Global Fund. This is the second technical workshop of the project in Cameroon, and HISP WCA will now begin work to finalize the reports and hold training sessions for new trainers. More

DHIS2 in Senegal: A Ministry of Health Interview
HISP Rwanda published a video interview featuring Yakokh Fall, the focal person for monitoring, evaluation and epidemiological surveillance at the Ministry of Health and Social Action of Senegal. In the video, Fall discusses the evolution of DHIS2 in Senegal, the benefits of participating in a DHIS2 Academy, and the importance of continuous learning for improving data quality and decision making in health. More

Insecticide-Treated Net Campaign in Togo
HISP WCA supported a recent bed net campaign in Togo, aimed at curbing Malaria transmission from mosquito bites in the country. The Togo campaign centered on the Lomé areas of Agoè Cacavelli, Telessou and Agoè assiyéyé. More

DHIS2 for Education Workshop in Ethiopia
HISP Ethiopia joined partners and stakeholders for the South Ethiopia and Southwest Ethiopia TaRL (Teaching at the Right Level) Endline Review Planning and Material Contextualization Workshop, August 19-22. The four-day workshop included project progress reviews, achievement sharing, data management discussions, and more, related to the DHIS2-based TaRL data management system. More

Rwanda Hospitals Accreditation Platform
HISP Rwanda has created a DHIS2-based platform for hospital accreditation as part of its ongoing support for digital health initiatives within the Rwanda Ministry of Health. The Rwanda Hospitals Accreditation Platform provides a centralized platform for accreditation data management, analytics and reporting, and it aims to strengthen coordination, improve visibility of performance indicators, support timely access to information, and contribute to broader healthcare quality improvement across the nation. More

Partnership

HISP Pakistan Partnership with Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University
HISP Pakistan and the Department of Biosciences at Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University has signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen the link between academic learning and professional practice, creating opportunities for knowledge sharing, skill development, capacity building and collaborative research. More

Exploring Collaboration on Digital Health
Representatives from HISP Uganda and HISP Africa recently met with a team from Medic Afya to discuss opportunities for collaboration on digital health advances in Uganda and beyond. The group focused on shared goals, including strengthening digital health systems that are sustainable, interoperable, responsive, and designed around the needs of health workers and the communities they serve. More