About DUP

The Ethiopia Data Use Partnership (DUP) is a collaboration between the Ethiopian Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and a data use consortium of JSI, University of Gondar, Regenstrief Institute and Gobee Group of the US under Gates Foundation grant. The DUP aims to improve the collection and use of high-quality routine information in the health sector, leading to better quality, efficiency, and availability of primary health and nutrition services at all levels of the health system.DUP is also an engagement platform for implementing partners and donors, spearheaded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It seeks to attract additional commitments to strengthening the national health information system.

Curriculum Harmonization Workshop organized by the University of Gondar and FMOH under the DUP Project, OCtober 2017

The University of Gondar is leading the Capacity building and supporting the overall implementation of different Innovative data use initiatives at Federal Ministry of Health. In the capacity building work, the eHealthLab Ethiopia team of the University of Gondar will harmonize the bachelors level curriculum for national use, will develop a new advance standing curriculum to train HIT’s to Degree. Additionally, the team will lead the development of standardized training modules for core courses of health informatics curriculum. With this technical support, University of Gondar will support other universities to start new training programs in Health informatics to train 2000 bachelors, 80 masters and 10 PhD students in the coming five years.

DUP Approach

The DUP is grounded in a participatory, user-centered approach and follows the four guiding principles and two pillars:

1. Country ownership & accountability- the DUP will establish a long-term capacity building partnership with the FMOH
2. Inclusive & active collaboration with a range of cross-sector stakeholders
3. Investment to a pervasive information culture that promotes active data use at each layer of the health system
4. Innovation & strategic change, stemming from human-centered design and systems thinking that builds on current investments and encourages learning from local and global experiences

What we Do?

The FMOH recently launched the Information Revolution Road map (IR), a strategy that fundamentally shifts current approaches to data collection and information management. It champions a data culture where stakeholders actively use data for decision-making.Committed to the FMOH’s vision of delivering quality healthcare throughout the country, the DUP supports the national implementation of the IR over the next five years. The comprehensive initiative will include organizational strengthening, selective system design, accelerated system expansion, individual capacity building, and cultural change activities. we are integrating all those initiatives into the pre-service training to produce competent graduates.

The project activities follow the IR’s framework that includes two pillars- cultivating an information culture and digitization and an overarching HIS governance, stressing country leadership, ownership, and strong coordination among diverse stakeholders.

Pillars

PILLAR 1: Cultivating an Information Culture

A primary DUP focus is promoting a culture of data use. Empowering stakeholders at every level to not only collect high quality data, but to also consistently apply the information in decision- making will positively impact Ethiopia’s health system and health outcomes. Pillar 1 activities involve facilitating individual capacity building in coordination with local universities, as well as using the Connected Woreda Concept for the organizational strengthening of performance review teams through user-centered innovation labs.

PILLAR 2: Digitization and scale Up of priorities

The DUP will establish foundational components and capacities in eHealth architecture, including establishing a data warehouse and continuing the work on the master facility registry and the national health data dictionary. Pillar two activities are critical in making data accessible to stakeholders by setting data standards for eHealth solutions and promoting interoperability between the country’s different health information systems.