Abstract:
The health system in South Africa has to date been fragmented and centralised. The
priority of the new government is to establish an integrated and decentralised district
health system of which a key element is the development of district health and management
information systems (H & MIS). This paper presents experiences from two projects in
the Western Cape in which a process to establish a district-based H & MIS was initiated
and a situation analysis of the information systems was done. The two projects applied
different research methods but the results show with remarkable consistency that much
time is used on data collection, but information is not used at local level. The projects
have applied different approaches towards developing a district H & MIS but in both
important pre-requisites for a successful, action-led H & MIS include local ownership
and motivation, a process based around existing local management structures and the
active involvement of the community
Keywords:
Health Information Systems - Management Information - District Health Systems
