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Visibility in September: openIMIS at Fata 2018, DayOne Basel and Tying the Digital Knots

Visibility in September: openIMIS at Fata 2018, DayOne Basel and Tying the Digital Knots

September was an exciting month for the openIMIS Initiative. We presented both our software and approach at three innovative conferences: the GIZ Symposium on Economic and Social Development, DayOne Basel and Tying the digital knots in Bonn.
 
The GIZ Symposium, which discussed the opportunities and challenges of digitalization in development cooperation, was attended by a wide range of participants including development practitioners from GIZ and partner agencies, researchers and government officials. Speaking to the multidisciplinary group, Saurav Battharai introduced openIMIS as a global good during the workshop ‘Digital health and social protection: From local solutions to global goods’.
 
openIMIS was also featured prominently in two sessions at DayOne Basel. During the panel discussion ‘Making healthcare innovation happen’, Helen Prytherch of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute used the example of openIMIS to highlight the benefits provided by innovative IT solutions. What followed was a fast-paced and information-packed 60-second pitch for openIMIS by Alexander Schulze of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, followed by the design processes facilitated by Siddharth Srivastava from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute.
 
openIMIS representatives from GIZ also introduced the Initiative to Tying the digital knots: social protection in practice, a conference jointly organized by German Development Cooperation, the UK Department for International Development and the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. During the conference, stakeholders from various fields discussed the advantages and roadblocks of integrated information management in social protection. A high point was the workshop ‘With open source towards integrated information management – the example of openIMIS‘, which showcased the Initiative as a case study of how the integration of data is already being implemented in Nepal.
 
An upcoming opportunity to learn more about the openIMIS Initiative and its recent development is the 6th General Assembly of the Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) and Conference on Interoperable Digital Health for Universal Health Coverage in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on October 7. openIMIS will be presented during a dedicated session entitled ‘Open Insurance Management Information System (openIMIS) for YOU!’.