April 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to our April 2025 newsletter! Many exciting things have happened that we want to call your attention to:

Upcoming Events

• Community Connect Event in May  

Latest News

• South-South Cooperation at its Best
• Celebrating Women in Tech Profiles
• openIMIS and Private Software Developers
• ¿Qué es openIMIS? – An Introduction in Spanish to openIMIS

Technical Updates

• User Acceptance Tests and Software Release
• Accessibility Report and Inclusivity

Community connect event – What do you want to address?

The Community Connect Event of 2025  is coming up: on May 13th and 14th from 10 am until 1:30 pm (ECT), we are getting together via Teams to discuss ideas around openIMIS and exchange experiences. Whether you are a user, a developer, or an implementer – your ideas matter! Let us know what you want to address during the event here.  

We are looking forward to seeing you there! 

South-South cooperation at its best - Delegates from Africa learn from Nepal’s openIMIS implementation

In January 2025, senior representatives from Ethiopia, Senegal, and Zambia visited Nepal to gain insight into how the country is using the openIMIS platform to manage its national health insurance. Hosted by Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population, the delegates experienced an inspiring week of meetings, field visits, workshops, and peer learning with institutions such as the Health Insurance Board, Social Security Fund, and Kathmandu University.

Supported by the European Commission through the Digital Convergence Initiative, and jointly organized by GIZ, ILO and Expertise France, the tour highlighted the power of SouthSouth cooperation in accelerating digital innovation. From observing household enrolment processes to seeing how openIMIS is used in academic training, the visit offered various opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange.  

Find out more in the article.

Celebrating Women in Tech: Karolliny Nayra dos Santos Lima on driving change in digital health 

The article series “Celebrating Women in Tech” is dedicated toward spotlighting women working with the openIMIS Initiative from across the world in diverse technical roles. In the latest portrait, we introduce to you Karolliny Nayra dos Santos Lima, IT Analyst at Dataprev, who has been breaking barriers in the tech world for over 18 years.  

Her résumé is an impressive example of curiosity, lifelong learning, and resilience in a field still working toward gender balance. From having worked in public and private sector businesses to shaping digital health solutions with openIMIS, she’s constantly expanding her skills in various fields - and inspiring everyone around her.  

Get inspired by her story and insights here.

openIMIS and private software developers: a mutually beneficial collaboration

Private software developers are playing a pivotal role in expanding and innovating openIMIS. By customizing and enhancing the software for local needs - from social protection in The Gambia to insurance fraud detection in Nepal - developers are not only strengthening public service delivery but also growing their own technical expertise and business opportunities. The openIMIS community actively supports this collaboration through training, technical resources, and tenders, helping to build sustainable digital ecosystems in partner countries.  

Read more about how openIMIS showcases open-source solutions driving local innovation while contributing to global public infrastructure here.

¿Qué es openIMIS? –  An introduction in Spanish to openIMIS 

Our goal is to make the benefits of openIMIS available to as many people as possible from all across the world. To achieve this goal we are now exploring possibilities of expanding into Spanish-speaking countries such as Peru. In this video, Andrea Martin introduces the open-source approach, openIMIS’s history and implementations, and shows its interface and functions – all in Spanish.  

Spread the word to your Hispanophone colleagues and help distributing this Global Public Good to new continents and communities! 

Accessibility Report and Inclusivity

We are excited to share the results of a recent accessibility audit conducted by our partner SolDevelo, aimed at making openIMIS more inclusive and user-friendly for all.

As openIMIS continues to support health financing and social protection schemes—especially in low- and middle-income countries—ensuring accessibility for people with disabilities is a vital step in improving digital equity. The audit focused on identifying barriers that could prevent users from fully engaging with the platform.

Key insights from the audit: SolDevelo found 24 accessibility issues across several key pages of the openIMIS interface. These included challenges such as keyboard navigation limitations and screen reader incompatibilities, which can significantly affect users with motor or visual impairments.

To address these, SolDevelo used a blend of automated and manual testing, providing clear recommendations, including code-level fixes, to streamline the improvement process for developers.

This audit was conducted pro bono, reflecting SolDevelo’s ongoing commitment to inclusive technology and Digital Public Goods. Their support is helping us ensure that openIMIS is accessible, usable, and compliant with global accessibility standards like WCAG 2.1.

We’re deeply grateful for this collaboration and will continue working to implement the recommended improvements—because inclusivity is essential to health equity.

Thank you for being part of the openIMIS community.

Read more about it in our wiki or in the full article.

Follow our channels on YouTube and Linkedin to stay tuned about changes in the software and developments in the community.