The Capacity Project was also a major part of my life over the last five years, as I was a member of the human resources information systems strengthening team, which developed open source HRIS software and deployed it in several countries in Africa. According to USAID, the funder of the Capacity Project, HRIS strengthening was one of the significant contributions of the project, laying the groundwork for future health systems strengthening.

According to all reports, the event and expo was very successful. Please go read more about it on the HRIS Strengthening team’s blog.

We created print and electronic forms of the Toolkit. The print version comes in a snazzy three-hole binder so that you can photocopy tools, attach notes, etc. The electronic version, distributed on our website as well as on flash drives and CD-ROMs, also includes the Windows version of our iHRIS Suite of HR information system solutions, as well as all of the software documentation.

So far, the Toolkit has been getting good reviews from our donor, USAID, and it has been distributed to WHO’s Health Workforce Observatory list. Next week, it will debut at the HRIS Strengthening workshop our team is holding in Arusha, Tanzania. I’m proud of the Toolkit, which I produced in collaboration with a great team of folks. I know it wouldn’t have been possible to put together something like this and coordinate all the inputs and editing without the focus I’ve given to it over the past 6 months.

Although I am still working on some minor projects for our HRIS strengthening project, namely expanding our knowledge base and improving our software documentation, I don’t have another big project on the horizon yet to replace this one. I am sure the right project will present itself at the right time, but for now I am grateful for the downtime.

Please check out the HRIS Strengthening Implementation Toolkit on our HRIS Strengthening website.