The Stakeholder Leadership Group in Namibia
discusses solutions for strengthening their
human
resources information system.
In 2007, a Capacity Project assessment team met with more than 40 stakeholders in Namibia to evaluate HRIS needs for the country. They found that Namibia already had strong data use practices and some good systems in place. For instance, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) had a comprehensive paper-based information system, but it was extremely labor- and time-intensive to maintain. Despite these limitations, the Ministry had developed powerful reporting and planning tools. These tools, however, were only utilized annually at a significant cost. For example, in order to report on retirees, staff had to pull the relevant records from 10,000 cards and manually calculate the figures, which could take over a month to compile.
Before the assessment team traveled to Namibia, they sent a new HRIS assessment questionnaire to all stakeholders. Using this tool had an unexpected side benefit. By considering the questions carefully, not only had the stakeholders already identified the strengths and weaknesses of their existing system, but they had also come to the initial meeting with a strong idea of what they wanted and needed from an HRIS in Namibia.
Together the assessment team and a newly formed Namibia HRIS Stakeholder Leadership Group (SLG) determined that a stepped approach to a comprehensive HRIS, including infrastructure strengthening, was required to quickly improve existing systems and accelerate data reporting and usage. They decided to strengthen an existing HR information management system (HRIMS) - a system owned by the Namibian government and managed by the Office of the Prime Minister - and roll it out to the country's regions. The HRIMS tracks health professionals working in the public sector and captures data on their training, certification, licensure, and deployment.
In December 2008, the HRIS strengthening work transitioned to a new five-year Capacity Project Associate Award, the Namibia HIV Prevention, Care and Support Program (referred to as the Namibian AA). One of the Namibian AA's first activities was to strengthen the IT infrastructure at the MoHSS. It assisted the MoHSS to build a state-of-the-art data center with bio-metric access control, fire detection and prevention system, and climate control. Next, in order to maximize the number of HR practitioners that can be equipped with computers, the team implemented a cost-effective Windows-based terminal solution - two terminals can be deployed for the price of one PC.
The Namibian AA is now supporting the MOHSS to roll out the HRIMS to all the Regional Management Team Offices in Namibia. Namibia has a total of 18 regional HR management offices located in its 13 regions. Historically, data has been sent from each HR management office to the central office via paper, which was extremely difficult to aggregate. To begin, the Namibian AA and the MOHSS conducted a pilot in 3 of the regions. Led by the Project's local HRIS Advisor and the head of the SLG, they linked the pilot sites via wide and local area networks to the central system in the OPM, procured and installed equipment, and trained MOHSS HR and IT staff on computers and on the HRIMS. The pilot sites went online in March 2009. Six additional regions were similarly connected in December 2009. Now, any HR movements for the online sites are updated in real time, and 15 reports can be produced and shared. The remaining four regional management offices will be connected by the end of 2010. Then all regions will have access to the HRIMS, along with access to E-service (a web-based government portal where all circulars, vacancies and other relevant documents are published), Internet, and email for related communication.
The SLG continues to lead the country's HRIS strengthening work. To specifically guide the HRIMS rollout and related activities, a subset of the SLG formed a Steering Committee in 2010. The Steering Committee meets more frequently than the larger SLG and is chaired by a MoHSS official. The Steering Committee, the Namibian AA, and the MoHSS have collaborated to develop and formalize a number of tools to ensure the HRIMS rollout is on track, successful, and sustainable. Some examples include a standard Monthly Status Report, a Disaster Recovery Plan Questionnaire, a Project Risks Document, a Lessons Learned Questionnaire, a Data Accuracy and Completeness Assessment, and a Data Confidentiality Agreement These tools have an added benefit in that they can be reused or adapted by other countries as they work to strengthen their HRIS.