The Rwanda Health Management Information System (R-HMIS), based on the District Health Information System (DHIS-2), has been successfully rolled out in all public health facilities since 2012, with completeness and timeliness rates as high as over 90 per cent.

However, although about 70 per cent of private health facilities report through the routine HMIS, there was still a need to improve completeness of their reporting through the system in order to improve HMIS data quality, which is critical to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With this regard, the Rwanda Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization conducted a four-day HMIS training for private health clinics from 19th to 22nd February 2019 to improve reporting rate from private health facilities into HMIS. In a bid to reach full coverage of private health facilities, similar training was also conducted for private dispensaries from 18th to 22nd March 2019 in Bugesera District.

During these two training sessions, the first two days mainly involved theory related to the current HMIS system, based on the DHIS-2 software and the need for data quality.

The last days were then made of practical exercises and demo on a local server.

This exercise allowed to train over 230 data managers from private health facilities. Participants were very enthusiastic; and committed to report regularly through the system.

Mr. Andrew Muhire, HMIS Team Lead representing the Ministry of Health in the workshop thanked WHO for the support provided, especially as this activity allowed reaching health facilities that hadn’t been trained before. According to Dr. Candide Tran Ngoc, African Health Observatory and real-time Strategic Information System Officer at WHO Rwanda, this activity is also critical for monitoring universal health coverage (UHC) and SDGs at all levels.

Rwanda is indeed among the ten countries supported by the WHO’s Regional Flagship Project "Strengthening health systems for UHC and SDGs", funded by the Government of Japan.