Open Health Internet Tool Helps Track Medics in Africa

Resource allocation towards reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) in Uganda is expected to improve after the country unveiled an online tracking tool. The new move is part of the East African Community support to member states, under the Open Health Initiative, in building sustainable networks that will improve women and children's health.

Tanzania unveiled the tool in 2013, followed by Rwanda a year later. Burundi and Kenya are also working on their tools prior to the official launch. The new tracking tool, running on a web domain rmnch.samasha.org was developed by the ministry of Health and Samasha Medical Foundation, a Kampala-based NGO that helps local actors deliver practical solutions to improvement of health services.

Najimaldin Kyeyune, the IT consultant at Samasha, said the new system has already received and stored financial information of 15 civil society organisations involved in 24 projects on reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health. "Resource tracking on RMNCH will provide information on the financing and expenditure on the national status, showing who has funded the programmes, who has provided the services, what services have been provided, and who benefitted from the services," Najimaldin said.