Research Repository :: Browsing by Author "Lungo, Juma H."

Browsing by Author "Lungo, Juma H."

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Accessing water services in Dar es Salaam: Are we counting what counts?
(Habitat International, 2014-10) Nganyanyuka, Kapongola; Martnez, Javier; Wesselink, Anna; Lungo, Juma H.; Georgiadoua, Y.
A significant proportion of urban residents in developing countries has no access to public water supply and relies on unofficial, or even illegal, sources. They buy water from small scale water vendors or collect it from unimproved water sources. This paper draws on qualitative semi-structured interviews with public officials, private water providers and citizens to document details of citizens' strategies for accessing water in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. From these data, we develop a descriptive and evaluative framework to capture the complex mix of sources, uses, and intermediaries in planned and unplanned settings and by affluent and poor citizens. We assess to what extent these strategies solve access problems like quantity, quality, affordability and reliability. We conclude that statistics such as the Millennium Development Goals do not count the access to drinking water that counts for citizens. We discern a bias towards formal state or privatised city-wide systems, discounting the mostly informal, small-scale and unofficial strategies to access water.
Citizen Sensors or Extreme Publics? Transparency and Accountability Interventions on the Mobile Geoweb
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2013-05-08) Georgiadoua, Y.; Lungo, Juma H.; Richter, C.
Transparency and Accountability (T&A) interventions are emergent social technologies in middle and low-income countries. They bring together citizen sensors, mobile communications, geo-browsers and social organization to raise public awareness on the extent of governance deficits, and monitor government's (in)action. Due to their novelty, almost all we know about the effectiveness of T&A interventions comes from gray literature. Can citizen sensors radically increase the transparency of the state, or are changes brought about by T&A interventions more likely to be incremental? We review the literature on transparency policies and describe their drivers, characteristics and supply–demand dynamics. We discuss promising cases of T&A interventions in East Africa, the empirical focus of an on-going collaborative research program. We conclude that the effect of T&A interventions is more likely to be incremental and mediated by existing organizations and professional users who populate the space between the state and citizens. Two elements at the interface between supply and demand seem rather crucial for designers of T&A interventions: accountability-relevant data and extreme publics.
Collecting Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response Data through Mobile Phones
(2012-01) Pascoe, Luba; Kaasbøll, Jens; Lungo, Juma H.; Koleleni, Ismail
This study focuses on improving the routine reporting of health data by identifying the challenges associated with timely reporting of routine data from the primary health facilities to the district and determines how mobile phones can be used to overcome the problem and thus enhance information use for action at all levels of the health system. Findings have indicated that, timely reporting of routine health data face challenges such as poor infrastructure, remoteness of the health facilities from the district where they have to submit their reports as well as transport costs that health workers have to incur in order to submit their report. Facing these challenges, this research revealed that the use of mobile phone application built in the District Health Information System database can provide an easy, cost effective and reliable means for reporting of health data. Over a period of 5 months, the data completeness and timeliness improved from 50% to 89%. This implies that the routine reporting of around ten data elements through mobile phones is feasible. The study recommends rigorous supervision, which among other things checks for data quality and correctness.
Critical issues associated with adoption and use of open source software in public sector: Insights from Tanzania
(2006) Lungo, Juma H.
Two Open Source Software (OSS) projects in Tanzania are discussed as exemplar efforts for the adaptation and use of OSS in public sector. The projects investigated in this Action Research Study were from the Health and Education Sectors. The two projects are of important in that, they use two different approaches of embracing OSS where the Health Sector project uses an approach of getting existing and working open source software framework and customizes it with the help of contributors from Open Source Community, while the Education Sector project developed software from scratch under the auspice of OSS development approach. A comparative analysis of the two projects with the terms of the Open Source Software definition indicates that the two developed software did not take into consideration of all OSS terms. The study concludes that the deviation from the terms of OSS definition reflect incompatibility between free software and open source software philosophies which results into difficulties to comply with one of them. As a result the focus is to achieve the freedom to use the software for any purpose and for any number of computers and the freedom to maintain the software without depending on the author of the software.
Data Flows in Health Information Systems: An Action Research Study of Reporting Routine Health Delivery Services and Implementation of Computer Databases in Health Information Systems
(2003-05-02) Lungo, Juma H.
This study evaluated the reporting of routine health delivery services and prototyped a computer database, district health information software (DHIS), in the health information systems in Tanzania and Mozambique using case study sites in Bagamoyo district and Gaza province in Tanzania and Mozambique, respectively, from March to August 2002. The purpose of the study was to assess and determine the quality and quantity of reporting of health delivery services; and the benefit, challenges, and conditions for implementing a computer database at the district level of the health information systems in both countries. The study falls under the framework of action research, where the phases of action research (diagnosis, action planning, action taking, evaluation, and specifying learning) were executed in sequence and cyclically. The diagnosis phase of the study was carried out through interviews, questionnaire, analysis of texts and documents, and participant observations. Appropriate actions were planned. In the action phase, software was developed in order to migrate data from existing computer databases to the DHIS; data were migrated from paper-based databases to the DHIS; and the DHIS was translated into Swahili while adopted in Tanzania. Evaluation of the actions taken was conducted through group discussions and workshops with health workers. To specify learning, reports of the results were prepared and presented to the Ministries of Health for review. The results were analysed using the DHIS, SPSS computer software, and using content analysis. The findings were presented quantitatively and qualitatively using tables, graphs, figures, photos, and elaboration. The findings indicated that the health data being reported were not sufficient to support informed decision-making and health planning. The causes of the low quality of the data identified include incomplete, inaccurate, and untimely reporting; lack of resources and office space; existence of legacy information systems; and the existence of parallel reporting systems in the health information systems. The findings also indicated the major challenges in introducing computer databases to be the participation of users and the existing computer database systems. The study demonstrated that the DHIS is suitable software for the health information systems, and that data locked in legacy information systems can be safely extracted and migrated to new information systems.
Design-Reality Gaps in Open Source Information Systems Development: An Action Research
(Lambert Academic Publishing (LAP), 2009-08-26) Lungo, Juma H.
This book, Design-Reality Gaps in Open Source Information Systems Development, presents a theoretical and empirically informed analysis of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) development in the domain of health and education information systems in Tanzania. Historically, FOSS development has been driven by user-developer communities who are also the users of FOSS applications. Information Systems (IS) are characterised by distinctive users and developers communities as separate groups. The use of FOSS in IS domain has received limited attention in the FOSS literature. The FOSS development approach, as well as the justifications for using FOSS in the infrastructure domain where users are developers, are inherently problematic when applied in the IS domain in developing countries. There is an urgent need to identify alternative conceptualisations of the FOSS phenomenon suitable to the goals and context of information systems in developing countries. The book focuses on the analysing the interplay between the sociotechnical conditions of IS in developing countries and the FOSS development approach.
Design-Reality Gaps in Open Source Information Systems Development: An Action Research Study of Education and Healthcare Systems in Tanzania
(2008-06-11) Lungo, Juma H.
The core concept of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) is that full access to software source code must be granted in order to give individuals the freedom to create, use and distribute software. It emphasises the logic of non-discrimination to create conditions for free action and thought. This makes FOSS to be reminiscent of the Ujamaa policy of Tanzania which argues for all members of the society to have equal rights and equal opportunities. This thesis presents a theoretical and empirical informed analysis of FOSS development in information systems (IS) using cases from the health and education sectors in Tanzania. It focuses on the interplay between the socio-technical conditions of IS in developing countries and the FOSS development approach. The research design was based on participatory action research. The objectives were to illuminate the design-reality gaps in FOSS development in the context of developing countries. Three archetypal situations that exacerbate the reality of FOSS implementation in developing countries were identified as developer – sponsor, global developer – local developer, and local developer – local user gaps. The thesis recommends that, implementing FOSS in IS requires substantial investment on localising the software, training users, and developing support networks. The advantage of FOSS development in developing countries centres on the formation of sustainable collaborative networks through sharing of software and knowledge. These networks are important in helping a developing country to support the day to day customisation and managing of FOSS products. Based on the findings of this study, an alternative conceptualisation of FOSS development which emphasises co-located project organisations as a coping strategy to meet the challenges of social-technical influences is advisable. This is a different approach from working on virtual teams as the literature presents the development and organisation approaches of FOSS.
Designing and Implementing Hospital Management Information Systems in Developing Countries: Case Studies from Tanzania – Zanzibar
(2007) Igira, Faraja T; Titlestad, Ola H.; Lungo, Juma H.; Makungu, Asha; Khamis, Maryam M; Sheikh, Yahya; Mahundi, Masoud; Ngeni, Mwana J; Suleiman, Omar; Braa, Jørn
Research and development projects have shown the need for strengthening hospital management information systems (HMIS) [1][2], but this has proven a difficult task, especially in developing countries [3][4][5]. The hospitals in Zanzibar have experienced problems in collecting and managing health care data due to fragmented structures and lack of standardisation. This paper analyses an on-going participatory design effort involving computer experts, health workers and hospital mangers in joint development of an integrated health information system the hospitals in Zanzibar. The challenges encountered during the process were related to the negotiation of standardised data collection, the busy schedule of health workers hampering a participatory process, the low level of computer knowledge among the health workers, the difficulties of getting correct data from the lower level’s register books, and the continuous process of establishing a culture of information use. Key lessons learned from this case study are the need to provide sufficient time to implement HIS in this context due to the difficulty of health workers and mangers to understand the logics of a computerised information system, which is needed to take full advantage of the technology. A long-term mutual training process where technical and medical/managerial personnel work together on improving information use is proposed to overcome this challenge.
Designing and Implementing Hospital Management Information Systems: Experiences from Zanzibar
(2007) Igira, Faraja; Titlestad, Ola H.; Lungo, Juma H.; Shaw, Vincent; Sheikh, Yahya; Mahundi, Masoud; Suleiman, Omar; Khamis, Maryam M.; Makungu, Asha; Braa, Jørn
Hospitals in Zanzibar have experienced problems in collecting and managing its health care data. The main problem was lack of standards in data collection and reporting from the wards and clinics. The decisions to improve the information system within the hospitals embarked on a project known as the Health Information Systems Programme (HISP). This paper analyses HISP’s on-going action research and participatory design efforts in the development of an integrated HIS for hospitals in Zanzibar. Key lessons learned are the need for a long term strategy to HIS development, identifying the most important data sets and gather them early on, providing feedback to health workers from an early system implementation stage, the focus should include the source of information and HIS is a developmental activity. At the time of writing this paper there are standardized paper forms for data collection, established reporting routines and a working version of computer software for data storage, analysis and reporting.
Development of Health Information System in Zanzibar: Practical Implications
(2008-01-08) Lungo, Juma H.; Igira, Faraja
The Ministry of Health in Zanzibar has embarked on Health Information System development with the aim of streamlining health data collection, storage, analysis and reporting in order to attain data-driven informed decision-making. The project involved two aspects: development of essential health data sets and implementation of a computerised data-storage and analysis tool. From January 2005 to December 2007 during the implementation of the project data were collected through a triangulation of qualitative methods: interviews, participant observation, document analysis, software development and training workshops. The study indicates that carefully-planned leadership of a project, clearly-stated goals and distinction between the roles of technical and sponsor networks strengthen an ICT project immeasurably. Lessons drawn include the use of local, culturally-immersed leaders to spearhead the project and the use of flexible open-source software as translators of the primary actor’s interest in achieving the goals through enrolling other actors.
Experiences of Open Source Software in Institutions: Cases from Tanzania and Norway
(2007) Lungo, Juma H.; Kaasbøl, Jens J
Despite the wide spread adoption of Open Source Software (OSS), there are continuing debates over the competition between OSS and proprietary software. Proponents of open source software contend that developing countries find ICT to be too expensive to afford but with Open Source Software they will manage to leap frog and address the digital divide. We found it useful to establish more evidence of the usefulness of open source software. In this study, the consequences of adoption and use of OSS was investigated in a cross sectional interpretive case study in selected Institutions in Tanzania and Norway. The empirical material suggests that OSS products are enterprise dependent software. They lower ICT expenditure, support open standards implementation, and promote creative knowledge on the use of local languages.
The Impacts of Legacy Information Systems in Reporting Routine Health Delivery Services: Case Studies from Mozambique and Tanzania
(2004) Lungo, Juma H.; Nhampossa, José L
The awareness of the importance of effective health information systems (HIS) has increased substantially and is reflected by many ongoing efforts of HISs reform in many developing countries. However, the one mostly mentioned obstacle for health information systems reform is Legacy Information Systems (LIS). The impacts of LIS in the reporting of routine health delivery services were studied in a participatory action research using case study sites in Tanzania and Mozambique. LIS impacts are on the process of introducing changes (reforms) on the HIS, and on everyday functioning of the HIS. LIS were determined to cause poor quality of health data, incomplete reporting of health data, and burden to health workers. The study recommends the Ministries of Health to relinquish the LIS. A demonstration on extracting and loading of locked health data on LIS to new health information software using extraction transformation and loading (ETL) software was performed.
Implementation of ICTs in Health and Management Information System for Zanzibar
(2007) Lungo, Juma H.; Sheikh, Yahya; Igira, Faraja; Braa, Jørn; Titlestad, Ola; Mahundi, Masoud; Abubakar, Bakar; Twaakyondo, Hashim M.; Suleiman, Omar
In November 2004, the Ministry of Health in Zanzibar and itsstakeholders conducted a HMIS review. The results revealed that the HMIS isfragmented and does notsupport datadriven decision-making. To address theseshortcomings, a roadmap towards development of HMIS was agreed as follows: (1)development of essential datasets, (2) developing and implementing a computer database. The decision was to take theDistrict Health Information Software (DHIS)developed by the Health Information System Programme(HISP) and customise it tofit the context in Zanzibar. HISP is a global project using Action research andParticipatory design approaches to empower the emerging local health managementstructures and health workers through improved and locally based information systems in a number of developingcountries. At the time of writing this paper there is essential datasets and an implemented computer database usedfor data storage, analysis and reporting
Open Source Software in Health Information Systems: Opportunities and Challenges
(College of Engineering and Technology; University of Dar es Salaam, 2008-03) Twaakyondo, Hashim M.; Lungo, Juma H.
The paper presents results of a study seeking to identify constraining and motivating factors associated with the adoption and use of Free Open Source Software to computerise health Information Systems in a developing country. The study approach is interpretive research to case study with a triangulation of several qualitative data collection methods such as interviews; group discussions and document analysis. The findings indicate that using open source software has advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are low entry cost to adopting software; possibilities of software localization; avoiding being hostage of proprietary software and foster knowledge acquisition among software developers. The disadvantages are the need for constant internet access; high switching costs; and lack of human resources especially IT professionals to maintain the software since users get more rights in using and maintaining the system. The study concludes that because of the dynamics in health information systems; open source is appropriate.
Optimization of learning management systems through systems integration: The case of Moodle and Zalongwa software
(2013-11) Lungo, Juma H.
Learning Management Systems (LMS) are enabler of virtual learning mode. Training materials, communications, exams, assignments and students grades in virtual learning mode are managed through LMS. Popular LMS software includes Blackboard, webCT and Moodle. In most higher learning institutions especially in Africa, virtual learning are delivered in a blended mode, which is a mix of face to face and online learning using LMS. While LMS serves as academic based information system, higher learning institutions make use of administrative information as stand-alone systems to support management of the institutions. Common administrative software categories includes: Accounting packages, Student Academic Registration Information Systems (SARIS) and Human Resources Information Systems. SARIS in particular, records study programmes, courses, student list, examinations results, accommodation services, etc. In most cases, administrative software is implemented first before LMS come to its existence. When it comes to installation of LMS, and data entry process which is also implemented in the administrative systems is seen as redundant. Thus, the success of LMS implementation to some extent depends on how well the LMS is integrated to existing management support software. This paper shares a study from a long term project where the use of LMS was optimized due to a successful integration of Moodle LMS and Zalongwa SARIS. The project shed light that repetitive registration of students, study programmes and courses in two systems (SARIS and LMS) is tedious, confusing and slows down uptake of LMS use in higher learning institutions. Specifically, through the integration process of the Zalongwa SARIS and Moodle LMS, courses and students accounts were managed from the SARIS system and LMS was just referring to SARIS to manage respective contents of the courses. The paper also shares challenges and opportunities for integrating two software which are web-based and are managed in two different servers. Specifically, the integration was done through a web service approach, where the LMS systems query the SARIS system for the student's year of study, courses, username and password. Then the LMS display appropriate courses for each candidate based on the query result. The end result was that the need for registering all courses and creating students accounts in two systems (LMS and SARIS) was eliminated. Since students are using the same username and password as in SARIS, the barrier to access learning materials in LMS became a history.
The Reliability and Usability of District Health Information Software: case studies from Tanzania
(2008) Lungo, Juma H.
The District Health Information System (DHIS) software from the Health Information System Programme (HISP) based in South Africa is widely implemented in many developing countries as a health data analysis tool. Through the HISP Tanzania project, the DHIS was piloted in five districts in Tanzania. The objective of this study was to qualify and quantify the extent to which district health workers consider the adaptation of the DHIS software to the needs of the routine health management information system. In a period of 14 months (from June 2003 to August 2004) data were collected from health workers trained to use the software through a triangulation of various qualitative data collection techniques including interview, questionnaire, participant observations and retrospective testing. The software was evaluated in terms of reliability, usability and user satisfaction. In general the reliability of the software was rated high but its usability was rated to be low. The software was found not to accommodate some health data from various health programmes and there was a mismatch between the implemented online data entry forms/reports and their respective paper-based forms/reports. The study recommends improved design of the DHIS user interface (forms) and reports to replicate the paper-based forms in order to assure usability and reduce the incidences and impact of human errors in the keying-in of health data.
Sensors, Empowerment, and Accountability: a Digital Earth view from East Africa
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2011-06-21) Georgiadoua, Y.; Bana, Benson; Becht, Robert; Hoppe, Robert; Ikingura, Justinian; Kraak, Menno-Jan; Lance, Kate; Lemmens, Rob; Lungo, Juma H.; McCall, Michael; Miscione, Gianluca; Verplanke, Jeroen
Several innovative ‘participatory sensing’ initiatives are under way in East Africa. They can be seen as local manifestations of the global notion of Digital Earth. The initiatives aim to amplify the voice of ordinary citizens, improve citizens' capacity to directly influence public service delivery and hold local government accountable. The popularity of these innovations is, among other things, a local reaction to the partial failure of the millennium development goals (MDGs) to deliver accurate statistics on public services in Africa. Empowered citizens, with access to standard mobile phones, can ‘sense’ via text messages and report failures in the delivery of local government services. The public disclosure of these reports on the web and other mass media may pressure local authorities to take remedial action. In this paper, we outline the potential and research challenges of a ‘participatory sensing’ platform, which we call a ‘human sensor web.’ Digital Africa's first priority could be to harness continent-wide and national data as well as local information resources, collected by citizens, in order to monitor, measure and forecast MDGs.

Browsing by Author "Lungo, Juma H."

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