Country Reps on OpenLMIS Governance

[Sarah Jackson]

Hi All -

Any feedback on the proposed message to country teams below? I'd like to get some input from country teams before the committee meets again in two weeks. I think I may have made a goof when sending my email earlier and everyone may not have received the message, so apologies if you did not get this the first time.

Mattias – Can you forward this out to Cote D'Ivore, Tanzania, and Zambia, or provide feedback on content?

Gaurav – Can you do the same for Mozambique or any other relevant country teams?

I will do the same for Mozambique and Benin.

Thanks,

Sarah

From: Sarah Jackson <sarah....@villagereach.org>
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2015 11:36 AM
To: Gaurav <gbhatt...@gmail.com>, OpenLMIS Governance <openlmis-gove...@googlegroups.com>, Marasi Mwencha <marasi_...@jsi.com>
Cc: "openlmis_prod...@googlegroups.com" <openlmis_prod...@googlegroups.com>, "openlm...@googlegroups.com" <openlm...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: OpenLMIS Governance Call Nov 17th - Meeting Notes

Hi Gaurav,

I think this is a great idea. If I understand what you are saying, we would form an OpenLMIS Users Group, and that group would nominate a rep to participate in the governance committee. I like this idea because it gets countries talking to each other about OpenLMIS, and lets the users group work directly together to advance the ideas that are important to them. I would also like to see this group having physical meetings once a year (or so) in addition to the calls, and I think we could try to find the funding for that in the current grant.

On the governance call we decided that the best next step would be to toss these ideas out to the country teams so they could get feedback from their ministry counterparts. Here is a draft of a note I think we could all forward to our in-country colleagues. I'd like some feedback on the approach of this note before we distribute. Marasi – do you have any input on the approach below?

---

Hello All -

As we start to bring together a broad community of stakeholders to work on the OpenLMIS project, we are seeking ways to increase country-level ministry involvement in the OpenLMIS community. Currently, the OpenLMIS community has three main committees (governance, product, and technical) that are meeting monthly or bi-weekly, which are constituted by members from the organizations that current work on OpenLMIS (JSI, PATH, CHAI, ThoughtWorks, VillageReach, etc.). We'd like your help and opinion on what the best approach would be to increase country participation in the community. We have some initial questions to gauge interest, and it would be helpful if you could work with ministry stakeholders in your country to get their input on the items below. In addition, if you have other ideas, we are eager to hear your country team's opinion on what would work best. 

OpenLMIS Country Participation Questionnaire

1. OpenLMIS is intended to be a multi-country effort that supports the priorities of Ministries of Health. What discussion topics would be of interest to you, and encourage you to join OpenLMIS community calls?
   • Prioritizing New Features Needed in the System
   • Sharing Successes, Challenges, and Lessons Learned with Other Countries
   • Helping New Countries Considering Adopting OpenLMIS
   • Collaborating on Seeking Funding for OpenLMIS Sustainment
   • Hearing Updates on What is Happening in the OpenLMIS Community
   • Other: What?
2. Who are potential representatives that would be willing to participate in the OpenLMIS community? Please list name and title. Ideally we are looking for someone who leads or sits on a ICT committee, or a logistics working group, and has practical knowledge of the OpenLMIS implementation and their countries needs regarding LMIS. 
3. Which of the following mechanisms for participating in the community would you country prefer to participate in:
   • OpenLMIS Country User Groups meeting composed of representatives from multiple countries. User group would set the agenda for their meetings, which could include topics such as feature needs, sustainability, funding, and upgrades. We would hope to bring the user group together for a physical conference when possible. The user group would elect one representative to participate on the OpenLMIS Governance Committee.
   • Country representatives join the current OpenLMIS Governance Committee. This committee is tasked with leading the OpenLMIS community, including defining community decision-making processes, seeking out funding for the community, and collaboratively working on new country implementation opportunities. We would work to include country representation priorities on the agenda for these meetings, however it is likely that there will be some topics that will be of less interest to ministry personnel.    See agenda from the last governance committee meeting here: https://openlmis.atlassian.net/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=33685540

From: Gaurav <gbhatt...@gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2015 5:48 AM
To: Sarah Jackson <sarah....@villagereach.org>
Cc: OpenLMIS Governance <openlmis-gove...@googlegroups.com>, "openlmis_prod...@googlegroups.com" <openlmis_prod...@googlegroups.com>, "openlm...@googlegroups.com" <openlm...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: OpenLMIS Governance Call Nov 17th - Meeting Notes

Hi everyone,

One of the things we discussed on yesterday's call was how we can involve country MOH representatives and there were some concerns and ideas shared. I think we all agree that its important to have countries be involved meaningfully and for them to have a voice/role in shaping Open LMIS. I wonder if we should set up a "client/end-user" group that can have representation on the governance committee (and on the other 2 committees for that matter). I know that this can complicate things a little and I am happy to support better ways of doing this. I think there are at least three things that can be huge positives in this approach:

1. a group like this could allow countries to discuss individual country interests and prioritize requirements for the overall system, limiting the need for other non-MOH members to "manage" expectations 

2.  the group's representative will be answerable to his/her colleagues and this could drive participation and engagement, and

3. discussions/buy-in on new deployments, access to relevant data/information and sustainability models will be easier to have and inclusive

Happy to discuss this more and would love to get your thoughts on this.

Thanks,

Gaurav

On Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 8:20 PM, Sarah Jackson <sarah....@villagereach.org> wrote:

The governance committee met today and discussed the following topics:

• Sharing OpenLMIS Opportunities – what are protocols for sharing business development opportunities, and what opportunities are we currently seeing?
• Governance Committee Make-Up/ Country Participation – How do we support greater country participation in OpenLMIS leadership? Should country reps be added to the governance committee?
• Re-Architecture – How will governance committee participate in upcoming OpenLMIS re-architecture? Do we need an ad-hoc call to discuss this?

For answers to these questions and more, see the full meeting notes available on the wiki: https://openlmis.atlassian.net/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=33685540

Also note that the monthly community meeting has now officially been repurposed as the governance call, and the meeting invitation and wiki have been updated accordingly.

Thanks!

Sarah

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[Marasi Mwencha]

Did you get this message:

Hi Sarah, 

Thanks for the opportunity to comment on this. The approach  that Gaurav suggests is good. I have a couple of questions and suggestions:

1) Is the message going out to MOH team members or is it going out to partners?  If it is to the former, we perhaps need to wordsmith it some so that the message resonates within this group. For example, most of the Tanzania stakeholders would only know eLMIS and not OpenLMIS. 

2) It would also be important to understand how governance is being managed at the "local" level and saying that this initiative would help in dovetailing that support to the global level. 

3) Has there been talk on some minimal pre-requisites to be a part of the group so that MOH's are better informed on who they should select to represent their interests? 

Regards, 

Marasi. 

Marasi Mwencha
Deputy Country Director - Strategic and Technical Support

SCMS and USAID | DELIVER PROJECT

John Snow, Inc.

Plot No. 392. | Toure Drive, Masaki | P.O. Box 9263 | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 

Email: mmwe...@jsi.com | Tel: +255 22 260 2891-3 | Mobile: +255 (0) 688 244 266 | Skype: marasi.mwencha

Visit us at: www.jsi.com , www.scms.pfscm.org , www.deliver.jsi.com

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[Sarah Jackson]

Thanks. Comments inline below.

From: Marasi Mwencha <marasi_...@jsi.com>
Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 11:56 PM
To: Sarah Jackson <sarah....@villagereach.org>
Cc: "openlmis-...@googlegroups.com" <openlmis-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Country Reps on OpenLMIS Governance

Did you get this message:

Hi Sarah, 

Thanks for the opportunity to comment on this. The approach  that Gaurav suggests is good. I have a couple of questions and suggestions:

1) Is the message going out to MOH team members or is it going out to partners?  If it is to the former, we perhaps need to wordsmith it some so that the message resonates within this group. For example, most of the Tanzania stakeholders would only know eLMIS and not OpenLMIS. 

-- Agreed. The purpose of the draft is to help our country counterparts reach out to the ministry, but they can modify as appropriate. If you have any general modifications, feel free to suggest. Alternately, I could just change the message to a list of key bullets, then let each country team take it from there in terms of specific wording (or reaching out in person, etc.)

2) It would also be important to understand how governance is being managed at the "local" level and saying that this initiative would help in dovetailing that support to the global level. 

-- This would vary by country, correct? I don't think the global community needs to get involved in the local governance, but that partner knowledge of the local governance structure would influence how they would communicate with the ministry regarding representation. Again, this could be modified by each country team as they work the issue locally. 

3) Has there been talk on some minimal pre-requisites to be a part of the group so that MOH's are better informed on who they should select to represent their interests? 

--No. What would you suggest on pre-requisites?

Regards, 

Marasi. 

Marasi Mwencha
Deputy Country Director - Strategic and Technical Support

SCMS and USAID | DELIVER PROJECT

John Snow, Inc.

Plot No. 392. | Toure Drive, Masaki | P.O. Box 9263 | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 

Email: mmwe...@jsi.com | Tel: +255 22 260 2891-3 | Mobile: +255 (0) 688 244 266 | Skype: marasi.mwencha

Visit us at: www.jsi.com , www.scms.pfscm.org , www.deliver.jsi.com

ATT00001

[Marasi Mwencha]

Comments inline in blue. 

Regards, 

Marasi. 

Marasi Mwencha
Deputy Country Director - Strategic and Technical Support

SCMS and USAID | DELIVER PROJECT

John Snow, Inc.

Plot No. 392. | Toure Drive, Masaki | P.O. Box 9263 | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 

Email: mmwe...@jsi.com | Tel: +255 22 260 2891-3 | Mobile: +255 (0) 688 244 266 | Skype: marasi.mwencha

Visit us at: www.jsi.com , www.scms.pfscm.org , www.deliver.jsi.com

On Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 9:10 PM, Sarah Jackson <sarah....@villagereach.org> wrote:

Thanks. Comments inline below.

From: Marasi Mwencha <marasi_...@jsi.com>
Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2015 11:56 PM
To: Sarah Jackson <sarah....@villagereach.org>
Cc: "openlmis-...@googlegroups.com" <openlmis-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Country Reps on OpenLMIS Governance

Did you get this message:

Hi Sarah, 

Thanks for the opportunity to comment on this. The approach  that Gaurav suggests is good. I have a couple of questions and suggestions:

1) Is the message going out to MOH team members or is it going out to partners?  If it is to the former, we perhaps need to wordsmith it some so that the message resonates within this group. For example, most of the Tanzania stakeholders would only know eLMIS and not OpenLMIS. 

-- Agreed. The purpose of the draft is to help our country counterparts reach out to the ministry, but they can modify as appropriate. If you have any general modifications, feel free to suggest. Alternately, I could just change the message to a list of key bullets, then let each country team take it from there in terms of specific wording (or reaching out in person, etc.) - This approach sounds good, each country team would then customize their message. 

2) It would also be important to understand how governance is being managed at the "local" level and saying that this initiative would help in dovetailing that support to the global level. 

-- This would vary by country, correct? I don't think the global community needs to get involved in the local governance, but that partner knowledge of the local governance structure would influence how they would communicate with the ministry regarding representation. Again, this could be modified by each country team as they work the issue locally. Yes, this would vary on a country by country context

3) Has there been talk on some minimal pre-requisites to be a part of the group so that MOH's are better informed on who they should select to represent their interests? 

--No. What would you suggest on pre-requisites? In general, this would include highlighting skill sets required or typical roles that  individuals plays in their routine day to day roles, that would have direct correlation with HIS governance issues, including OpenLMIS. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/openlmis-governance/D2847359.CC592%25sarah.jackson%40villagereach.org.

[Sarah Jackson]

I think we are ready to share this with our country teams? I have modified the text based on Marasi's comments to call out the qualifications for the country representatives. Note that this message's intended audience is your team in-country, NOT the MoH. The country team can work with the MoH to get answers to questions 1/2/3 below.

Please report back on what you are hearing from your countries teams at the next governance call – next Tuesday 9AM EST. Please feel free to invite any country team members to the call to share their input.

--Sarah

**

Hello All -

As we start to bring together a broad community of stakeholders to work on the OpenLMIS project, we are seeking ways to increase country-level ministry involvement in the OpenLMIS community. Currently, the OpenLMIS community has three main committees (governance, product, and technical) that are meeting monthly or bi-weekly, which are constituted by members from the organizations that current work on OpenLMIS (JSI, PATH, CHAI, ThoughtWorks, VillageReach, etc.). We'd like your help and opinion on what the best approach would be to increase country participation in the community. We have some initial questions to gauge interest, and it would be helpful if you could work with ministry stakeholders in your country to get their input on the items below. In addition, if you have other ideas, we are eager to hear your country team's opinion on what would work best. 

1. OpenLMIS is intended to be a multi-country effort that supports the priorities of Ministries of Health. What discussion topics would be of interest to you, and encourage you to join OpenLMIS community calls?
   • Prioritizing New Features Needed in the System
   • Sharing Successes, Challenges, and Lessons Learned with Other Countries
   • Helping New Countries Considering Adopting OpenLMIS
   • Collaborating on Seeking Funding for OpenLMIS Sustainment
   • Hearing Updates on What is Happening in the OpenLMIS Community
   • Other: What?

1. Who are potential representatives that would be willing to participate in the OpenLMIS community? Please list name and title. Representatives should lead or sit on a ICT committee or logistics working group, and have practical knowledge of the OpenLMIS implementation in their country. Ideal representatives will be able to share their countries priorities and needs with the OpenLMIS community.  

1. Which of the following mechanisms for participating in the community would you country prefer to participate in:
   • OpenLMIS Country User Groups meeting composed of representatives from multiple countries. User group would set the agenda for their meetings, which could include topics such as feature needs, sustainability, funding, and upgrades. We would hope to bring the user group together for a physical conference when possible. The user group would elect one representative to participate on the OpenLMIS Governance Committee.
   • Country representatives join the current OpenLMIS Governance Committee. This committee is tasked with leading the OpenLMIS community, including defining community decision-making processes, seeking out funding for the community, and collaboratively working on new country implementation opportunities. We would work to include country representation priorities on the agenda for these meetings, however it is likely that there will be some topics that will be of less interest to ministry personnel.    See agenda from the last governance committee meeting here: https://openlmis.atlassian.net/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=33685540

From: Marasi Mwencha <marasi_...@jsi.com>
Date: Wednesday, December 2, 2015 9:46 PM
To: Sarah Jackson <sarah....@villagereach.org>
Cc: "openlmis-...@googlegroups.com" <openlmis-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Country Reps on OpenLMIS Governance

Comments inline in blue. 

Regards, 

Marasi. 

Marasi Mwencha
Deputy Country Director - Strategic and Technical Support

SCMS and USAID | DELIVER PROJECT

John Snow, Inc.

Plot No. 392. | Toure Drive, Masaki | P.O. Box 9263 | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 

Email: mmwe...@jsi.com | Tel: +255 22 260 2891-3 | Mobile: +255 (0) 688 244 266 | Skype: marasi.mwencha

Visit us at: www.jsi.com , www.scms.pfscm.org , www.deliver.jsi.com

ATT00001

[Mattias Wiklund]

Hello Sarah,

I did not receive the initial request and just saw this in the thread. Just for clarification, are we still asking for input from the country teams, or are we sending out the message below to them to ask them to answer the questions? 

Below I have fixed a couple of small typos/grammatical issues, hopefully without affecting the content: 

Hello All -

As we start to bring together a broad community of stakeholders to work on the OpenLMIS project, we are seeking ways to increase country-level ministry involvement in the OpenLMIS community. Currently, the OpenLMIS community has three main committees (governance, product, and technical) that are meeting monthly or bi-weekly, which are constituted by members from the organizations that current work on OpenLMIS (JSI, PATH, CHAI, ThoughtWorks, VillageReach, etc.). We'd like your help and opinion on what the best approach would be to increase country participation in the community. We have some initial questions to gauge interest, and it would be helpful if you could work with ministry stakeholders in your country to get their input on the items below. In addition, if you have other ideas, we are eager to hear your country team's opinion on what would work best. 

OpenLMIS is intended to be a multi-country effort that supports the priorities of Ministries of Health. What discussion topics would be of interest to you, and encourage you to join OpenLMIS community calls?
• Prioritizing New Features Needed in the System
• Sharing Successes, Challenges, and Lessons Learned with Other Countries
• Helping New Countries Considering Adopting OpenLMIS
• Collaborating on Seeking Funding for OpenLMIS Sustainment
• Hearing Updates on What is Happening in the OpenLMIS Community
• Other: What?

1. Who are potential representatives that would be willing to participate in the OpenLMIS community? Please list name and title. Representatives should lead or sit on a ICT committee or logistics working group, and have practical knowledge of the OpenLMIS implementation in their country. Ideal representatives will be able to share their country's priorities and needs with the OpenLMIS community.  

Which of the following mechanisms for participating in the community would you country prefer to participate in:

• OpenLMIS Country User Group meetings composed of representatives from multiple countries. User group would set the agenda for their meetings, which could include topics such as feature needs, sustainability, funding, and upgrades. We would hope to bring the user group together for a physical conference when possible. The user group would elect one representative to participate on the OpenLMIS Governance Committee.

• Country representatives join the current OpenLMIS Governance Committee. This committee is tasked with leading the OpenLMIS community, including defining community decision-making processes, seeking out funding for the community, and collaboratively working on new country implementation opportunities. We would work to include country representation priorities on the agenda for these meetings, however it is likely that there will be some topics that will be of less interest to ministry personnel.    See agenda from the last governance committee meeting here: https://openlmis.atlassian.net/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=33685540

Regards, 

Marasi. 

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