Joint workshop in data management and analysis with Somalian government employees

To encourage Somali cooperation and make Swedish support more efficient, SPIDER collaborated with two other Swedish authorities to hold a joint training in November 2022. The Swedish Embassy in Somalia initiated this collaboration between Swedish authorities all working with Sida-supported projects in Somalia.

SPIDER, the Public Health Agency Sweden and Statistics Sweden are conducting projects to improve health and demographic data in Somalia. Data management and analysis is key for all three projects to achieve their objectives. This common interest lead to the Swedish authorities offering a joint training for Somali public servants from the Ministry of Health, National Institute of Health and the National Bureau of Statistics. The public servants were brought to Nairobi for one week to have basic training in data management tools to be able to analyse and visualise multiple sources of data.
As Somalia is embarking on digitalising its health record management system, data protection and information security was included in the workshop to highlight the importance of ensuring regulations on data privacy and secure systems.

One of Somalia’s health priorities is to strengthen the country’s health information system. With the support of SPIDER and other international organisations the Somali Ministry of Health is building an integrated system for data collection and increased access to health data.

The three Swedish authorities are conducting Sida-funded projects towards improving health and demographic data management in Somalia. Collaboration between the three authorities has been encouraged by the Swedish Embassy in Somalia. By collaborating, the support from Sweden becomes more efficient. It also opens up opportunities for collaboration between Somali authorities to share knowledge and resources when working towards similar goals.