Disease surveillance using a One Health approach in Burkina Faso: Successes and opportunities of a multisectoral collaboration

Data for Impact (D4I) hosted the next webinar in a series focusing on integration in global health monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL). The webinar, led by Rahim Kebe and Romain Tohouri from JSI, explored the integration of human and zoonotic data in the One Health surveillance system in Burkina Faso.

Integration is of increasing importance to global health MEL as more resources are dedicated to improving the integration and use of data from routine health and other sector information systems for evaluation. An increased number of projects tackling a range of health issues at once as well as projects spanning multiple sectors—health and education, health and environment, etc.— also means a greater need to evaluate and learn from these integrated models.

Presenters:

Shared lessons learned on the system implementation and on how the system helps prevent, detect, and report health security threats
Described the multisectoral collaboration experience in the response against diseases with epidemic potential
Discussed specific results achieved in the human health sector, as well as in other sectors

In 2019, a One Health information system was launched in Burkina Faso, under support from MEASURE Evaluation, to create a comprehensive and effective response to zoonotic and key human health threats at the community level. For the first time, information on human and zoonotic data was integrated and linked to the information systems of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Environment Green Economy and Climate Change. The One Health system was developed on the District Health Information System version 2 (DHIS2) software and encompasses disease surveillance, considering human, animal, and environmental health information systems (HIS), human and animal laboratory networks, and human and animal emergency response.

Watch the webinar.

The Speakers

Rahim Kebe (MD, MPH, MBA) is the Resident Advisor for the Country Health Information Systems and Data Use program (CHISU) in Burkina Faso. He is a specialist in public health and management of health systems. Currently Resident Advisor for CHISU in Burkina Faso, he was previously Project Director of MEASURE Evaluation in Guinea and in Burkina Faso. Rahim has experience in strengthening routine health information and disease surveillance systems. He coordinated the implementation of electronic data management tools as well as other tools for strengthening data quality. He is an expert on the One Health approach currently implemented in Burkina Faso.

Romain Tohouri (MSc, MD) is an expert in the field of Health Informatics and ICTs for development. He has more than 16 years of experience designing and developing health information technology and systems in lower- and middle-income countries. Dr. Tohouri worked from 2006 to 2010 as a DHIS2 expert implementer for the University of Oslo and is now part of JSI’s Center for Digital Health. He led and developed several national HIS assessments, HIS Enterprise Architecture and national-level HIS implementation, such as the Burkina Faso DHIS2-based One Health project.