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HISP Centre, University of Oslo

Categories: Climate Change & Health Vulnerability & Adaptation Assessments, Health National Adaptation Plans, Africa, South East Asia, Climate Resilient Health Systems

HISP Centre, University of Oslo

The HISP Centre at the University of Oslo coordinates the global HISP network—made up of 24 local HISP groups in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas—which has supported information system strengthening in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for decades. A key focus of our work is DHIS2, a free and open-source software platform developed by the HISP Centre that serves as the national system of record for health data in 75+ countries, covering more than 40% of the world’s population. The HISP Centre is a WHO Collaborating Centre on Health System Strengthening, and collaborates routinely with several major global health partners, while the local HISP groups serve as long-term partners to national Ministries of Health.

In 2024, the HISP Centre began the DHIS2 for Climate & Health project, which aims to strengthen the climate resilience of LMIC health systems by integrating climate and environmental data into existing country-owned DHIS2 systems and providing cutting edge tools to facilitate analysis and forecasting of climate-sensitive health impacts. This has already helped provide evidence for national adaptation plans and public health policies, and can enable data-driven decisions to support a variety of health programmes, ranging from optimization of malaria prevention campaigns based on suitability mapping and AI-powered predictive modeling, facilitating early warning and response to extreme weather events like heat waves and floods to minimize health service disruption, and analysis of the immediate and long-term effects of environmental factors like heat and air pollution on population health.

While our initial Climate & Health work has focused on 10 exemplar countries in Africa and Asia, all tools and resources developed through our project are free and open-source, making it possible for countries around the world to leverage them to strengthen the climate resilience of their health systems. We will eagerly collaborate to support additional countries in reaching their commitments and goals.

Supporting the following commitments

  • Conduct climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessments (V&As) at population level and/or health care facility level.
  • Develop a health national adaptation plan (HNAP) informed by the health V&A, which forms part of the National Adaptation Plan.

Country experience:

The HISP network has a physical presence in 27 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Americas,, and provides on-the-ground DHIS2 and health information system support to a total of 89 countries. We have engaged in work on climate-informed information systems related to the themes of COP26 Health Programme Commitments 1 and 2 in the following 10 countries since 2024:

Africa: Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda

Asia: Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka

Links:

Site in English: https://hisp.uio.no/ I https://dhis2.org/climate/