About the video

Hans Rosling says there’s nothing boring about stats, and then goes on to prove it. A one-hour long documentary produced by Wingspan Productions and broadcast by BBC, 2010. A DVD is available to order from Wingspan Productions. Director & Producer; Dan Hillman, Executive Producer: Archie Baron. ©Wingspan Productions for BBC, 2010

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Source: Free material from www.gapminder.org

**Please feel free to share this information with appropriate colleagues at your organization, especially IT, M&E, Project, and Knowledge Management staff **

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have become an increasingly important tool in the way we report on our datasets, and on the way we analyze data for decision-making. Maps present data in a form that is easier to understand than just tables and charts, and gives users the ability to populate from multiple datasets. While the conservation folks have taken the early lead in using GIS (especially in the field), we see more and more converts working in areas like Public Health, Community Outreach, Anti-Poverty, Advocacy, Membership, and Social Justice . NPOKI advocates for use of effective tools, like GIS, as a part of a robust knowledge management initiative. Listed below are three upcoming events, which we feel may be of importance to those interested in GIS:

Washington, DC        August 1 – 5, 2011
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia    September 5 – 9, 2011
Nairobi, Kenya        September 12 – 16

This one-week set of courses will focus on core GIS skills and will introduce some advanced topics, all designed to show students how to use GIS to better meet your data collection, planning, analysis, and mapping needs. This class is appropriate for both new and experienced GIS users wanting more in-depth instruction. The two courses are designed as one integrated course; however, if you want, you can take only the first course or the second course (see prerequisites) separately. We highly recommend taking both courses together to better learn and effectively use GIS. For more information: http://goo.gl/kXPN4

New Delhi, India    October 17 – 21, 2011

USAID’s MEASURE Evaluation Project is pleased to announce the first regional workshop on “Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Applications in Public Health,” for English speaking professionals. The workshop is sponsored by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi, India in collaboration with MEASURE Evaluation. Taught in English, the course is designed for mid-level health and population officers, program managers, and other professionals involved with the implementation of population, health and nutrition programs.  Participants should be involved with analysis of health and population related data for delivery of health services or teaching and training.  The workshop will cover the concept of GIS, Use of GIS in Public Health, Preparing databases for GIS, and preparing GIS output from data, and application of GIS software. For more information: http://goo.gl/1Woyo

Washington, DC        September 7 – 9, 2011

Join health and human services peers from around the world at the Esri Health GIS Conference. You’ll learn about cutting-edge GIS tools, network with peers across the health continuum, and gain perspective from industry leaders. This event is open to professionals in public health, hospitals and health systems, human services, and academic health and research. For more information: http://goo.gl/V0Rmp

We hope you find this information useful,

Bill Lester
Executive Director – NPOKI

Some of our current projects and activities include:

• MERIT: NPOKI’s flagship application, our Monitoring & Evaluation Reporting System
• SBP: Sharing Best Practices, our database of organization standard operating procedures
• CMS: Evaluating Clinic Management Systems
• Building Communities of Practice: Our partnership with WHO’s Implementing Best Practices
• ERP: Tying financial and human resource management to knowledge management

]]> http://www.npoki.org/gis-conference-trainings/feed/ 0 http://www.npoki.org/11th-annual-global-health-mini-university/ http://www.npoki.org/11th-annual-global-health-mini-university/#comments Wed, 18 May 2011 14:45:06 +0000 wlester http://www.npoki.org/?p=2316 11th Annual Global Health Mini-University

September 30, 2011, 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Washington, DC

Sponsored by the USAID Bureau for Global Health in collaboration with the George Washington University Center for Global Health, this event is a day-long forum offering over 70 different sessions highlighting evidence-based best practices and state-of-the-art information from a variety of technical areas across the global health field.

The forum is divided into hour-long blocks, each offering a variety of concurrent presentations from technical areas like HIV/AIDS, family planning and reproductive health, maternal and child health, infectious diseases, health systems, and cross-cutting issues. In addition, there are exciting brown bag sessions offered during the lunch break.

Registration Opens August 15, 2011

This event is free and open to the public. Past participants include students, medical professionals, public health experts, members of the military, NGOs, USG staff, and others interested in learning about what is happening in the global health world.

Internet use in Africa is growing. Nearly one in ten Africans had access to the Internet in 2010 — up from one in 200 ten years ago, according to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU). As the Internet becomes more accessible across the African continent, social media, such as the micro-blogging site Twitter and Facebook, are gaining popularity. This development will open up new lines of communication between scientists, policymakers and the public.  Interaction and communication between these parties is critical to strengthen evidence-informed health decision making in the health sector.  Better communication between these stakeholders will provide an opportunity to refine the research agenda so that that research better responds to the information needs of policy makers and the constituents they serve.  It will also hold policy makers and program managers accountable to apply research findings in policy development and program improvement.  Social media are also a powerful arena for discussing research, programs and policy and are especially useful for those who would otherwise not have a say in such discussions.  For the full article visit: http://www.scidev.net/en/opinions/africa-analysis-science-going-social-1.html

InsideNGO’s annual Opening and Closing a Field Office Workshop is a must attend workshop for those with operational responsibility for opening and/or closing an office. Experienced practitioners share lessons learned through actual case studies and provide attendees with templates, checklists, and procedural documents as part of an “Office Opening and Closing Manual. The highly interactive format encourages attendees to share their experiences and pose their questions.

Some Questions The Workshop Will Answer:

• I need to set-up systems, find local legal representation, set up a bank account and train staff. How do I make sure I am not forgetting any critical steps and doing everything correctly?
• Where should we look for a new office and what type of facility is best?
• The donor has just terminated our grant. The government says we must continue the program and staff threaten to sue if we close the office. What should I do?
• We are closing our office. The government says all the equipment and some supplies belong to them. HQ  says we wait for the donor to tell us what to do? Who is correct and what do I do?
• If we lose our funding, what obligations does our organization have to our local staff?

What Topics Will Be Covered:

Office Approval, Registration, Budgeting, Legal Representation, Staffing, Payroll, Technology Needs, Insurance, Training, Post Opening Review, Project Closing, Office Shutdown Procedures, Disposition of Fixed Assets, Severance, Termination of Leases, Preparation for Unforeseen Incidents and more.

Who Should Attend?

Staff members who have global operational responsibility; compliance staff responsible for ensuring adherence to donor’s and organization’s requirements and local laws; Project Directors and Managers responsible for implementing projects with field offices.

The course level is intermediate. No advance preparation is required. No prerequisites.

Outcomes – By Participating In This Workshop You Will Be Able To:

• Develop or improve your organization’s Standard Operating Procedures for Opening and Closing a Field  Office.
• Successfully serve on an operational  opening or closing office team
• Mitigate risk through the understanding of  good practices and incorporation of lessons learned into your organization’s processes

Earn HRCi Credits
This program has been approved for 6.75 (Specified-International) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.

https://sites.google.com/a/insidengo.org/dcopen0311/

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, and for most organizations it is a combination of their major IT systems for business operations, including, but not limited to: finance, HR, procurement and contracts management. In some cases, all these pieces will come from one vendor, and in other cases, multiple vendors. How these systems talk to each other and share common data across the organization is a monumental challenge.

Are you considering rolling out a new ERP system in your organization? Struggling to understand the many moving parts of selecting an ERP solution? Looking to ensure your ERP implementation is a success across the entire organization?

These are the questions every organization faces when it comes time to evaluate a new ERP system. The ERP evaluation and implementation process can be a multi-year project for many organizations at a great investment.

So, why reinvent the wheel? Many of NPOKI’s members have either gone through this process, are in the middle of an implementation or are considering one right now.

InsideNGO, one of our partner organizations, is conducting a new 2-Day workshop focusing exclusively on ERP selection and implementation in the international and NGO sector. It is an opportunity for participants to learn from each other’s triumphs and challenges in this area, in which key decision points can mean the difference between spending or saving tens of thousands of dollars.

The workshop will take place over two days. At the end of the second day, a reception will be held with various vendors available to discuss their products. Using this design, attendees can formulate questions during the first day, talk with vendors, and then come back with new questions during the second day. Software Product Vendors will not be allowed to participate in any way during the workshop.

Some popular ERP systems currentlyused by Internatuinal NGOs include

• SAP
• Oracle
• Micrsoft Dynmics @ Serenic Navigatir
• Agresso
• Saxe X3 ERP
• Lawson

During this workshop, you’ll learn:

• The current state of the ERP marketplace as it relates to the international non-profit sector as well as how best to navigate the various vendors and consultants
• Different approaches and viewpoints from both peer IT and finance professionals for selecting and deploying an ERP system
• What are some of the key IT architectural issues that must be considered before selecting an ERP system, particular field offices
• How to decide whether internal execution or outside consulting is best for an ERP implementation
• Understanding the key business drivers for selecting a new ERP solution
• How to put together a request for proposal (RFP) to various ERP vendors
• A formal process approach on how to analyze your existing internal system and business processes, streamline those processes, and integrate them into your existing or new ERP system
• Various approaches for training both your headquarters and field staff on a new ERP system

Who Should Attend This Workshop:

Information Technology, Finance, HR and Operations professionals with responsibility for organization-wide systems integration

For more information: https://sites.google.com/a/insidengo.org/dcerp0411/home

A data-collection tool that is compliant with SDMX-HD will be able to easily exchange indicator data, outcomes data and reports with other M&E tools, databases and spreadsheets. Similar to the “.doc” standard for text documents, this is a means of “future-proofing” M&E applications to ensure they will work across agencies, geographical areas, grantees and donors, as long as they follow the SDMX-HD standard. NPOKI works to reduce redundant systems and standards in the global health community. In this spirit we endorse the WHO’s Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange for Health Domains (SDMX-HD).

In December 2009, NPOKI was nominated by the WHO-led community of practice responsible for designing the normative document, technical documentation and other information that will be ratified as the final SDMX-HD standard, to lead the design, moderation and management of a ‘wiki’ forum at http://www.sdmx-hd.org. The normative document is being developed collaboratively, leveraging NPOKI’s experience in collaborative tools and processes for software development in the global health community. The ratified SDMX-HD standard will be published to the wiki that NPOKI is managing, and can be viewed at http://www.sdmx-hd.org/projects/show/sdmx-hd-standards.

NPOKI encourages its membership to evaluate adopting the SDMX-HD standard as a protocol for importing and exporting data into M&E systems, databases and worksheets. Upon request, we are happy to subscribe members to the wiki at http://www.sdmx-hd.org to keep M&E team members apprised as this new standard moves toward adoption by USAID, the Gates Foundation, the WHO and the UN agencies. Feel free to email sganguly@npoki.org for more information.