Friday, March 14, 2025
3/14/2025
The Bokang Consortium includes prominent and accomplished Southern African non-profit and academic organizations providing health information systems and services at national, district and facility levels in Lesotho with decades of experience and proven track records. Collectively, the consortium represents significant local technical leadership for the major initiatives mentioned in the call. The members have elected to collaborate on a single application to promote coordination, interoperability, and to reduce fragmentation. We seek to strengthen domestic technical capacity by promoting a collaborative approach to synergistic alignment of congruent systems to extend the existing accomplishments of PEPFAR, the MOH, and implementing partners in Lesotho. We have extensive track records working with reference implementations of the health information systems described in the request for proposals. We will use these insights to support interoperability and data consolidation of person-level health data to directly support care and provide digital safety nets. This approach will improve service delivery and case-based disease surveillance, particularly for HIV and TB services, making progress along an integrated health enterprise architecture roadmap for Lesotho. Specific outputs include: Expanded eRegister functionality and interoperability with laboratory, pharmacy, and other data systems to provide information required for more holistic, patient-centered services and case reporting for epidemic control of HIV and TB; improved routine data use for monitoring priority programs, evaluating health outcomes, and improving the quality of health services; a common, shared health information platform to democratize the ecosystem by integrating multiple systems to, for example, support people living with HIV throughout the continuum of care uniquely and confidentially; strengthened local clinical, executive and political digital health leadership; developing an overarching health impact model to improve health information systems oversight, governance and regulation. Our approach will prioritize: (1) an architectural approach that will help to democratize the information systems landscape by supporting interoperability with multiple systems, (2) direct support and collaboration with DHMTs including incorporating a training and mentorship programs through BOTHO University, and (3) leveraging the consortium’s involvement with the Lesotho MCC projects to ensure alignment, cooperation, and coordination of activities towards building robust Digital Health Systems (DHS) and HIV and TB programmatic outcomes. The work will help to build a skilled health information workforce in Lesotho to achieve national scale-up of sustainable systems supporting efforts towards HIV epidemic control. The Bokang consortium will work collaboratively across four strategies, two led by HISP-SA, two by EGPAF, and all supported by BOTHO University. We will implement a results-oriented, evidence-based evaluation and performance measurement plan aligned to PEPFAR standards of practice. Appropriate project management tools and approaches will ensure the agility and precision required by complex projects to meet project commitments. Consortium members’ experience achieving successful transitions to government ownership provide a critical foundation of experience for achieving sustainability.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).