Latin American and Caribbean Network for the Strengthening HIS (RELACSIS as per the acronym in Spanish)

RELACSIS was officially launched in Lima in April of 2010 as an activity developed in the context of the Information Systems component of the PAHO/USAID project, and in alliance with MEASURE-Evaluation. Among the main conclusions of the meeting in Lima, the following are worth mentioning:

• The purpose of the Network will be to generate a mechanism to articulate the regional efforts that contribute to the continuous improvement of the HIS among the participants in the Network.
• Its general objective is to contribute to strengthening the HIS, as well as the use and dissemination of information.

The specific objectives will center on: 

1. Proposing standards (methods, procedures, techniques, etc.) to produce information of a higher quality, more reliable, and timely.
2. Generating and sharing practices, lessons, and knowledge.
3. Promoting the use and dissemination of the information and of the knowledge that is produced.
4. Promoting the monitoring and evaluation of the performance of national HIS.
5. Generating human resources and financial capacities.
6. Developing horizontal cooperation between the countries.

Integrated working groups were established, which will define the future work plan. The lines of work that were agreed on were:

1. Coverage and quality targets – determination of the gaps.
2. Production of tools
3. Strategies to develop awareness
4. Strategy for training of human resources.

Until the normative aspects are defined, there will be a temporary Coordinating Committee (including Peru, Cuba, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Mexico) and a Technical Secretariat for the Network (under the responsibility of PAHO and MEASURE-Evaluation).

The Technical Secretariat for the Network has developed a proposal for communication mechanisms: the network’s portal, virtual meetings that were carried out between July and August of this year, and a session mentioned in this document.