A digital tool called the Digital Information System (DIS) has been established to be used by digital information centers in the Eastern province. The initiative is in line with the country’s vision of increasing ICT’s contribution to development and it will play an important role in informing, planning, evaluation and monitoring. The first of its kind, this pilot phase will enhance storing and analyzing important information in the province, districts, sectors and cells in real time as the Eastern Province Governor CG Emmanuel K Gasana said. Speaking to The New Times Governor Gasana said, “We observed that the tool will help us in disseminating more than 1000 activities run in the province but more importantly the major 315 on a daily basis. The portal will have entries on performance contracts, reports from youth volunteers, school dropouts, disasters, security concerns among others, all these will help the province in evidence based planning, ” said the Governor. The portal is made up of two parts, the data entry part and the data analysis part. The system launched with 592 key performance indicators that will be updated on a daily, weekly or monthly basis depending on the nature of the data. Upon accessing the data, data entry users in the province will have the same rights in accessing the system but entry will be done on district level. Transformation from paper based reports to a digital centered module will enhance information distribution in all sectors of the province, be it governance, and social development, fostering evidence based planning in the province. The digital data center is a dedicated room established at the Province headquarters, fed with data from seven districts that make up the Province, equipped with ICT facilities and electronic systems developed in partnership with RISA Challenges As of now, there is still a loophole in the system as there are some missing components like aggregation of data from cells, sectors, and districts. The system does not also have approval level for data validations hence a gap in ensuring data quality. The province said that there is need for extra skilled personnel who have advanced knowledge of the functionality of the software used because the staff availed by RISA and MINALOC are not full time employees to fully maintain the portal. So far the province has recruited nine new staff members, one per district and two at the province level responsible for the system updating, thanks to World Vision the Province’s partner in this innitiative.
