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Research and Capacity Building
The BEANISH project includes a work package for creating a research network around globally distributed open source application software development. The objectives are:
- Taking into account the limited resource situation of Africa, a research network needs to be created to support the development of innovation around open source and not-for-profit software and their applications for health sector.
- To develop research expertise in the domain of globally distributed software development, an area of current importance in contemporary European business.
- Through the shared global development of a concrete OSS application for health which will responds to the requirements of each participating country: - establish mechanisms for sharing development and use application software across countries.
- To stimulate and activate research networks between European and African universities in the domains of open source and globally distributed software development.
- Explore to what extent African software industry can learn from the software outsourcing industry in Asia in the OSS domain and to what extent they may link up with European software outsourcing industry.
- To provide networking of business opportunities between European and African partners in the domain of global software development.
- To leverage the research experience developed to prepare the basis for applying to EU Priority area on IST.
The following actions are and will be taken to achieve the objectives:
- Organize special sessions on open source software development in WITFOR 2005 and WITFOR 2007 through IFIP who are the organizers of WITFOR.
- Create an electronic forum to help develop a community of practice of health and research professionals interested in IST applications.
- Establish a collaborative global network for the development of a demonstrator OSS application for health. The demonstrator/prototype will be presented and tested in each country and will be used to widely market the BEANISH agenda and results in each country as well as globally.
- Workshops on OSS development in South Africa, Lund and Oslo. The workshop in Lund will target European firms and Chambers of Commerce and Software Manufacturers Association to build awareness about business opportunities in the health domain in Africa, and to encourage them to join the community of practice around open source created under
- The European software outsourcing industry will be particularly targeted.
- Through the network created in T5.2 and T5.3 explore how Africa software development may be involved in European outsourcing industry. The network includes Asian and European partners and knowledge transfer from Asia/Europe to Africa on the issue of outsourcing is emphasised.
- Conduct case studies on local experiences of global open source application development, and synthesize it to a generic research model for developing south-south-north collaborative networks. These research findings will help to prepare for future international cooperation in IST.
The following general capacity building objectives are identified in other BEANISH work packages:
- To present experiences around training, project implementation and institutionalisation of HISP processes in the existing network.
- To increase African participation in applying IST programme for health.
- To present case studies, best and “worst” practices from health information systems from different countries participating in HISP.
- To strengthen the existing network by enabling the knowledge sharing about best practices in health information systems in Africa
- To organise a range of international, regional and national workshops in the participating countries
- To improve the coordination and sharing of software, training materials, and implementation experiences and transfer of knowledge (about best and worst practices) between the different members of the network.
- To strengthen the mechanism for local implementation support for HISP processes in the respective countries.
- Developing mechanisms for making the health applications and processes sustainable and institutionalised.
A number of workshops and electronic networking are and will be organized, teaching material produced and training programmes conducted to achieve these goals. WSIS and Millennium Development Goals addressed
The project, research and capacity building actions identified by the WITFOR Health Commission address the e-health (18.a,c-e) and capacity building (11.d-e,k,m-n) items of the WSIS Plan of Action (http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/geneva/official/poa.html) and the following United Nations Millennium Development Goals (http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/goals02.htm):
- Goal 4 Reduce child mortality
o Target 5. Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate
- Goal 5 Improve maternal health
o Target 6. Reduce by three-quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio
- Goal 6 Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
o Target 7. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
o Target 8. Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
- Goal 8 Develop a global partnership for development
o Target 18. In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications technologies
Action towards goals 4-6, targets 5-8, requires timely information on key health indicators at facility, local, regional and national levels.
Target 18 under goal 8 is specifically addressed by the South-South-North network building components of the BEANISH project, particularly the educational and research actions that build up human capacities in several African countries for applying information and communication technologies for health. 
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