Management, Development, and Planning Unit (MDPU) of the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka is the focal point for strategic planning, monitoring, and evaluation of state health services. Accordingly, MDPU plays a crucial role in coordinating the planning, implementation, and monitoring of development projects at different levels - national, subnational (through Provincial and Regional Departments of Health Services) and within healthcare institutions managed by the central Ministry of Health.
Previously the processing of proposals of development projects and monitoring and evaluation of them was through a paper-based manual system which had many limitations and led to inefficiencies.
In this backdrop World Health Organization Sri Lanka provided technical and financial support to develop a Planning Management Information System (PMIS). The purpose of PMIS is to streamline the processing, approvals, and monitoring of all development projects under the central Ministry and Provincial departments of Health.
The Planning Management Information System covers the entire project lifecycle, starting from the submission of proposals by health institutions for the review and approval by relevant authorities at the central level. It includes capabilities for analyzing and disseminating information related to project progression, financial analysis, monitoring, and indicator-based evaluation.
The official launch of the PMIS was held on 2 October 2023 with the participation of Mr Janaka Sri Chandragupta, Secretary, Ministry of Health, and Dr Alaka Singh, WHO Representative to Sri Lanka.
The implementation of the PIMS is expected to bring greater efficiency and effectiveness in the planning and management of health sector projects in the country, along with improved communication and coordination among central and provincial-level institutions. This digital system will overcome the limitations associated with the manual processing system, making data management and decision-making more streamlined, timely and data driven.
WHO will continue to support the expansion of this system to include details on human resources for health, annual action plans and donor funded activities in the future to ensure that the Ministry of Health is equipped with a comprehensive PMIS which supports fully planning and monitoring and evaluation.
WHO is a key partner collaborating on the health sector in its digital transformation and has already rendered support for the development of the Sri Lanka Digital Health Blueprint, which represents the architectural vision for an interconnected and interoperable digital health ecosystem within Sri Lanka. Interventions such as the Sri Lanka Digital Health Blueprint, PMIS and others, once fully functional, will support in a concerted manner to lay the foundation for scaling up and sustaining health information systems and digital health solutions which are standardized and interoperable, over the next decade.