The openIMIS initiative is focused on creating a sustainable community of practice of various types of users and contributors to the openIMIS software product. In order to achieve and sustain this vibrant openIMIS community, a governance structure to facilitate the various processes within the initiative has been designed. The governance structure aims to define roles and responsibilities to various actors within the community in order to create an efficient and transparent system of information flow and knowledge dissemination. The governance structure aims to bring various stakeholders - current and potential users, implementation and software development experts, specific subject experts onto common platforms to learn about openIMIS, to help develop openIMIS further, or to help spread information about openIMIS further. 

The aim of the global openIMIS Initiative is to create a community of practice, where different individuals and organisations at diverse levels are able to contribute to the development and implementation of the openIMIS product. The main objectives of this organisational structure are to:

• Create transparent and efficient governance structures which assign clear roles and responsibilities to the different actors (user countries with their (health) insurers implementing openIMIS, implementation partners, relevant health financing actors, software developers, centralized technical support organisation, technical advisory group, steering group, program coordination desk)

• Offer opportunities for individuals and organisations to learn about openIMIS and become a service provider, e.g. as implementation partner or local support team

• Create an ecosystem which offers social protection organisations a range of qualified implementation, training and software development/ integration partners to choose from

• Create a stable structure to ensure proper maintenance of the openIMIS product and to create a user support structure for organisations using openIMIS

• Create a structure for the continuous improvement through addition of new modules and step-by-step transition to a modular open source solution

Roles and responsibilities

A short description of the roles and responsibilities of the various groups in the governance structure are provided below.

The following overview briefly describes the role of each partner: