Information Development

The 10-year rebel war in Sierra Leone left the majority of citizens traumatized. Most have little knowledge about their health problems. It is therefore important to explore sources and methods of providing heath information and to consider how to encourage people to seek it.

The health care system in Ghana is undergoing organizational and structural changes, creating the need for timely and reliable information for policy development and health planning. Over the years attempts at strengthening health management information systems have been ad hoc and focused on review of reporting systems. The concern for the health sector in this era of reform is the need for the development of an information system in which there is focus on aggregation of information for review and monitoring of service performance at all levels in the health care delivery system. This article documents the organizational and structural changes taking place in the health sector in Ghana and reviews attempts being made by the Ministry of Health to strengthen information to meet the demands of the changing health system.

The web-based database Union Database of Journals makes an important contribution to improving the national agricultural information system in Pakistan and also provides a model for institutions intending to build similar union catalogues of journals in other fields.

Although Makerere University Library faces many problems in acquiring journals, the increasing availability of online journals free of charge or at reduced prices through special programmes provides great hope for addressing this constraint, which is faced by most libraries in developing countries.

There is an obvious need for better knowledge sharing within and between development agencies. Systems designed to pool knowledge offer the benefits of greater openness and a richer knowledge sharing process.

The success of a new Internet gateway on information and communication technologies in Africa depends on how well it will be used, and this requires users that are information literate.