Some detailed sections are in English only for now.
Data. Systems. Innovation. Transformation.
IDIA helps national and local decision makers across Africa, and the partners who support them, turn routine data into trusted evidence and better decisions.
IDIA was founded by the principal investigator of the Data Analytics, Systems, and Use (DASU) project, funded by the Gates Foundation. His experience leading DASU helped shape IDIA's mission: to catalyze innovation and knowledge creation and management, generate actionable insights, and support technology adaptation and scaling of solutions that change whole systems.
DASU was a separate project, implemented with the Amhara Regional Health Bureau, the Amhara Public Health Institute, Ethiopian government and academic partners, and the University of Manitoba. Countdown to 2030 for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health provided technical support through its global network across five continents. DASU progressed from a jointly designed pilot to regional use. Its outputs included:
IDIA was not a DASU partner. DASU outputs, which also included analytical capacity building and scientific manuscripts, are shown to describe our founder's experience and belong to the project and its partners.
IDIA is an African non-governmental institute governed by a board, registered in Ethiopia in 2023 and operational since 2026, with its head office in Addis Ababa.
Our founder's experience leading DASU showed what works when governments, universities and data come together. IDIA exists to take that kind of work further, across African countries and across sectors that depend on good data.
Our ambition is to be a center for research, innovation and collaboration, working with national, regional and global partners.
Transform how Africa generates, governs, and uses data by embedding innovation, analytics, AI, and local capability where decisions are made.
A data-empowered Africa advancing systems for equity and resilience.
All our programs follow one continuous cycle of six steps, using analytics and AI to help health systems work better with the resources they have. DASU, led by our founder, showed that this cycle works at scale.
HMIS/DHIS2, clinical records, surveys, CRVS, geospatial data, and modeled estimates and projections, cleaned by automated quality checks supported by AI.
Health posts report Penta-3 doses in DHIS2 each month. FLoST flags two health posts with missing reports, and the district health office follows up before the deadline.
Brings routine, survey, CRVS and geospatial data together, checks them against each other, and turns them into analysis fast.
A searchable library of briefs and analyses, a toolkit for judging evidence, and a small team that answers urgent questions quickly.
Training at three levels, accredited courses run with universities, and fellowships inside government.
RMNCAH+N analytics, health information systems, performance and data quality monitoring, and policy briefs on priority topics.
Feedback loops, AI data review, surveillance tools, e-learning, and AI developed with African universities.
Disparities by gender, wealth and place; combined health, education, nutrition and WASH data; mapping of remote communities.
Pilots and sandbox projects with universities, startups, telecoms and fintech, and support for new digital health solutions.
Linking weather, climate, crop and food security data with health data, so ministries can see disease linked to climate and malnutrition risks early and act before outbreaks and shortages. Agriculture and food systems are a core part of this work.
The same cycle, from data to decision, works wherever governments plan services. We proved it in health and are applying it to four more sectors.
Routine health facility data, data quality, performance dashboards and evidence to policy and practice pathways, approaches proven at scale in DASU, led by our founder.
Early warning that links rainfall and temperature to disease and nutrition risk, so services can prepare.
Crop, soil and food security data joined with health and nutrition data, so farm and health planning share one picture.
School and learning data for planning, plus applied analytics training and student projects with universities.
Analytics that track public budgets against results and show who financial services still miss.
Three ventures built on what our team learned working with governments and communities.
Each tool does one job in the cycle from data to decision. Eight apply approaches proven at scale in DASU, the project our founder led. The rest are being built on that experience, designed to work with DHIS2 and to be run by government teams.
Clean, complete data before anyone analyzes it.
Flags incomplete, late or inconsistent facility reports and sends them back for correction.
Pulls routine health facility data from DHIS2, plus survey data, so no one retypes spreadsheets.
Machine learning that spots implausible values and patterns a person would miss.
Turn data into evidence, at the level where decisions are made.
Prepared routines for DHS and other household surveys.
Calculates program indicators the same way, every month, for every district.
Shows who is being left behind, by place, wealth and gender.
Put the right evidence in front of decision makers.
Power BI dashboards that monitor health system performance and track progress, reviewed each month by national and local decision makers.
Maps service gaps and suggests where staff, supplies and outreach will reach the most people.
Combines rainfall, temperature, crop and health data to flag districts at rising risk of malaria, cholera or malnutrition.
Put evidence to use, close the loop and build skills.
Turns analysis into policy briefs endorsed by government, then into actions that teams agree and follow up at review meetings.
Mobile alerts so facilities see and fix problems within a week.
Courses on data use that health workers take at their own pace.
Make systems work together, and test new ideas safely.
Moves data between DHIS2 and other systems without typing it in again.
A safe space to pilot new tools on real, de-identified data.
Built for district, regional and national teams, and for partners tracking results.
"Approach proven in DASU" means the method was used at scale in the DASU project. The DASU tools themselves belong to that project and its partners.
Interactive visualizations built from open data. Explore them, share them, and use them in your own briefings.
Visualizations use public data from the sources cited in each one. Interpretations are IDIA's and do not represent the views of the data providers.
Watch 151 countries move through five phases of the maternal, stillbirth and newborn mortality transition, 1960 to 2023. View the world or zoom into Africa, pick countries, follow their paths, and compare them with Sub-Saharan Africa.
Open the explorer →
A living world map of the same transition. Watch countries change color year by year from 1990, zoom into Africa, and switch to Progress to see who moved fastest since 2000.
Open the atlas →New explorers are added here as they are released. Have data that deserves a visual? Write to info@idia-africa.org.
Our training draws on two pathways developed in DASU: a nationally accredited in-service module on routine data use, available through Ethiopia's iHRIS platform, and an academic module in three tiers developed with Bahir Dar University.
| Level | For | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership | Sector leaders, directors and senior managers | Actionable insights: reading dashboards and briefs, asking the right questions of data, and using evidence in planning, budgets and review meetings |
| Operations | Facility and program managers, HMIS and IT teams | Automated data systems, workflow efficiency, and using data to improve the quality of service delivery |
| Foundation | Planners and program officers | Reading data, visualization, data stories |
| Intermediate | M&E and technical staff | Excel, Power BI, Stata, R |
| Advanced | Analysts and researchers | Modeling, machine learning, causal inference |
Leadership sessions are short and practical, built around each team's own data. We also run workshops and webinars, offer mentorship and fellowships, and keep a knowledge library for learning at your own pace.
DASU proved the model in Ethiopia. IDIA is built to take it further, one step at a time, with each government owning what it adopts.
Offices open in Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar.
Drawing on training pathways developed in DASU.
AI-enabled digital systems, geospatial coverage optimizer, and data innovation hub.
Trying new tools in safe settings, then scaling what works.
Developing integrated solutions across health, climate, agriculture, education and finance.
Adapting and scaling approaches across diverse contexts.
Opening IDIA to experts and institutions who want to shape its work.
We work with funders, government, universities, NGOs, UN agencies and technology companies.
Send your CV and area of interest to info@idia-africa.org.
Membership for individuals and institutions opens soon.
IDIA is governed by a board of five members that sets strategy, approves budgets and oversees management.
Founder of IDIA, he is a global health and digital innovation leader with expertise in health systems, data science, mathematical modeling and implementation. Based at the University of Manitoba, he also serves as adjunct faculty in data science and digital implementation at Bahir Dar University. He led the DASU project, funded by the Gates Foundation, as principal investigator and serves as Ethiopia Country Lead for Countdown to 2030. He holds a PhD in Community Health Sciences, focused on global public health, and an MSc in Mathematics, focused on infectious disease modeling, both from the University of Manitoba.
Agricultural research leader who has directed the Adet Agricultural Research Center of the Amhara Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI). His work in crop and soil science and watershed management, and in getting research results onto farms, shapes IDIA's agriculture and climate work. PhD in Crop and Soil Science, Cornell University; MPS in Integrated Watershed Management, Cornell program at Bahir Dar University.
Development leader who has directed relief and development work and led humanitarian programs in Ethiopia and abroad. Trained in horticulture, he helps IDIA keep community priorities at the center of its agriculture work and work across sectors.
Medical doctor and internal medicine specialist who diagnoses and treats adult health conditions. He checks that IDIA's health system and digital tools fit how clinicians work and support care centered on the person.
Faculty member at Bahir Dar University, where he teaches applied mathematics to engineering students. He supports IDIA's education work, including student capstone projects on practical problems, and helps the team test ideas against the data.
An advisory board of experts from government, academia and development partners is being formed.
IDIA is building its first partnerships. Partners are listed here as agreements are signed.
IDIA's founders and partners have built a network across Africa, North America, South America, Europe and Australia. We aim to grow it to extend our reach in global health. Select a country to see the link.
This website does not use cookies. Visits are counted with web analytics that collects no personal data. If you email us, we use your details only to reply.
Mentions of governments, universities, funders and projects describe past or related work and do not imply their endorsement of IDIA. Figures from the DASU project belong to that project and its partners.
Melesse DY et al. BMJ Global Health 2024. PubMed
The project, funded by the Gates Foundation and led by IDIA's founder, was implemented with the Amhara Regional Health Bureau, the Amhara Public Health Institute, Ethiopian government and academic partners, and the University of Manitoba. Its outputs included Power BI dashboards tracking 175+ health system indicators and a routine data quality feedback system. dasu.cdipp.org
Impact stories, learning briefs, case studies and tool guides will be added here as they are published.
IDIA's founder received a Special Recognition Award for the DASU work.
Offices open in Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar.
Tell us which decision you are trying to improve, and we will tell you how data could help.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Bahir Dar, Amhara Region, Ethiopia
