Guatemala's Social Integrated Information Platform

National Integrated Information System NIIS Guatemala’s New Government Planning Tool Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard. The Government of Guatamala has implemented a methodology that generates an integrated platform that includes all the information of the social sector, education, health, finance and population, establishing all the possible relationships between each one, and providing the necessary tools to carry out queries, reports, and analysis of the information. The methodology's innovative focus enables the user to see the multiple data bases as one unit, in such a way that makes the individual formats, relationships, locations and codes of each data base clear. Furthermore, the platform is accessible online, through internet. This platform has been considered by the World Bank, IADB, and the UN as unique in Latin America. The experience has been exported to Costa Rica and El Salvador.

What is NIIS?

The NIIS approach

Since the 80’s, public and private institutions have made great efforts to take advantage of advances in information technology to improve their data analysis. While these efforts have been successful, rapid advances in technology have exceeded users' abilities to adapt to these new tools. In most cases, this has lead to confusion and inconsistencies in the adoption of different systems, platforms and data formats.

The government of Guatemala has adopted a web-based technology to integrate all it’s social sector data. At present, data from education, health, finance and population has been integrated, creating an ideal environment for the analyst.

The lack of standards for collecting, storing, organizing and processing data is a problem that creates serious difficulties in social planning. In most ministries of the social sector in Latin America, doing analysis takes a considerable portion of their time on the following like: a) gathering data from different sources in different formats; b) waiting days or weeks for IT departments to prepare information; and c) standardizing codes, among other lengthy processes. This costs the analyst valuable time, while jeopardizing the quality of results. This lead Guatemala to create NIIS, a methodology that generates an integrated platform that includes all the institution's data bases, after establishing all the possible relationships between each data base, and providing the necessary tools to carry out queries, reports and analysis of the information. This innovative focus enables the user to see various sources of information as one unit, with the individual formats of each data base, their relationships, locations and codes clearly displayed.

Figure 1. Social Sector Integrated Platform

Ministry of Education Statistical Office Housing and Population Ministry of Health

NIIS Other Social Sector Offices

Ministry of Finances

Planning departments in ministries everywhere have a common need for appropriate, quality data. Analysis and planning are essential for the development of social policy as well as for the creation of inputs necessary to model, simulate, predict, target resources and evaluate policy.

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Why NISS?

Figure 2. Diagnosing data sources.

NISS is a conceptual framework that provides for the organization, administration, access, manipulation, queries, and visualization of data. Some of its main characteristics are: Unifying the data available, establishing standards for the collection of new data; Establishing a new master catalog with individual coding; Transparency of data base formats for the planner and analyst; Providing direct access to data through the intranet or internet; Storage of data in one place; Information technician is not necessary for end user use; Enabling users to visualize all the data available.

How does it work? A complete analysis is made of all available data bases relevant to the social sector. From this analysis the links between the data are established in order to illustrate the relationship between the data and make them accessible. The NISS platform provides: Unifies all data bases conceptually, regardless of their original format; Integrates the data under a common structure establishing a data universe; Establishes channels of communication in a clear way; Provides all the tools for links, queries and reports; and is accessible online.

Education, health and finance data Housing and population data

Infraestructure

Programs and Projects Other sources internal and external

Figure 3. Integrated Data Model ORACLE SYBASE ACCSESS EXCEL SQL SERVER

Integrated data Model

Integrator

WEB

Other Applications

STEP 3: A new unique data universe is created with all the possible relations and a master catalog (See Figure 3).

How it is being implemented STEP 1: All the instances in which all social sector institutions requires information for analysis and planning, including different physical servers, database servers, data formats, storage, organization, etc., are analyzed. Everyone who produces data participates in this process. (See Figure 2.).

Data for Social Planning

Figure 4. Universe and Relations. Data Base 3 Data Base 1 Data Base 6

Master Catalog

STEP 2: Data from different sources are integrated (See Figura 3.).

Data Base 4

Data Base 2 Data Base 5

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STEP 4: An interface with query and report tools is developed; this permits the generation of the tools necessary for data analysis (See Figure 5.).

STEP 5: A training program for the implementation and use of the integrated data platform is designed and carried out (See Figure 6.).

Figure 5. Query and Reporting Tools.

Figure 6. Tranning Programs. Charts

Scenario Scenario Tables

Planners

Local Planners

Management

Government Agencies

International Organizations

Civil Society

Report Generator

Maps

Scenario Scenario Graphs

NIIS Current State At present, the NIIS platform is fully operational and accessible from both Education and Health ministries. Also, international organizations as the World Bank, IADB, United Nations, Spanish and Japanese Cooperation offices, among others, are using the platform via internet. Analysts and planners can access NISS through the URL: http://200.6.193.201:8080/businessobjects/enterprise115 Access is given to the following databases: Education Ministry Infrastructure, Enrollment, Human Resources, Teaching Staff, from 1992 to 2008. Health Ministry Births, Deaths, Morbidity and Service Production, from 2000 to 2008. Finance Ministry Formulation, Modification and Execution of expenses, from 1998 to 2008. National Statistical Office Housing and Population Census, Household Surveys, 2002 and 2006.

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Performance Management Dashboards NIIS permits the creation of interactive Performance Management Dashboards. These controls calculate indicators using information from the integrated data platform, and can be set for different time periods.

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Case Study 1: Social sector status in Totonicapán, Guatemala To develop health and services infrastructure policy and optimize its resources, the Vicepresidency in Guatemala needed precise information about poverty, water services and death rates. The integration of the Ministry of Health databases and the infrastructure census to the NIIS platform enabled the generation of high quality, concise analytical reports in just a few hours. Department of Totonicapán’s service infrastructure: Totonicapán’s municipal education index

Totonicapán’s 2007 top 10 causes of mortality for children between 3 and 6 years

Totonicapán’s 2006 poverty and extreme poverty rates

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Case Study 2: The State of Classrooms and Bathrooms. To develop education infrastructure policy and optimize its resources, the Ministry of Education in Guatemala carried out a School Infrastructure Census to gather detailed information on the state of buildings, furniture and equipment in Guatemala's schools. The integration of this census to the NIIS platform enables the generation of high quality, concise analytical reports. Classroom infraestructure condition:

InteligenciaEducativa

Bathroom infraestructure condition:

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Case Study 3: Demand for Education. To predict the needs for the supply of education, MINEDUC Guatemala has integrated the 2002 Population and Housing Census to its NIIS platform. These data make it possible to predict the demand for education in coming years.

InteligenciaEducativa Inicial 0-3 años Preprimaria 4-6 años Primaria 7-12 años Bàsico 13-15 años Diversificado 16-18 años

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NISS Visualization Platform With the goal of bringing education information to the general public, NIIS has developed an interface that permits the exportation of this information using Google Earth. The user is able to see photos of schools, their locations, and access information on enrolment, teachers and infrastructure at the school level.

See the plataform at: www.mineduc.gob.gt/ie

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NISS Visualization Platform (Cont.) Select the department of ESCUINTLA and municipality of PALIN. Press “Geográfica”.

Select any of the school centers in the municipality of PALIN. The system will show a photograph of the school center and all the individual schools operating there. Then click any of the establishment in blue color and get the historical statistics (see next page).

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NISS Visualization Platform (Cont.)

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