Data, information, analysis, planning, solutions… one standard.

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National Integrated Information System NIISGuatemala’s New Government Planning Tool

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?

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 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.

The NIIS approach

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.

Ministry ofEducation

Statistical OfficeHousing andPopulation

Ministry ofHealth

Other SocialSector Offices

Ministry ofFinances

NIIS

Figure 1.Social Sector Integrated Platform

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.

NISS is a conceptual framework that provides for the

organization, administration, access, manipulation, queries,

and visualization of data. Some of its main characteristics

are:

Why NISS?

How it is being implemented

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?

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.

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:

STEP 1:

STEP 2:

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 from different sources are integrated (See Figura 3.).

Education, healthand finance data

Housing and population data

Infraestructure

Programsand

Projects

Other sourcesinternal and external

Data forSocial

Planning

Figure 2.Diagnosing data sources.

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

ORACLESYBASE

ACCSESSEXCEL

SQL SERVER

OtherApplications

IntegratorWEB

Integrateddata

Model

Figure 3.Integrated Data Model

Figure 4.Universe and Relations.

MasterCatalog

Data Base

1

Data Base

2

Data Base

3

Data Base

4

Data Base

5

Data Base

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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.).

ReportGenerator

Scenario

Scenario

Scenario

Scenario

Tables

Charts

Maps

Graphs

Figure 5.Query and Reporting Tools.

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

Figure 6.Tranning Programs.

InternationalOrganizations

Planners Local Planners Management

GovernmentAgencies

Civil Society

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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

NIIS Current State

Access is given to the following databases:

Infrastructure, Enrollment, Human Resources, Teaching Staff, from 1992 to 2008.

Births, Deaths, Morbidity and Service Production, from 2000 to 2008.

Formulation, Modification and Execution of expenses, from 1998 to 2008.

Housing and Population Census, Household Surveys, 2002 and 2006.

Education Ministry

Health Ministry

Finance Ministry

National Statistical Office

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.

Performance Management Dashboards

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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 platform enabled the generation of high quality, concise analytical reports in just a few hours.

NIIS

Case Study 1: Social sector status in Totonicapán, Guatemala

Department of Totonicapán’s service infrastructure:

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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

InteligenciaEducativa

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 platform enables the generation of high quality, concise analytical reports.

NIIS

Case Study 2: The State of Classrooms and Bathrooms.

Classroom infraestructure condition:

Bathroom infraestructure condition:

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InteligenciaEducativa

To predict the needs for the supply of education, MINEDUC Guatemala has integrated the 2002 Population and Housing

Census to its platform. These data make it possible to predict the demand for education in coming years.NIIS

Inicial 0-3 añosPreprimaria 4-6 añosPrimaria 7-12 añosBàsico 13-15 añosDiversificado 16-18 años

Case Study 3: Demand for Education.

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With the goal of bringing education information to the general public, 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.

NIIS

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

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NISS Visualization Platform

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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NISS Visualization Platform (Cont.)