Abyot Asalefew Gizaw

• Negussie, Melaeke Serawit; Gizaw, Abyot Asalefew & Nielsen, Petter (2025). On the Generativity of Digital Public Goods: DHIS2 and OpenMRS in Ethiopia, IST-Africa 2025 Conference Proceedings. IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). ISSN 9781905824755. doi: 10.23919/IST-Africa67297.2025.11060469. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Digital Public Goods (DPG) is an emerging concept gaining traction in the global development sector, promoting the discovery and deployment of opensource technologies for low and middle-income countries (LMIC) in particular. DPG owners develop these solutions to fit everyone’s needs globally, yet they are expected to be implemented locally. Because local contexts differ in various ways, a mismatch between the global expectation and the local reality challenges implementation and may lead to sub-optimal use. To understand this global-local challenge, this study examines implementations of DHIS2 and OpenMRS in the healthcare context of Ethiopia through the lens of generativity. By comparing the implementations of these systems, we aim to draw practical lessons for both DPG owners and implementing countries. Theoretically, we contribute to the DPG discussion by bringing generative architecture, governance, and community as implementation mechanisms of DPG platforms.

• Munyambabazi, Eric; Gizaw, Abyot Asalefew; Nielsen, Petter & Sæbø, Johan Ivar (2024). Digitalizing Monitoring of National Development Plans: A Case Study from Uganda. In Chigona, Wallace; Kabanda, Salah & Seymour, Lisa F. (Ed.), Implications of Information and Digital Technologies for Development - ICT4D 2024. Springer Nature. ISSN 9783031669811. p. 33–47. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-66982-8_3. Full text in Research Archive
• Gizaw, Abyot Asalefew; Bygstad, Bendik & Nielsen, Petter (2016). Open generification. Information Systems Journal. ISSN 1350-1917. 27(5), p. 619–642. doi: 10.1111/isj.12112. Full text in Research Archive
• Sahay, Sundeep; Sæbø, Johan Ivar; Mekonnen, Selamawit & Gizaw, Abyot Asalefew (2010). Interplay of Institutional Logics and Implications for Deinstitutionalization: Case Study of HMIS Implementation in Tajikistan. Information Technologies & International Development. ISSN 1544-7529. 6(3), p. 19–32. Full text in Research Archive
• Abuto, Mekitew Letebo; Damtew, Zufan Abera; Gizaw, Abyot Asalefew; Mekonnen, Selamawit; Lagebo, Birkinesh Woldeyohannes & Zegeye, Desalegn (2008). Scaling HIS in Developing Countries: Case Studies from Ethiopia. In Cunningham, Paul & Cunningham, Miriam (Ed.), IST-Africa 2008 Conference Proceedings. International Information Management Corporation Limited. ISSN 9781905824076. Full text in Research Archive

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• Gizaw, Abyot Asalefew & Huang, Johnson (2014). Technology development. Full text in Research Archive
• Gizaw, Abyot Asalefew; Mukherjee, Arunima Sehgal; Lewis, John & Sahay, Sundeep (2012). UNDERSTANDING DESIGN-USE INTERACTION: THE CASE OF NAME BASED HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM IN INDIA. Full text in Research Archive
• Gizaw, Abyot Asalefew (2011). AN INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE IN SHAPING mHEALTH SYSTEMS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: CASE FROM INDIA. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are revolutionizing the healthcare domain of developing countries. Parts of these ICTs are mHealth solutions that caught the attention of multiple institutions. The current literature of mHealth has served very well in documenting existing practices and implementations experiences of mobile phones in healthcare domains of developing countries. However, there appears little reported on the role that institutions play in shaping mHealth as the focus has been on the potential of mobile phones and their technological characteristics. Trying to redress this imbalance, the focus in this paper is to understand key institutions that shape design and development process of mHealth solutions targeting the context of developing countries. The paper builds from an empirical material obtained from an ongoing action research that the author has participated. Drawing from the case, the paper provides a framework that conceptualizes the design and development process of mHealth as an organizational field that represent an area of institutional phenomenon identifying the key institutions and their interplay. The institutional analysis carried out helps to highlight the impact of institutional forces on the design and development of ICT for the healthcare domain of developing countries.

• Sæbø, Johan Ivar; Sahay, Sundeep; Mekonnen, Selamawit & Gizaw, Abyot Asalefew (2009). Interplay of Institutional logics and Implications for Deinstitutionalization: Case Study of HMIS Implementation in Tajikistan. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This article describes the efforts to reform the Health Management Information System (HMIS) of Tajikistan. The authors were involved in proposing and piloting a computerized HMIS, based on a complete overhaul of the current data collection tools, as well as in planning for the scaling up of the system. One of the recommendations was to support local decision-making through a oexible, decentralized system to collect, process, and analyze essential primary health care data. The institutional logics underlying the current HMIS in Tajikistan were heavily inouenced by the tenets of central planning from a deeply embedded Soviet system that was alien to the ideas proposed. This article explores the different institutional logics arising from what already existed and from our proposals, as well as the interplay among them over the course of the project. Clearly, a complete deinstitutionalization—amounting to a paradigm shift—is necessary to overcome the differences in institutional logics. However, this is a remarkable challenge, given a centralized control context. This study makes interesting contributions to the domain of IS/HMIS research in two ways: (a) by reporting from a country that until now has been almost invisible to the IS community, and (b) by adding to the debate around IS and organizational change through the lens of institutional logics and deinstitutionalization.

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