Disclaimer: The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.
HIPNET Home | Member List | Meeting Notes | Resources | HIPNet E-Mail List | RH Gateway | Last Updated 8/27/2007
Action Items:
4. HIPNet Library Mailing List: Send Peggy D’Adamo an Excel spreadsheet with publications you want to include in the mailing by early September. Include weight per piece if possible. Separate English, French and Spanish on different sheets. Include any special instructions about sending specific materials only to certain countries. Ship materials to INFO by mid-September. You will be billed after the mailing is completed.
5. FP/HIV integration materials: If you have FP/HIV Integration materials appropriate for decision makers, contact Beth Robinson, FHI, brobinson@fhi.org, so she can include in new integration resource/toolkit.
6. Books to be reviewed for GHC online “Book Nook”: If you want to send the title of a global health book you need reviewed for the book club described let GHC know. You can contact Tina Flores, tflores@globalhealth.org.
Meeting Minutes
Tara Sullivan, INFO
· “Guide to Monitoring INFO products and services” – Brief history:
Small subcommittee party of three originally formed. We have tapped all for resources. Currently has been copy edited and will be sent for production and design. The text is complete.
· Background: Why was M&E Guidelines developed?
There were no guidelines 4 years ago. HIPNet members expressed interested in measuring impact and showing benefits of products and services developed
In January 2005 the subcommittee was formed.
· What is new with the guide?
The final draft complete and
· How can we use the guide? (Peggy)
We have to sell the guide to M&E people within our organizations first. HIPNet would like to see everyone begin to use the indicators. If all do not use, it will be difficult to assess the weak and strong parts of the guide. Peggy suggested HIPNet partners can come together once a year to share what has been discovered about trying to use indicators
· What can we do as groups/individuals to promote use of guide?
Brainstorm – ideas we might have about how to make aware guide exists in the broader community of CAs and those interested in M&E of Information products
1) Send announcement to all on dissemination lists (listserv, web sites, newsletters) – Created large list based on suggestions. Laura, Neha, and Peggy can go through to see which entries are relevant and post/send the list through e-mail to HIPNet members.
Some list entries are web postings (post document yourself). The list needs to be
updated. More information can be gathered regarding where publications are sent.
2) Write a journal article about the guide: It may be worth writing an article about in communication/knowledge management journal.
3) Organize a panel discussion and submit to GHC.
4) Use the guide as an advocacy tool – The M&E guide can be used to advocate the need for information and to illustrate the value of information dissemination.
5) Share the guide with groups like INASP, KM for DEV, USAID KM Divison.
6) Each
7) Send through the USAID PHN Officer mailings.
8) Get onto the agenda of communication groups for collaborating agencies on HIV/AIDS and make a presentation on the guide.
9) Share with other CTOs – see action point
10) Post guide on individual Web sites
· Other promotional tools:
Other promotions: AIM Net listserve (M&E listserve),
Brown bag @ USAID
Flyer everyone can use
Propose session for Mini-U about guide
· How to access the guide?
There will be some copies printed so that every HIPNet member can have their own copy to present to their M&E officer. The guide will be mailed before the next meeting. The electronic version will be posted on the HIPNet website in PDF format. It was proposed that the document also be put into HTML format; however this idea is still in discussion. An announcement will be sent out once the guide is posted on the HIPNet site. The guide can also be posted on Web sites of other USAID funded projects
· Thank yous/additional comments
USAID Communities of Practice Presentation
Stacey Young, USAID/EGAT Microenterprise Development Office
Contact Information:
(202) 712 1182
Below are some highlights from Stacey’s presentation. The Power Point presentation is available here:
Stacey Young Communities of Practice Presentation
· Purpose of Communities of Practice (COP)
The purpose of COP is to promote cooperation of those around the globe to multiply impact of investments. The goal is to support collaborative learning through a variety of mechanisms. (How can $200 million help 3 billion people living on less than 2 dollars a day?)
· What is COP?
It is a big mistake to think of communities as an end in themselves. One should look at COP as means of promoting collaboration. Common types of communities are thematic (share knowledge on topical issues), task oriented (working groups, virtual workspace focused on particular task), sharing experience (use COP to maximize impact of other things were doing [training events, conferences])
· Things to think about:
-Will the community be one time, short term or ongoing?
-Will the community have closed/open membership?
-Will the community be in person, virtual, or a combination?
-Will the community be rhythmic or cyclical? The cyclical nature of info sharing causes participants to loose interest loose interest in something that goes on. A rhythmic aspect refocuses people's attention. Although people know community will help them in their work they don’t always check in due to busy nature.
-Is the community tied to an activity or not?
-Is the community voluntary (model most of us have) vs. mandated participation
· COP in USAID funding
USAID uses COP with contractors. The contractors are required to participate in community activities with others. This is built into contract agreements with the purpose of speeding learning and the dissemination of information. USAID gives grants to group of institutions working on something similar (i.e., Consumer finance for alternative energy) to implement projects and collaborate in communities. Grantees will learn at the project level about implementation activities, learn at group level about the emerging best practices and learn at the industry level about how products can get distributed to a broader industry.
· Collaborative learning:
USAID launches in-person workshops at the beginning of project cycle which are reconvened in middle of grant cycle and at end. During the interim peer assistance occurs, where everyone gets high quality input from peers on how to address challenges through virtual activities to facilitate learning and exchange (conference calls, virtual workshops) The final workshop focuses on creating a long-term path for developing products for industry.
· There are several types of community trainings and workshops:
Traditional/finite community: Event convenes participants online prior to workshop, training then event. Following event there is follow up with participants down the road. It is important to know that what is presented at workshop the participants are actually using down the road. Following the workshop it is necessary to facilitate an ongoing network of peers everyone can draw upon.
Intensive communities: Membership is defined, mandated participation. Moderator works intensively with group to promote interaction and collaboration.
Looser/less strict community: seminar series (i.e., breakfast series, after hour series)
In person seminar in
· Best practices with COP
COP should be a means to an end, not an end in itself, and the goal of the community should be stated to participants at the outset. Some communities run on automatic pilot, some need more hand holding. One should draw on outside resources and link COP members to these resources. People who are active participants define the terms of discussion. People who agree keep talking while people who disagree drop out. Communities can be used to draw on resources elsewhere and should be "outward looking" drawing resources in from the outside. If one wants deeper and more intense engagement the communities need to be closed. How deeply engaged do you want people to be with each other? Technology should be a simple platform to draw on what people are currently using. Technologies should be combined in ways that make sense. Imitating in person experience is usually the most valuable. Keep in mind value of personal exchange – (i.e., moderator role)
· Challenges to continually address with COP:
COP requires behavior change for the vision of collaboration to be incorporated into work. Setting up communities requires perseverance and attention to what is working and what is not. We must think about ways to change culture so cooperating agencies don’t see COP as a form of competition but rather collaboration. Language barriers and technological barriers exist.
· Questions and Answers
Question: How much time does the moderator have to spend?
Answer: More than you think particularly at the beginning to get people to collaborate. If there some kind on rhythmic component to community (i.e., a talk every third week), extra time needed. Over time the moderator may have to connect group to external resources.
Question: What platform was used to set up your communities?
Answer: Basecamp. It is not free. The document feature is neat and there is also a great calendar function which enables you to assign tasks in community
Question: How to draw in people with limited technology beyond CD ROM?
Answer: Offer immediate technological assistance and be very responsive to help requests. One must go out and actively solicit feedback through field interviews.
Question: How to measure results from COP?
Answer: Software installed to count visits to web site, how many people posting, etc. is use as proxy to measure demand. Qualitative measures are used as “spot checking” through calling up mission members and asking questions such as, "Do you use the web site, is it helpful, have you participated, are you a member? What is good, what is bad?" There is a feedback button at various places on the site in addition to an archive all of the emails received
Question: How to tell communities a best practice publicized prior by community is not a best practice any longer?
Answer: You have to go out with a message to engage in dialogue stating new information. You must explain why past statement is no longer valid.
Question: When groups are mandated who moderates them?
Answer: USAID hires a moderator to serve in an advisory role to ensure question can be answered in context/confines in project.
Question: Do you do e-learning and pull those people together to discuss their experiences?
Answer: No, not yet what are your experiences? You can take captured discussions generated from forums and e-learning and use as tool in next training. You can look at people who have gone before then.
Question: Do you synthesize and edit the verbatim dialogues?
Answer: Yes, we make verbatim exchanges available. It is the key role of the moderator to synthesize what went on during the previous day.
Sharing Publications and other resources:
Publications
MEASURE: Assessment of reach and usefulness of compendium of indicators for monitoring and evaluating national TB indicators. Used draft M&E Guide for compendium on TB. We started E-newsletter 6 months ago called the Monitor. You can sign up by going to MEASURE web site through
MACRO/DHS – Final surveys out for
JHPIEGO - Standard based assessment manual in Portuguese; Access program w/Save the Children, AED, Constella, American college; Home and community based health care; technical care on post partum hemorrhage; malaria and pregnancy; focused antenatal care in English and French. All items available on Access website. Next big document – malaria and pregnancy second edition learning resource package – late September. http://www.accesstohealth.org/
Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) –– SCMS is releasing all marketing materials starting with the folder which was distributed. There is a brochure designed as a learning tool. what are processes. We have designed a series of technical briefs. There are now seven TBs and the number will go up to 13. We will eventually have a series of country briefs and will send out an update. To find out more go to www.scms.pfscm.org. We will have a resource center on site where you can go in and download materials. Contact AnnMarie Denardo (web manager) if anything of interest you wish to have posted.
Health Policy Initiative (HPI) - "Inequalities and the use of FP/RH services" DHS data
was used to analyze links between inequalities and FP and RH and poverty in 47 countries. “Making family planning part of PRSP process" is about RH and poverty reduction and discusses incorporate of FP into PRSP policies. We are continuing work to produce MDG briefs. These briefs are based on larger analysis of 16 SSA countries “Achieving MDG – Contribution of fulfilling unmet need for FP”. We are creating shorter, reader friendly documents broken down by country and have about 20 countries completed. We have completed a joint cost analysis study on seven countries in SEA in association with ASEAN. This took over a year to produce and looks at socioeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS and resource requirements for HIV/AIDS programming in
JHU/CCP –3 Population Reports are on the way: FP/HIV, Implants, and Communication for Better RH. The FP Global Handbook for Providers can be accessed at http://www.infoforhealth.org/globalhandbook/ or through http://www.infoforhealth.org. The handbook was written by WHO, USAID and JHU and many other CAs/orgs. There are extra chapters on VAW, AIDS section, Q&A on each of the methods and a newly designed wall chart.
We are currently looking for help with translations. It is currently being translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Swahili, Farsi, Hindi and Urdu. If your organization is interested in translating it into other languages, or know someone who can assist in Russian translation, please contact Sara Mazursky at INFO, smazursk@jhuccp.org There are also several CCP Publications including the participation guide, Guide for Media Advocacy for Contraception security, community empowerment to scale: health communication insights.
FHI - Finished writing Handbook for Introduction of Injectable Contraceptives into Community Based Programs. There is textbook on data collection for qualitative research on website. “Contraception for women and couples with HIV/AIDS” – Another CDROM toolkit will be published and will incorporate some INFO material. Currently conducting stakeholder mapping for FP/HIV Integration, including a systematic analysis of all web sites that address integration. The goal is to ascertain who is organizing panels and who the key players are internationally. Information will be used in communications initiatives with decision makers and encourage them to use the review. See action point regarding integration.
PRB - World population data sheet 2007 completed, also Policy Brief “
MSH – Several recently published publications including: Managers Who Lead, Spanish translation ("Gerentes que lideran: Un manual para mejorar los servicios de salud), Modernizing Health Institutions in Latin America by Hector Colindres, "An Urgent Call to Professionalize Leadership in Health Care Worldwide," Occasional Paper No. 4 (Spanish and English), "Scaling Up Postabortion Care Services: Results from Senegal," Occasional Paper No. 5. Publications in preparation: Occasional Papers on measuring leadership development and on family planning in Afghanistan. http://www.msh.org/
Horizons/Population Council – June 2007 PMTCT mothers2mothers evaluation in
FRONTIERS/Population Council – Coming soon: Balanced Counseling Strategy Toolkit. This builds upon the FP Global Handbook for Providers. The BCS Toolkit is a series of pamphlets and cards on 15 different FP methods. It will help providers give balanced counseling. The provider asks 4 questions to help client choose correct method It will also be translated into French and Spanish. Contact: Laura Raney, lraney@popcouncil.org. On Sept 10 Dr. Askew from the FRONTIERS program will give a talk on “Addressing the RH Needs of Adolescents Perinatally Infected with HIV” at the
Interagency Youth Working Group
Mercedes Torres
Mercedes spoke about the IAWG and provided a walk through of the site. The website is hosted by INFO and all the partners can be found on the site.
The IAWG meets 2-3 times/year and the minutes of these smaller meetings can be found on the site.
· Featured items will constantly be changed. The adolescent news and research feed on the home page comes from Pop Reporter. The resource page contains links to full text publications, and FHI is working to add as many publications as possible
· There are currently over 500 full text publications which can be viewed by organization. See action point in minutes regarding document submission. Some materials are journal articles and POPLINE can provide document delivery to people in developing countries. People can request POPLINE send out full print of journal article.
· Currently there are over 900 materials in the database. The group wants the site to be clearinghouse of all youth/RH/HIV publications
Updates
Photo policies and permission
Jenny Wilder, Pathfinder
Jenny was interested in knowing how people seek permission to use photographers and a group discussion ensued. ]
· FHI follows the same policy which is followed for libel stating that you cannot use likenesses of people that will encourage stigma. FHI never show faces of young people unless they are staff who are counselors. They do not show focus group discussions of young people. They shoot around from back and try to obtain backlit photos, which is an effective technique. If permission to photograph women in clinic she may be under pressure to say yes and may not know what she is consenting. The CEO would like us to have written permission wherever possible. If written permission is not possible we use very explicit and conscious verbal consent.
· SCMS hires professionals and usually a staff member accompanies them. Photos are prearranged to ensure that they get appropriate photo. SCMS is trying to stay away from “mother child” look that many publications have. Usually there are photos taken staff of members' faces or other people being trained. SCMS wants to show interaction/movement and the human side of working in the warehouse wants to show progression of quantification/purchasing. There is a standard operating procedure for photos. SCMS has set up guidelines and a standard appearance release .
· JHU/INFO Photoshare: If you're not comfortable giving Photoshare photos then it's probably not okay to put on website. Photoshare sometimes uses paid models and have them sign a release form.
· Population Council: Put the onus on photographer to obtain oral permission and send an e-mail with pictures saying oral permission was received from subjects/clients.
· Other comments: If you have a photographer who doesn’t want to ask for permission get a different photographer. If an event may go on for several days ask chair of meeting if it is okay then ask group if asks ok. You can take photographs and give to chair but if anyone wants anything out of record you can delete them. You can show subjects the digital and ask if the subject likes themselves. Captions should
· It is good for every organization to have policy on books and understand how or does not come into play.
HIPNet Mailing Update
Peggy D’Adamo, INFO
Peggy gave a brief update about the HIPNet library mailing.
· The mailing will be mailed out by end of September. Currently, there is a heavy recruiting of libraries. The number of English libraries is up to 523. French is about 79 and Spanish is 226.
· See action point detailing how to send publications for inclusion in the libraries.
· There will be 3 separate mailings at a rate of $3.95 per pound. Libraries were also asked if they wanted to be on an e-mail list and all said yes. Three separate lists will be set up and when you have new publications you can send to the appropriate list.
· If want to look at list of libraries/publications before making decision Peggy can send you a copy if you want to look at it.
· The bulk of English libraries are in
· If you have publications you want to only go to libraries in specific regions our countries, it can be done. Please let us know when you send the spreadsheet.
GHC “Book Nook” and Abstract workshop
Tina Flores, Global Health Council
· “Book nook” online book club
The book lists consists of fiction and non-fiction talking about global health issues such as HIV/AIDS, MCH, infectious disease and socio-economic cultural factors that impact health. The web based list is also in Healthlink- and is comprised of list of books with reviews. Some books will have interviews with authors listed as well. GHC is working on pilot project with local independent bookstore to work with authors to do book readings.
GHC looks forward to input. GHC is also planning reading/set of readings with authors at GHC conference.
· How to write abstracts workshop
This event will take place for a couple of hours in September and will be run by
Joanne Needham, director of conference. Attendance will be limited to 1-2
representatives from each member organization. If your organization is member of
GHC please come to the workshop. The workshop will take place on
September 13 from 2-4 at GHC in DC (
New Developments in CD-ROM Technology
Sarah Campbell, FRONTIERS/Population Council
Sarah gave a Power Point presentation on FRONTIERS experience in creating searchable CD-ROMs. The screen shots in the presentation helped illustrate the process.
· FRONTIERS uses HTML pages that have links to documents. The software for the search function is called Xtreeme Search. It is very easy to use: From the welcome page click assistant (magic wand icon) to specify how documents will be indexed and where files are coming from. You can use Front Page to
to obtain html coding and use an existing Front Page Template to enter the indexed files into.
· For the CD-ROM that FRONTIERS was creating, Xtreeme Search went through all pdf/html documents (74 files) and generated 2844 keywords. You can specify target type (offline CD ROM) and specify file name to save all files in. You can use metatags on your pdf documents to enhance the power of the search.
· Information: www.xtreeme.com/search-engine-studio/
Xtreeme
Cost varies by number of documents coded:
CD ROM License:
Up to1000 documents – 499.00
2000-599.00
5000-899.00
No limit – 1299.00
Leadernet "Community of practice for managers and leaders" site.
June Griffin – on the line from MSH,
Contact information: jgriffin@msh.org
June presented, via telephone, a walk through of the Leadernet "Community of practice for managers and leaders" site. The site is available in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese and a small section is in Arabic. The slideshow presentation which she reviewed at the meeting is available here: Leadernet presentation
· The entire site is built on decentralized content management. Administrators can click on the pencil and can format text. There are different teams that run different sections of Leadersnet. The site has short term workshops/seminars on specific topics.
· "Summary of discussion” – can edit, format, insert pictures. All translations are put in conversation thread and we try to post translations between 1-2 hours after the post is posted.
· Shift burden of content creation out from central level to members. The idea was to have articulate members to have their own blog to blog about daily experiences in work. We weren’t funded to build up leadership of blog.
· Use screen to shows who is participation in seminars. The console shows time of log in and tracks usage to determine lurkers.
· Questions:
Question: Does all forum interaction take place online? Do facilitators have to send out emails to prod people to go online?
Answer: Facilitators have to do pre-work for the forum. They need to send out reminders the seminar is about to start and email out in all languages of forum to all members of leadernet. Some people never go on site and just respond to emails saying they found the site useful.
Question: Do you pay people to do translation?
Answer: Yes, but we are currently looking at machine translation. It costs 5,000-10,000 to facilitate translation into several languages for 2-3 weeks.
Question: Is there any analogy between this method of learning and what business schools are doing?
Answer: Our site is text heavy. The business school sites use a lot of video streaming supplemented with simultaneous chat, discussion rooms. They function like a 3D Universe. It is difficult to take advantage of such sites with low bandwidth.
Question: Is there an easy way to find level of access in countries (i.e. statistics)?
Answer: Current data is a sporadic hodgepodge. I wish there was a clearinghouse for this information.
Question: How do you manage content?
Answer: There is little autonomy for members in terms of content management. The administrator can overwrite anything everywhere. The facilitators are all MSH staff or people we've worked with closely .
Date of Next HIPNet Meeting
· Date of next HIPNet Meeting –Friday November 16, 2007
Time: 10:30 am
Location: TBD
Attendance
Luz Barbosa IAVI LBarbrosa@iavi.org
Janis Berman URC/Quality Assurance Project jberman@urc.com
Renuka Bery AED rbery@aed.org
Samhita Brown MEASURE Evaluation brownsb@email.unc.edu
Emily Bryan Constella Futures/HPI ebryan@constellagroup.com
Sarah Campbell FRONTIERS/Pop Council scampbell@popcouncil.org
Nahyun Cho JHU/INFO ncho@jhsph.edu
Donna Clifton PRB dclifton@prb.org
Peggy D'Adamo JHU/INFO madamo@jhuccp.org
Anne Marie Dinardo SCMS adinardo@pfscm.org
Tina Flores Global Health Council tflores@globalhealth.org
Steve Goldstein JHU/INFO sgoldste@jhuccp.org
Leah Gordon MEASURE Evaluation leah.gordon@unc.edu
Shery Hutchinson Horizons/Pop Council shutchinson@popcouncil.org
Sandra Kalscheur AED skalscheur@aed.org
Maija Kroeger ESD Project mkroeger@esdproj.org
Dana Lewison JHPIEGO dlewison@jhpiego.net
Patricia Mantey AED pmanety@aed.org
Megan Meline MEASURE DHS Megan.D.Meline@orcmacro.com
Lori Merritt Constella Futures lmerritt@constellagroup.com
Angela Nash-Mercado JHPIEGO anash-mercado@jhpiego.net
Jerald Okuka AED/Africa 2010 jokuka@aed.org
Luis Ortiz CARE loritz@care.org
Laura Raney FRONTIERS/Pop Council lraney@popcouncil.org
Beth Robinson FHI brobinson@fhi.org
Seth Rosenblatt JHU/INFO srosenbl@jhuccp.org
Houkje Ross Core Group cchumble@worldvision.org
Rebecca Ruben Constella Futures rruben@constellagroup.com
Sara Schomig MSH sschomig@msh.org
Kathy Strauss SCMS kstrauss@pfscm.org
Neha Suchak PSP-One/Abt nehasuchak@abtassoc.com
Tara Sullivan JHU/INFO tsulliva@jhuccp.org
Barbara Timmons MSH btimmons@msh.org
Mercedes Torres FHI mtorres@fhi.org
Jenny Wilder Pathfinder jwilder@pathfinder.org
Antonia Wolfe AED awolff@aed.org
Disclaimer: The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.