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HIPNet Meeting Minutes - Feb. 10, 2004

HIPNET Meeting on Family Planning/HIV Integration - February 10th 2004

Executive Summary
Meeting Objectives
Goals of Collaboration
Setting the Context
Introductions / Hopes for this Meeting
Key Audiences
Key Information Needs
Review of Current Information Resources
Small Group Activities
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Prioritizing Compelling Aspects of the Vision
From Vision to Action
Evidence Group
Advocacy and Communication Group
Process for Coordination Group
Products/Collaboration Group
Dissemination Group
Moving the Plan Forward
Core Groups For FP/HIV Integration
Appendix A: List of Participants
Appendix B: RESOURCES


Executive Summary

A one-day meeting was held on February 10, 2004 for USAID Office of Population cooperating agencies who have published, are currently publishing, or plan to publish on FP/HIV integration. Approximately 40-45 individuals representing about 24 organizations or projects and USAID attended. The objective of the meeting was to develop a process for collaboration and coordination among the organizations in identifying and meeting the field's information needs in the area of FP/HIV integration. Through a series of small and large group activities the group identified a set of key audiences and key information needs. The group also reviewed current information resources in the area of FP/HIV integration and identified gaps. The group also looked at what kinds of collaborative approaches have worked well in the past and how organizations could collaborate around this topic.

Through a process of prioritizing and identifying similarities in approaches, the group decided to end the day by dividing into five task oriented groups to begin the actual collaboration process. The groups were:

  1. Evidence, which will look at existing data and program experience;
  2. Advocacy & Communication, which will identify areas of overlap between FP and HIV agendas, develop advocacy strategies, and work to get the endorsement of the Office of HIV/AIDS;
  3. Coordination Process, which will develop the actual process for coordination/collaboration;
  4. Products/Collaboration which will define the types of products needed; and
  5. Dissemination, which will develop a collaborative dissemination strategy.
Coordinators for each group were identified and all groups agreed to meet together on March 4, 2004 from 9-11 AM at Advance Africa.

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Meeting Objectives

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Goals of Collaboration


Setting the Context

Jim Shelton of USAID explained that there is a strong push within the Bureau to be frugal about money, and especially with funding of publications. The HIDN Office is especially budget-conscious and has decided to cut funding for publications by a specific percentage across the board.

The Office of Population believes that we are in the business of knowledge, including sharing information through publications. Our dilemma is how to be more efficient and effective and continue to produce quality materials. USAID also wants to develop a process to get knowledge to the end user more effectively and to encourage the end user to use knowledge. This meeting is an effort to come together to improve efforts at our knowledge management activities. HIPNET has already been doing some of this, but we can go much farther. It’s the responsibility of people at this meeting to bring these issues to the attention of project leadership and explain the importance to our leadership. We need to come together to collaborate in new ways, although sometimes this can feel threatening. We need to figure out what makes people work well collaboratively and build on it. One of those factors is giving recognition to those who did the work. USAID is looking to INFO to be an honest broker for all the cooperating agencies, to help distill and synthesize information from all the CAs and develop economies of scale. For example, MAQ monographs are a series of publications by MAQ. The first three were distributed to a relatively small audience. PIP inserted the fourth one into an issue of Population Reports and it was mailed out to a much broader audience for very little extra cost. MAQ is still getting good feedback from the field on this publication.

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FP/HIV Integration

Much has already been done on integration of HIV into FP. Our challenge now is to integrate FP into HIV prevention. We must explore the following areas:

  1. Integration in clinical settings
  2. Integration outside the clinic in areas like IEC and social marketing
  3. The most cost-effective ways to prevent HIV transmission, including family planning
  4. Integrating FP into voluntary counseling and testing activities
  5. Integrating FP into PMTCT
  6. Because over two thirds of funding under PEPFAR goes to ART, integrating FP into ART programs
  7. Integrating FP into care and support for PLWAs.

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Introductions/Hopes for this Meeting

Participants introduced themselves and we shared some hopes for this meeting. See Appendix A for a complete list of registered meeting participants. Hopes included:

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Key Audiences

On a flipchart we captured the key audiences for FP/HIV integration resources. They are (not in order of importance):

  1. HPN Officers
  2. Office of HIV/AIDS (OHA)
  3. Country level policy makers
  4. Program managers/implementers (both FP and HIV)
  5. People managing VCT and PMTCT programs
  6. Hospital and clinic managers
  7. CAs
  8. NGOs (TA providers)
  9. Users of services (PLWAs etc)
  10. Other United States Government (USG) agencies (CDO, State Department, President, Congress etc)
  11. Country level implementers
  12. Geneva policy makers
  13. Other donors (WB, private etc)
  14. Providers
  15. Teaching institutions
  16. Advocates
  17. News/media
  18. WRA (contraception for HIV+ people)

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Key Information Needs

On a second flipchart we captured the key information & knowledge needs of those audiences:

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Review of Current Information Resources

Kathleen Shears of FHI presented a matrix of existing or planned FP/HIV integration information resources listing by type of publication. A few additional resources were suggested by the audience and a list of existing and planned WHO publications on integration was distributed. See Appendix B for these materials.


Small Group Activities

Participants broke into five groups to discuss and respond to the following questions.

  1. How can our current best practices, models, tools, and approaches be applied in creating, synthesizing, and disseminating FP/HIV integration information resources?
  2. How can we most effectively collaborate and coordinate to best meet the needs of the field?
  3. It is two years from today, we have collaborated and coordinated effectively and have been wildly successful in meeting the field’s information resources needs related to FP/HIV integration. What do you see? How have we collaborated and coordinated together in new and different ways? How do we know we’ve been successful in meeting the information resources needs of the field? Looking back, how did we make this happen and what were the most important steps we took to enable this success?

They were asked to capture the following information on flipcharts:

  1. Chart one: The group's key ideas and themes related to:
    1. Current best practices, models, tools, and approaches
    2. Ways to enhance collaboration and coordination to best meet field needs
  2. Chart two: Vision
    A vision that incorporates the group’s wishes for collaborating and coordinating to create an FP/HIV integration information resources series.

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Group 1

Vision

  1. A recognized field of FP/HIV Integration
  2. A clear tested model
  3. Basis for RH/HIV integration model
  4. Every VCT, PMTCT, ART client has access to choice of/range of RH products & services
What is Needed Areas for Collaboration

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Group 2

Vision

  1. HIPNET (INFO) and HIV Communications Working Group (CWG) (SYNERGY) merged
  2. Other KM tools—can cut across bureaucratic barriers, such as listservs etc
  3. Both FP and HIV folks understand benefits of integration, i.e. marketing was successful
  4. Needs assessment done together to identify gaps, produced what’s needed, full collaboration credit. Distribute, use, evaluate.
  5. USAID and missions will have integrated work plans, SOs and funding
  6. Integrated program materials
  7. Funding issues resolved so that indicators are integrated, and there is more comprehensive reporting on impacts, not just HIV
What is Needed

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Group 3

Vision

  1. Dialogue between intra- and inter- organizations already taken place and advocacy tools developed and accessible, adapted and used in select settings
  2. HPN offices and organizations understand the value of, content of guidelines and management issues and know how to operationally them.
  3. Best practices through case studies synthesized and indicators of HIV/FP integration identified
  4. Resources in areas of training, PVC delivery, client education, community mobilization in FP/HIV identified, synthesized and made available to relevant audiences
  5. Communities and clients are aware/informed and demanding services as a result of communication and education efforts
What is Needed
  1. Advocacy:
  2. Needs Assessment:
  3. Synthesize information:
  4. Design indicators using information to achieve goals
Areas for Collaboration:

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Group 4

Vision

Our future vision is that HIPNET’s collaboratively developed and disseminated information resources are widely used at all levels, but especially in the field. One example of use would be that country HIV/AIDS strategies have contraception programs.

How will we know that our materials are being used? We need to plan for and implement evaluation strategies. The POLICY and MEASURE EVALUATION projects could be useful in leading our evaluation efforts.

Information Resources

A lot of information resources on FP/HIV integration exist, but a lot is not yet being covered. There is a need for practical, how to guides. FP/HIV integration topic areas could include:

Under any of these topics, technical content could focus on: Process Issues
Issues that need to be taken into consideration in this process include:

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Group 5

Vision

  1. Identified series of resources--special logo identifying the group
  2. CAs collaborate on specific technical areas
  3. Becomes cross-promotional
  4. Select several key topics for coordinated products (with a timeline)
  5. On-going planning as field adapts
  6. HIV sector involvement
  7. FP aware of HIV and vice versa (the idea of 101)
  8. Broaden reach--other donors, non CA groups, private sector, local NGOs etc
  9. Buy-in from various sectors e.g. ICPD
  10. Peter Piot and Tobias support FP as key HIV intervention
What Is Needed Areas for Collaboration

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Prioritizing Compelling Aspects of the Vision
The whole group discussed compelling aspects of the visions. We looked at differences and similarities among the five visions.

Similarities among the Visions

  1. Awareness Education across the FP and HIV fields (101)
  2. Synthesis of Best Practices
  3. Simple, minimum package of services
  4. Integrated models
  5. Technical areas
  6. A "product"
  7. Indicators of success
  8. Dialogue and buy-in (assume macro level advocacy has taken place)
  9. Local knowledge gathering followed by outward messaging
  10. Effective communication

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From Vision to Action
Based on the similarities among the visions and a discussion of the process, the large group decided to divide into the following small groups, based on individual interest:

  1. Evidence Group
  2. Advocacy and Communication Group
  3. Process for Coordination Group
  4. Products/ Collaboration Group
  5. Dissemination Group

Each group was tasked with discussing the following questions, related to the specific area of priority:

  1. What key initiatives should we consider to move our priority area forward?
  2. What are the first steps we would take to move these initiatives forward?
  3. What are some key considerations and success factors?
  4. How can we collaborate most effectively to make our vision a reality?
  5. What process(es) would enable our success?

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Evidence Group
What is evidence? It broadly includes:

How do you capture knowledge about integration?

Snowball effect - NEXT STEP: get evidence for better strategic planning

How do you capture knowledge about what HIV community is doing/thinking? We need (from the HIV folks):

We can create:

Questions:

Identifying new evidence

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Process for Coordination Group

  1. USAID Interagency Group
  2. TA/Support HIV/OHA regarding FP/HIV Information
  3. Identify a champion
  4. HIPNET's Role:

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Products/Collaboration Group

  1. What is needed:
    1. Short Advocacy Piece
      • Topic-area based
      • Digests relevant information
      • Evidence based case for integrating FP and HIV
    2. BP Compendium Possible foundation for a series
    3. Pragmatic "How To" Tool Series [VCT, PHTCT, Treatment, Care and Support]
    4. Virtual Clearinghouse: Website and periodic listserv [could be just a page on Synergy website]
  2. Collaboration:
    1. Identify a clear leader who would be responsible for:
      • Quality Assurance
      • Timeliness
      • Effective communication
      • Keeping group on task
      • Production
      • Coordinating dissemination
    2. Develop an approach to involve CAs that plays to their strengths/participatory approach, namely with field contributions. With:
      • Clear objectives/shared goals
      • Transparency
      • Clear roles written out (MOUs and/or work plans) that includes appropriate attribution and recognition
    3. Figure out the funding mechanism
    Existing field products related to FP/HIV integration should also be identified and adapted for general use. We need to use what already exists and double check at the global level.
  3. First Steps:
    1. USAID champion identified
    2. OHA and SRH champions identified
    3. Forum for identifying priorities
      • HIPNET & Synergy = HIPNET+ (with planners, technical people, decision makers, field perspectives etc.)
    4. Organize effective review process
    5. Purposeful allowance for different models
      • [PVOs, Bilaterals, Smaller Subs]

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    Dissemination Group
    Vehicles:

    Audiences: Strategies for dissemination:
    1. Cross promotion of brand/series
      • Creation of a seal or brand
      • Endorsement of existing and planned products
      • Web links as a secondary dissemination
    2. Centralized ordering/organized distribution
    3. CA roles in dissemination
      • How to coordinate mailing lists
    4. Electronic: CD/Web--HIPNET involvement
    5. Southern dissemination--tailoring adaptation to country specific requirements
    6. Dissemination
      • Plan must be part of collaboration of product development--re-use
      • Secure funding
    7. Product launch
    8. USAID Pouch System

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    Moving the Plan Forward
    Each subgroup selected 1-2 point persons to call the first meeting of the group together and, at least initially, act as coordinators. All groups agreed to meet together initially at Advance Africa on March 4, 2004 from 9-11 AM. The chart below lists each group with members and contact information. If you would like to join a group, attend the meeting on the 4th or contact the coordinator.

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