HIV and AIDS - Connecting HIV and AIDS resource centres in the Baltic Sea region
Overview
The number of people living with HIV and AIDS is rapidly increasing in the Baltic Sea region, initially through injecting drug use but increasingly through sexual transmission.
Five HIV and AIDS resource centres in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, St Petersburg and Kaliningrad are working together to improve access to accurate, relevant information about HIV and AIDS. Healthlink Worldwide has assessed what is needed in order for the centres to establish a network and share their knowledge and resources effectively. The project is called The Baltic Sea Regional Knowledge Management System in HIV and AIDS. It is part of the 'Network of Excellence Initiative', coordinated and funded by Family Health International (FHI).
As a part of our work on this project, Healthlink Worldwide staff visited each of the five centres. During these visits it became clear that there is a large amount of information-related work going on within the region, and that a huge amount of practical expertise and experience exists. However, it was apparent that there was little documentation or sharing of practice between centres, and that information exchange between the centres could be improved. Our recommendations in response to this include developing regional databases of key publications and contacts, providing information-related training, and communicating best-practice through regular publications.
Healthlink Worldwide is a founding partner in Source International Information Support Centre and we bring 30 years of resource centre expertise to the project. The learning from Source has been captured in the Resource Centre Manual (available on the Source website), which has been used as a guide to setting up and managing resource centres around the world, including 43 district resource centres in Tanzania.
Because of our work with over 50 partners around the world, we recognise the importance of differences between partners, in this case the five regional centres. Valuing diversity is vital to being able to share information resources and lessons learned from practical experiences.