HIV and AIDS - Support to the International Partnership against AIDS in Africa (SIPAA)
Inter-country learning
Strengthening the links between people across African countries and stimulating learning processes encourages new ways of thinking and acting and can increase political will to respond better to HIV and AIDS. Managing information and knowledge relating to good and bad ways to respond to HIV and AIDS is complex, yet this information can be vital for other countries.
The inter-country learning activities were essential to the success of the Documentation and Learning component of the Support to International Partnership Against AIDS in Africa (SIPAA) programme.
The activities carried out by Healthlink Worldwide focused on the National AIDS Councils (NACs) and their partners own learning in order to derive maximum benefit from the opportunities to share experiences across countries.
The activities included:
1. Learning networks
SIPAA learning networks offer a way to share experiences and lessons learned,
the processes of documentation, or other emerging issues that concern
SIPAA stakeholders. Email forums have been created as a result of the
two resource centre training workshops and after the information and
knowledge management learning forum held in Lesotho. They have promoted
the continued sharing of learning between participants and a ‘community
of practice’ has developed focusing on information and knowledge
management and resource centre management. This has increased the level
of interaction between participants, as well as the flow of information
between the NACs.
2. Learning forums
The learning forums bring key practitioners together to consider how they ‘learn
from work’; they provide a space to share knowledge, skills and experience.
They offer the chance to explore existing opportunities for learning as
part of work and examine methods for analysing and learning from experiences.
The learning forum held in Lesotho in February 2005 focused on Information and Knowledge Management (IKM). Participants shared learning, knowledge management and evaluation tools and looked at key elements of strategies for learning and communication. They also worked together on a range of common challenges such as developing a classification scheme, engaging communities in Resource Centre development, and advocating for strategic investment in information and communication.
“It made us feel free to share the reality and experience in an unrestrained manner.” Participant at the learning forum
A second learning forum is planned for June which will examine the lessons learned from the SIPAA programme and in particular will look at the relationships of the SIPAA partners and the processes and effects of the Documentation and Learning component of the programme.
3. Learning exchanges and visits
Healthlink has coordinated a number of learning exchanges between different
SIPAA countries. In October 2004 the Tanzania NAC visited Kenya and Uganda.
The aim was to gather information and knowledge for the implementation
of HIV and AIDS activities in Tanzania.
Other learning exchanges included:
- The Lesotho NAC who visited Uganda and Botswana
- The Ghana and Cameroon NACs who visited Uganda
- The Tanzania NAC who visited Kenya and Uganda