Resource centre management training in Ethiopia
Healthlink Worldwide was contracted to provide five days training in Resource Centre Management to 28 staff from 15 Regional AIDS Resource Centres (RARCs) and the National AIDS Resource Centre (NARC) in Ethiopia, in February 2009.
The training took place in Adama, at the request of NARC, following a survey of the RARCs in which there were recommendations to develop the capacity of RARC staff in resource centre management and to create a standardised monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework and tools and a reporting format to be used across all RARCs.
The participants attending the training include RARC co-ordinators, IT specialists, project managers from the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) in Ethiopia, who are currently involved in setting up or running RARCs, and five members of staff from NARC.
The objectives of the training were that participants:
- Explore the challenges around HIV and AIDS information provision in Ethiopia;
- Define the role of NARC and RARCs and the contribution they make in supporting the National HIV and AIDS strategy;
- Explore the importance of assessing information needs and develop needs assessment tools;
- Discuss ways of acquiring, organising, promoting and evaluating information materials for RARCs;
- Explore the use of information communication technologies (ICTs) in support of the work of the HIV and AIDS resource centres;
- Discuss the requirements needed to set up and manage a resource centre;
- Discuss the role of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) in information service provision, and develop M&E tools and a reporting format for use in their Resource centres, and
- Develop a supportive network among staff of NARC and the RARCs in Ethiopia.
This highly participatory training used a variety of participatory communication approaches. It focused on addressing the needs of participants as they began to develop their understanding and started to own the training module for their own use. It was informal, reflective and designed to promote active learning by doing. To assist with learning, the training included an exposure visit the local HIV and AIDS Resource Centre in Adama.
The training included an overview of the HIV and AIDS situation in Ethiopia and the challenges faced, and of the role of information in the National HIV Strategy as well as the role of resource centres within that context.
More practical sessions focused on strategic planning; understanding an information needs assessment; sourcing, assessing and selecting resources; developing a resource centre policy; organising resource centre information; an introduction to databases and electronic resources; planning and managing a resource centre; repackaging information and promotion of the resource centre.
Throughout the week, participants also worked on developing a promotional leaflet for their RARC based on the short term goals identified during the strategic planning session.
As a group the participants discussed what was needed for monitoring and evaluating information services and together they developed M&E tools and a reporting framework which could be used nationally by all RARCs and would comply with the quarterly reporting needs of HAPCO (in Amharic) and NARC (in English). A user survey was been developed jointly, as one of the M&E tools for collecting qualitative data to feed into the quarterly reports.
This was the first opportunity that many of the participants had had to meet and get to know each other, both socially and through working together on the group tasks for each session, included as part of the participatory design of the workshop. This time together enabled them to plan how they would develop a network to support each other and share experiences and learning, and they set up a working group to take this forward.
In general participants enjoyed the participatory methodology used for this training, appreciated the opportunities to work together on the various assignments throughout the week, and were motivated to test their new knowledge in their RARCs and share it with their colleagues. One participant enjoyed; “The relevance of the issues discussed in the workshop.”
“The workshop is very nice in making all RARCs to have more or less similar direction,” another participant commented.
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