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Population & Health Materials Working Group - October 21, 1999 Meeting Notes

• Welcome: Tony Hudgins, Deputy Director, Family Planning Logistics Management Project (FPLM) at JSI
  Tony briefly discussed FPLM's contributions. FPLM helps to manage central procurement of contraceptives and provides technical assistance in-country. Logistics is a critical activity, since if there are no products, there is no program. He reviewed some statistics on the numbers of contraceptives shipped by USAID annually ($61M) and the number of clients served worldwide. Currently USAID has the most agile procurement/supply system. FPLM works in 30 countries on transport and distribution of products, MIS, inventory and procurement, contraceptive self-reliance, training. FPLM activities have an impact on program, quality of care, cost-effectiveness and accountability. Visit the FPLM website at www.fplm.jsi.com. Many publications are available in PDF format.

• Update on FAMPLAN: Nina Frankel/FHI
  Nina reported that there had been some personnel changes at FHI and that the person in charge of FAMPLAN was working slowly, but that it will be updated. Her name is Sandy Morgan and she can be reached at smorgan@fhi.org. All questions, changes, additions can be sent to Sandy.
  Nina also reported that FHI is producing a new series of modules which are also available in paperback and now include training exercises. Next topics to be covered will be 'client-provider interaction' and 'Introduction to the methods.' Click here to visit the "What's New" publications page on the FHI web site.

• Photoshare database demonstration: Lavina Velasco, JHU/CCP
  Lavina demonstrated how to search Photoshare, a new online database of international photographs related to reproductive health, public health, and population in developing countries - http://www.photoshare.org. Photoshare is run by the Media/Materials Clearinghouse (M/MC) at JHU/CCP and includes about 2,500 photos with about 100 new photos being added each month. Cooperating agencies and other non-profit organizations working to promote public health in developing countries are invited to request free digital copies of photos for use in their publications, website and materials. Images must be credited to the appropriate photographer and/or agency and must be used for non-profit educational purposes only. Photoshare was started with photos from the Media/Materials Clearinghouse photo library but other cooperating agencies (JHPIEGO, PSI) and individual photographers have contributed. If you are interested in contributing your organization's photos, please contact photoshare@jhuccp.org or call 410-659-6300.

• Michigan Fellows: Aimee Balfe, University of Michigan
  Aimee said that the Michigan Fellows program is thinking of starting a listserv to send relevant job postings or information about internships to fellows and prospective fellows. People expressed enthusiasm for this, and Amy will let all of us know when the listserv is up and running so that we can contribute our job postings and internships. She also encouraged cooperating agencies to consider hosting a fellow or an intern. For more information, contact Aimee at abalfe@umich.edu

• D&D Group: Rita Feinberg, NGO Networks for Health
  Rita explained that NGO Networks and a few other groups had started a D&D (documentation and dissemination) group -- an informal group that meets monthly to discuss dissemination of information and materials. It started in July. Everyone is welcome to attend the next (and future) meetings. The next meeting will be hosted by the AED/Linkages Project and will be held on November 30, 1999 at 1:30 PM. If you would like to attend, contact Rita Feinberg at RFeinberg@dc.savechildren.org. Rita also distributed information on NGO Networks for Health.

• Reports on workshops conducted by PHMWG:
  The Population and Health Materials Working Group conducted four workshops this summer:
  • Care and Feeding of An Internet Discussion List, which was conducted via e-mail by PATH and MSH from July 6-August 30th
  • Intranets, which was organized by AVSC and JHPIEGO and held in NY on July 29th
  • Producing Multi-Media CD-ROMS, which was held in Baltimore on September 8th, and
  • Distance Education which was held in Baltimore on September 9th.
  There is still one workshop that was planned initially, with the Census Bureau, on putting date up on the web. Sara Adkins-Blanch will continue to work on organzing this. Generally, people felt that those who did attend got a lot of useful information from the workshops and they served a useful purpose. Click HERE for summaries of the workshops, exceprts from the evaluations, and some of the PowerPoint presentations.

• Report on CD-ROMS distributed to fellows through PHMWG:
  The following CD-ROMS were distributed to Population Leadership and Michigan Fellows:
  • Quality Assurance Kit
  • Tuberculosis Case Management
  • The POLICY Project HIV/AIDS Policy Compendium on CD-ROM
  • Zambia: A Selection of Media for Health Communication
  • Mini-M/MC: A Selection of Media for Health Communication
  • FHI Web CD-ROM
  • REPROLINE: Reproductive Health Online
  • Tools for Life
  The group will continue to update the page on this website that lists cd-roms produced in population, health and nutrition.

• New Publications: [NOTE: If I've missed something, please e-mail me with the information and I will add it--Peggy].
  • Support for Analysis and Research in Africa (SARA) Project: Renu Bery
    Renu reported on a new IMCI manual developed by the SARA project as well as a manual for using the internet. Many SARA publications are available online at the web site in HTML and PDF format. 

  • INTRAH/PRIME: Cathy Murphy
    Cathy reported that INTRAH had completed a set of modules for the Ghana Registered Midwives Association, TBA manuals for use in EL Salvador and a manual for use in Mexico. She also showed some innovative cloth wallcharts and mentioned a number of ther materials including the new List of Free Materials (which can also be searched from the web site). 

  • Family Care International: Marilyn Piels
    Marilyn reported that FCI is doing a safe motherhood guide to be put on their web site. They are also looking for safe motherhood 'success stories' to help them develop indicators to prove that maternal deaths have been reduced. They have also published Meeting the Cairo Challenge and an executive summary of it. They have produced two flipcharts for use in Africa: a safe motherhood flipchart (in English and French) and a Get the Facts flipchart (also in English and French). They developed a series of briefing cards for ICPD+5 and will develop a similar set for Beijing+5.

  • Population Reference Bureau: Sara Adkins-Blanch
    Sara shared information on PRB's The World of Child 6 Billion and new PRB print publications including the 1999 World Population Data Sheet and others.

  • The Policy Project: Nancy McGirr
    Policy Project publications include the following. Many are available on the website
    POLICY Occasional Papers
    • No. 1: Reproductive Health and Human Capital: A Framework for Expanding Policy Dialogue
    • No. 2: Post-Cairo Reproductive Health Policies and Programs: A Comparative Study of Eight Countries (English, French, Spanish) Individual Country Reports: Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Jamaica, Jordan, Nepal, Senegal (English or French)
    • No. 3: The Art of Policy Formulation: Experiences from Africa in Developing National HIV/AIDS Policies (English, French, Spanish)
    Working Paper Series
    • WPS No. 1: Performance Monitoring for Family Planning and Reproductive Health Programs: An Approach Paper
    • WPS No. 2: Policy Lessons Learned in Finance and Private Sector Participation
    • WPS No. 3: Reproductive Health Costs Literature Review
    • WPS No. 4: Use of Commercial and Government Sources of Family Planning and
    Maternal and Child Health Care
    Manuals
    • Spectrum: A Set of Computer Programs for Population, Family Planning, HIV/AIDS, and Reproductive Health Analyses and Projections (English, French, Spanish)
    • Networking for Policy Change: An Advocacy Training Manual
    Policy Matters (Research Briefs)
    • No. 1. Community Perspectives on Unsafe Abortion and Postabortion Care in Zimbabwe
    • No. 2 Understanding Clients’ Choice of Providers and Their Willingness to Pay for Family Planning Services in the Philippines
    • No. 3. Implications of Decentralization for Reproductive Health Planning in Senegal
    • No. 4 The Impact of Unwantedness and Family Size on Child Health and Preventive and Curative Care: A Multicountry Study
    Flyers
    • Computer Models as Tools for Policymakers
    • Improving the Policy Environment for Effective HIV/AIDS Policies and Programs
    • Improving the Policy Environment for Effective HIV/AIDS Policies and Programs: Focus on Human Rights
    • HIV/AIDS Policy Compendium

  • JHU/CCP: Steve Goldstein, Peggy D'Adamo
    Steve Goldstein reported on recent issues of Population Reports published and translated. All recent issues are available full-text on the web site at http://www.infoforhealth.org. Finally he discussed issues that are now in preparation and those that will be translated and the Essentials of Contraceptive Technology.
    Peggy distributed copies of the most recent issue of the M/MC publication, "What's New" which focuses on Internet resource for reproductive health and lists hundreds of websites. She also had copies of the M/MC's Zambia CD-ROM and POPLINE's CONDOMS CD-ROM and HIM (a new CD-ROM which will focus on men's participation).

  • PATH: Sam Cook
    Sam distributed a long list of materials and passed single copies of new sample materials from PATH around the room. The list included materials developed by each of PATH's country offices, emergency contraception materials, including a great series of brochures which can be downloaded from the PATH website.

  • JHPIEGO: Dana Lewison
    Learning Packages: (reference manuals listed below; corresponding trainer's notebook and participant's handbook also available)
    
    • Compétences en Formation Clinique pour les Professionnels en Santé de la Reproduction, seconde édition. (French translation of Clinical Training Skills for Reproductive Health Professionals, second edition, reference manual) (Authors: Sullivan R et al.)
    • Habilidades de Capacitación Clínica para Profesionales en Salud Reproductiva, segunda edición. (Spanish translation of Clinical Training Skills for Reproductive Health Professionals, second edition, reference manual) (Authors: Sullivan R et al.)
    Modified Computer-Assisted Learning Packages
    
    • ModCal™ for Clinical Training Skills (complete learning package, including CD-ROM)
    • ModCal™ for IUD Services (complete learning package, including CD-ROM)
    Workshop Proceedings
    
    • Issues in Establishing Postabortion Care Services in Low-Resource Settings. Proceedings of a workshop in Baltimore, Maryland, sponsored by JHPIEGO, 20–21 May 1999. (Editors: Ghosh A, D Lewison and ER Lu)
    Strategy Paper:
    • Establishing Postabortion Care Services in Low-Resource Settings. (Strategy Paper No. 7) (Authors: Ghosh A, ER Lu and N McIntosh)

  • FOCUS Project: Christine Stevens
    The following item will be available on the website: http://www.pathfind.org/site/PageServer?pagename=MAJOR_PROJECTS_FOCUS :
    
    • Listening to Young Voices: Facilitating Participatory Appraisals on Reproductive Health with Adolescents (Shah, Zambezi and Simasiku)
    These relatively recent items are already available:
    • Last three issues of our In FOCUS series
    • Reaching Newlywed and Married Adolescents (Alauddin and MacLaren, July 1999)
    • Reaching Socially Marginalized Youth (Stevens, March 1999)
    • Reaching Indigenous Youth with Reproductive Health Information and Services (Farrell, Rosen and Terborgh, Feb. 1999)
    • Spanish translation of Making Reproductive Health Services Youth Friendly, by Judith Senderowitz
      Haciendo los Servicios de Salud Reproductiva Amigables para la Juventud 
    • New issues of Project Highlight series 

  • RHGateway: Ward Rinehart, JHU/CCP
    RHGateway aims to be a search site that searches the web sites of participating organizations and provides relevant, reliable information for reproductive health professionals which will enable users to quickly through specifically selected websites.

    Ward presented a demonstration of a web site tentatively called RHGateway. It is temporarily located at http://www.rhgateway.org, but would move to its own URL. A number of cooperating agencies have agreed to add their sites to the demo version.

    While the trial version now posted is rudimentary, it gives a sense of how it can work. The most obvious limitation of this version is that only one organization can be indexed under the "Index" function; the real version will index all sites into one comprehensive index.

    Currently, RHGateway searches the websites of JHPIEGO, PATH, AVSC, PRB, JHU/CCP, JSI, the MNH Project, NGO Networks for Health, REPROLINE, INTRAH/PRIME, Reproductive Health Outlook, The Futures Group, URC-CHS, and Management Sciences for Health. At the moment, only the 'title' metatags of pages are being searched, however; the number of fields searched will be expanded when it goes to a full-scale version.

    One of the nice things about it is that it doesn't require much, if any work from participating sites, although there are ways to improve the searchability of a site.

    Because of the interest expressed so far, JHU/CCP has gone ahead with site development. Management decisions will be in the hands of the Population & Health Materials Working Group and we are still looking for a few more people to be part of a subcommittee to work on this. The subcommittee would evaluate other sites for inclusion and make any other decisions about the site between meetings. If you are interested, contact Peggy D'Adamo mdadamo@jhuccp.org.

  • Copyright & Getting Permissions:
    The group briefly discussed ways of getting publications, especially mainstream US publications, to give permission to reprint or link to the full text of articles on the web. We agreed to continue the discussion via the PHMWG listserv. The professor at UNC who gives a course through the Special Libraries Association on copyright issues is Laura Gasaway. She can be contacted at 919-962-1049 or laura_gasaway@unc.edu.

  • Internet Conference for January 20001:
    Steve Goldstein suggested that the PHMWG sponsor a third conference on the Internet in January 2001. He asked for suggestions for what would be useful to focus on and the group agreed that getting more feedback from developing country users would be useful. He will begin to put together an agenda.

  • Next meeting: April 20, 2000 at AED.

  • Meeting attendees:
    Sara Adkins-Blanch, PRB
    Aimee Balfe, Michigan Fellows
    Drew Banks, JSI
    Renu Bery, AED/SARA
    Thada Bornstein, URC/QAP
    Sam Clark, PATH-DC
    Gretl Cox, JSI
    Peggy D'Adamo, JHU/CCP
    Kerry Duval, Futures
    Sonia Elabd, JHPIEGO
    Rita Feinberg, NGO Networks
    Nina Frankel, FHI
    Steve Goldstein, JHU/CCP
    Stephanie Grey
    Kristyn Kohl, FPLM
    Dana Lewison, JHPIEGO
    Pamela Marsh, FPLM
    Nancy McGirr, Futures
    Cathy Murphy, INTRAH/PRIME
    Marilyn Piels, Family Care International
    Ward Rinehart, JHU/CCP
    Pat Shawkey, JSI
    Christine Stevens, FOCUS/Pathfinder
    Lavina Velasco, JHU/CCP
    Liliana Vivanco, TVT Associates/Synergy
    

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