Overview
Funded by the Global Health Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project [4] is designed to engage and serve a growing network of leading international public health organizations and thousands of health service providers, program managers and policy makers. The project’s coordination is led by CCP, with partnerships with FHI360 [5] and Management Sciences for Health [6] (MSH).
K4Health is focused on family planning and related public health topics for a global audience. We work to advance the use of quality information to improve public health programs worldwide.
Accomplishments
K4Health has:Developed a theory-based needs assessment methodology, which includes an environment scan, global online survey, and a multi-country qualitative study. In addition to completing the environment scan and the global online survey, K4H has launched a series of needs assessments in selected countries.
Developed and launched a global Web-based portal that brings together databases with extensive resources related to family planning, reproductive health, HIV prevention, and other health-related topics.
Developed an online collaborative Toolkit Application that allows workgroups of experts to bring together evidence-based practices and protocols. These expert-selected resources are then arranged for easy use and practical application. There are 45 toolkits available now, with several more in development.
Worked to expand knowledge exchange forums and communities of practice. K4Health manages a rapidly growing network of reproductive health professionals who use the Implementing Best Practices (IBP) Knowledge Gateway (www.knowledge-gateway.org [7]). This dynamic online community provides virtual collaboration space for over 14,600 health professionals from 7,125 different organizations in 190 countries.
Developed and managed several eLearning efforts, including the Global Health eLearning (GHeL) Center (with more than 45 courses available, including seven courses developed for PEPFAR). K4Health's own offerings include an introduction to knowledge management for public health and an overview on building and maintaining communities of practice.
Established a partnership with the South Africa-based NGO, SAfAIDS, to implement knowledge management (KM) activities in seven countries in southern Africa. Together, SAfAIDS and K4Health have developed a KM Country Model that is being implemented in five countries and will be replicated in other countries and regions.
