Enlisting National Mapping Agencies in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS: Building Partnerships with Ministries of Health and Social Services, and National AIDS Commissions
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Enlisting National Mapping Agencies in the Fight against HIV/AIDS: Building Partnerships with Ministries of Health and Social Services, and National AIDS Commissions CODIST I Pre-conference Workshop Addis Ababa, Ethiopia April 27, 2009 MEASURE Evaluation is a MEASURE program project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) through Cooperative Agreement GHA-A-00-08-00003-00 and is implemented by the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in partnership with Futures Group International, John Snow, Inc., ICF Macro, Management Sciences for Health, and Tulane University. The authors’ views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States government. May 2010 WS-10-16 MEASURE Evaluation www.cpc.unc.edu/measure ii CODIST I Pre-Conference Workshop Acknowledgments John Spencer, James Stewart, and Libby Barron of MEASURE Evaluation; Andrew Inglis, MEASURE DHS; Dorina Maris, U.S. Agency for International Development; Nathan J. Heard, Humanitarian Information Unit, U.S. Department of State; Paul Belanger, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; Chris Fontaine, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; and Steeve Ebener, World Health Organization, are acknowledged for their contributions to the workshop. Special thanks are extended to the workshop attendees for their time and effort to participate in the workshop and for their continuing effort in their countries. Workshop participants (MEASURE Evaluation photograph). Table of Contents Acknowledgments ii List of Tables iv List of Figures iv List of Acronyms iv Executive Summary v Introduction 1 Workshop Proceedings 7 Agenda 7 Morning Session 7 Afternoon Session 8 Group Work Findings 9 Outputs from the Workshop 11 Conclusions 13 Appendices 15 Appendix I: Participant Counts by Major Category, Country, and Organization Appendix II: Agenda Appendix III: Welcome Presentation Slides Appendix IV: Morning Session Presentation Slides Appendix V: Group Work Instructions Appendix VI: Group Assignments by Country Appendix VII: Group Worksheet Appendix VIII: Data Production Chain Appendix IX: Major Issues by Sub-Category Appendix X: Group Two Results (in English and French) Appendix XI: Group Six Results Appendix XII: UNECA Report iv CODIST I Pre-Conference Workshop List of Tables Table 1. Workshop Representatives 2 Table 2. Morning Session Presentations 7 List of Figures Figure 1. Count of particpants by category and region. 4 Figure 2. Conference African participants by category. 4 Figure 3. Conference participants by country and area of interest. 5 Figure 4. Afternoon session groups, by participants’ country of origin. 8 Figure 5. Pre-workshop survey results. 9 Figure 6. Participants’ cumulative scores for health-data mapping issues. 10 Figure 7. UNECA summary report recommendations. 12 List of Acronyms CODIST Committee on Development Information, Science and Technology GIS geographic information system(s) HBC home-based care MOH ministry of health NAC national AIDS council, national AIDS commission NMA national mapping agency NSDI national spatial data infrastructure PEPFAR U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief UNAIDS Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS UNECA United Nations Economic Commission for Africa USAID U.S. Agency for International Development WHO World Health Organization Executive Summary In a first of its kind meeting, representatives of government health and mapping agencies from throughout Africa met and committed to working jointly to combat HIV/AIDS as part of the CODIST I pre-conference workshop. The workshop, Enlisting National Mapping Agencies in the Fight against HIV/AIDS: Building Partnerships with Ministries of Health and Social Services, and National AIDS Commissions, which was held April 27, 2009, at the United Nations Conference Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was organized by MEASURE Evaluation with support from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Co-sponsoring the workshop with MEASURE Evaluation was the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The workshop represents the first time government representatives from the health and mapping sectors have met on such a large scale to harmonize national efforts to combat HIV/AIDS more effectively. The use of geographic approaches in the fight against HIV/AIDS is increasing. Often, however, ministries of health (MOHs), national AIDS councils (NACs) and other social service ministries lack capacity to use spatial data and tools, such as geographic information systems (GIS) and digital globes. MOHs and NACs could benefit from building linkages with existing in-country capacity and national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) efforts. NSDI initiatives guide the development of standardized spatial data and capacity to collect, manage and use spatial data at local, national and global scales. Many countries in Africa have an established NSDI initiative, and through such initiatives have built in-county capacity for the creation and use of spatial data and tools. National mapping agencies (NMAs) are, for most countries, the entity responsible for coordinating NSDI efforts and are sources of expertise in the creation, maintenance, and use of spatial data and knowledge of GIS software. The workshop, which drew 164 of its 187 participants from 29 African countries, sought to initiate a pan-African community of practice to increase involvement of MOHs, NACs and other social service ministries in the NSDI process and to build linkages between these health sector agencies and NSDI actors, including NMAs. The one-day workshop was organized into morning and afternoon sessions, the first for presentations showing the use of spatial methods and tools by MOH and NAC representatives and the second for group work to prioritize the challenges limiting the creation of linkages between the mapping and health sectors. Two key results of the workshop were the heightened awareness among participants of the need to collaborate in the fight against HIV/AIDS and the spoken desire of many of the participants to increase cooperation. More tangibly, the groups from the afternoon session produced a ranking of the major issues affecting mapping of health data and articulated resolutions for consideration by the UNECA Committee on Development Information, Science and Technology (CODIST) sub-committee on geo-information. The full CODIST adopted all of the resolutions contained in this report. The adoption of these resolutions by UNECA member states is the first formalized endorsement of the importance of building linkages between the health and mapping sectors and commits the member states to pursuing such linkages. For more information, see www.cpc.unc.edu/measure/codist1. vi CODIST I Pre-Conference Workshop Introduction On April 27, 2009, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, MEASURE Evaluation, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), organized the workshop Enlisting National Mapping Agencies in the Fight against HIV/AIDS: Building Partnerships with Ministries of Health and Social Services, and National AIDS Commissions. Workshop co-sponsors with MEASURE Evaluation included the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The workshop was held immediately prior to UNECA‘s Committee on Development Information, Science and Technology (CODIST) meetings, a larger gathering that brings together many representatives from national government agencies with scientific or technological responsibilities throughout Africa. MEASURE Evaluation and its partners sought to capitalize on the presence at the CODIST meetings of many representatives of government agencies involved in the mapping sector by sponsoring the attendance of representatives from ministries of health (MOHs), national AIDS councils (NACs) and social service ministries to meet with their mapping counterparts. The workshop represents the first time government representatives from the health and mapping sectors have met on such a large scale to harmonize national mapping and health efforts to combat HIV/AIDS more effectively. The use of geographic approaches in the fight against HIV/AIDS is increasing. Often, however, MOHs, NACs, and other social service ministries lack capacity to use spatial data and tools such as GIS and digital globes. MOHs and NACs could benefit from building linkages with existing in-country capacity and national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) efforts. NSDI initiatives guide the development of standardized spatial data and capacity to collect, manage and use spatial data at local, national, and global scales. Many countries in Africa have an established NSDI initiative and through it have built capacity in country for the creation and use of spatial data and tools. National mapping agencies (NMAs) are, for most countries, the entity responsible for coordinating NSDI efforts and are sources of expertise in the creation, maintenance and use of spatial data and knowledge of GIS software. The workshop, which drew 164 of its 187 participants from 29 African countries, sought to initiate a pan-African community of practice to increase involvement of MOHs, NACs and other social service ministries in the NSDI process and to build linkages between