01 April 2019, KAMPALA (Uganda):The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) this morning launched a knowledge management (KM) and community of practice training workshop on health in Kampala in collaboration with the John Hopkins University’s Knowledge for Health Project (K4Health) that is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Each IGAD member state delegated representatives from their respective national Ministry of Health .They are joined by Experts from IGAD Secretariat and Health Specialists team.
The main aim of this training is to address knowledge management gaps identified during the KM Needs and Gaps assessment that was conducted in August and September 2018 by IGAD and K4Health.
On behalf of the Ag Director of Health and Social Development Division-Madam Fathia Alwan, Senior Programme Coordinator Fatuma Adan in her opening remarks acknowledged that “Knowledge Management plays a crucial role in strengthening the regional integration and development agenda of IGAD because of its direct linkage with health research and evidence-based policy formulation”.
She said her hope to see this training going “a long way in enhancing Member States capacities in KM and establish a pool of experts who will mentor others and help in institutionalizing KM for better information management, for better decision making, for better health outcomes”.
The Director of Policy, Plan. Monitoring & Evaluation at the Federal Ministry of Health of Ethiopia, Mrs Biruk Abata, officially opened the training in her capacity as Chairperson after thanking partners for the support provided and urging delegates to take stock of the opportunity.
Upon successful convening of the training, the participants are expected to generate success stories ideas to be documented for sharing on the IGAD website, and to develop member state and IGAD secretariat knowledge management plans for their countries post-training.
The United States Agency for International Development’s Kenya and East African Mission (USAID/KEA) approached the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP), on behalf of the USAID-funded and CCP-led Knowledge for Health (K4Health) Project, to provide technical support for the strengthening of IGAD KM capacity.
