30-10-2018,Djibouti (Djibouti): The Health & Social Development Division of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is set to establish a document repository and sharing system. This intervention is aimed at strengthening knowledge management functions of thee Division.

 While opening a workshop aimed at gaining understanding of the existing opportunities, needs and gaps for documentation and archiving, Ms.Fathia Alwan, Division Director said, “We have so much data and information within the Division that spans back to over 20 years,”.

 Thegoal of the IGAD document repository and sharing system technical is to enhance effectiveness and efficiency of IGAD programming by increasing access to and sharing of, technical resources and tools that support planning, implementation and evaluation.

Funded by the USAID Kenya and East Africa, the initiative is being driven by technical assistance from Knowledge for Health (K4Health) project of the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Communication Programs.

 “We are happy with the work that IGAD is doing on this activity despite the late start due to internal challenges with disbursement,” said Dr. Agiso C.Odhuno, Regional Global Fund Liaison Specialist, Health Population and Nutrition Office, USAID Kenya and East Africa at the workshop opening. “I wish you all a fruitful session.”

 IGAD’s Health and Social Division works to improve the health of cross-border health populations, the refuges and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the 8 member states (Kenya, Uganda, Djibouti, Somali, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea). The document archival and sharing system is aimed to enhancing the Divisions efficiency in delivering quality health services through the member states.

 IGAD through the technical support from K4Health has just completed an extensive Knowledge Management Needs and Gaps assessment in all the member states (Except Eritrea). This exercise is aimed at providing critical insights to what sorts of knowledge the health sector handles, knowledge users, their capacities, and the existing platforms for knowledge management.  Further, the aim of the assessment was to learn about the documents collection, curation, exchange, and dissemination platforms developed in the past, currently in place (used or unused) at IGAD—for health and beyond—among IGAD secretariat and IGAD member state offices.

Jarret Cassaniti, Senior Program Officer, and Daniel Adero, Regional Knowledge Management Specialist, with the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) Knowledge for Health Project (K4Health) will lead the development team. They are to work with IGAD Health and Social Development Division staff, especially the program coordinator, the IGAD KM Coordinator, and the Information Technology Manager. The development team’s main task is to learn about IGAD’s archival system and conceptualize the development of a document collection, categorization, and sharing system for its Health and Social Development Division.

 IGAD aims to develop a robust knowledge management system by the end of this process that will support current and future KM practices

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