ICTs in Documentation & Documentation Advocacy

ICTs in HIV
Documentation
and
Communication
Rouzeh Eghtessadi (MPH)
Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information
Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS)
Regional Office
479 Sappers Contour, Lynnwood
Pretoria, South Africa

Tel: +27 12 361 0889
Fax: +27 12 361 0899

Website: http://www.safaids.net
Email: rouzeh@gmail.com

HIV/AIDS INFORMATION : the power to make a difference
SAfAIDS - P O Box A509,Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe, Tel: 263 4 336193/4, Fax: 263 4 336195, E-mail: info@safaids.org.zw, Website: www.safaids.org.zw Southern Africa
HIV/AIDS Information
Dissemination Service

Diverse use of ICTs in HIV
programming
• Networking: build partnerships, share lessons learnt

• Information/experience sharing: across distance, cross sectoral

• Advocacy: campaigning and mobilising towards policy
transformation, using mass media, SMS campaigns, or signed
petitions, or cyber dialogue to build pool of advocates

• Resource sharing: disseminating training packages in easy to
access formats

• Facilitating dialogue and discussions: enabling multiple
sectors from different countries and regions to deliberate


Diverse use of ICTs in HIV
programming
• Promoting and marketing organisational profile/s: websites
and public platforms for publicizing events and products,
encouraging partnerships and joining groups, or debate platforms

• Fundraising and resource mobilization: use websites for
visitor donations and researching donors

• Research and monitoring and evaluation: databases, online
tools (eg Survey Monkey) for rapid data collection, and analysis

• Developing administrative systems: databases and databanks
give information to donors; bill payments; ordering medicines


• Types of ICTs we can use for documentation

• Types of ICTs we can use for communication

• What, from the above lists would best suit the
TACIT/NPP?


Benefits of using ICTs
• Works best when adopted to respond to the local needs
and priorities, suited to the environment, and available
infrastructure and capacities

• Reaches larger audience in shorter period of time

• Is cost –effective due to wider reach using minimal
resources (eg besides initial capital for set up)

• Enables accelerated scale-up of capacity building in a
cost effective manner


Benefits of using ICTs
• Enables different types of users engage, hard to reach, low literacy

• Allows voices of marginalized, especially PLHIV to be heard

• Recognized as tools to support national strategic plans on HIV eg:
– Improving the efficiency of the HIV organisations
– Strengthening mass communication of prevention, treatment, anti-stigma and
other HIV messages
– Supporting informatics in the health system, especially comprehensive record
keeping and the capacity to provide care and treatment to people living with
HIV, particularly in supplying ARV

• Provides a medium for research and advocacy


What are some barriers to using ICTs?

How can we overcome these?

As NPP (under this project) what could you
do to scale-up ICTs access in
documentation and communication
activities?


An Advocacy Angle (1) ….
• SMS Campaigns: mobilising towards policy transformation,
eg sharing of messages prior to constitution reviews, or towards
signing of petitions for policy reform

• Mass media campaigns: using television, online videos, radio
etc with uniform messaging to create mass focus and consensus
towards a specific policy agenda that requires change demanded
by the public, or by a specific group who will ultimately engage
policy makers


An Advocacy Angle (2) …..
• Online signing and commitment sharing: of petitions and policy
positions

• Cyber dialogues: to build pool of civil society coalition
working towards generating a position or specific consensus
among targeted policy makers

• E-training: training packages availed via online capacity
building programmes useful in equipping large numbers, in
shorter periods, with minimal resources, in skills/ ‘know-how’


5 point checklist
• Is the audience able to access the ICT medium to be employed?

• Is the audience able to work (have the technical know-how) with
the ICT medium?

• Is the message likely to have the same intended effect if used
e.g. via SMS campaign versus e.g. a poster or television airing,
which have audio- visual support?

• Is it possible to measure the outcome/impact of communicating
the documented message via the ICT medium?

• Is the ICT medium sensitive to and suited to the cultural,
literacy level, language, status (eg parliamentarians versus
youth) ?INFORMATION : the power to make a difference
HIV/AIDS

ICTs have a powerful potential to consolidate
HIV advocacy interventions, and link community
groups (with same agenda) with one another
(horizontally) across borders, as well as
(vertically) with community, regional and global
bodies.

Ensure money, resources, time and capacity are
in place before employing ICTs for advocacy –
momentum and sustainability are key to
advocacy effectiveness!

ICTs in Documentation & Documentation Advocacy

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