Digital Pulse - Ch 3 - Sec 3 - Health Development Networks (HDN)

Development Issues: HIV/AIDS, Health, Networking

Programme Summary

Health & Development Networks (HDN) is a non-profit organisation that hosts, administers, and moderates online electronic discussion forums. They also provide international conferences with communications support to enable participation from individuals and organizations that are unable to physically attend such conferences. HDN's mission is to facilitate communication and information exchange in support of the global response to HIV/AIDS and other health and development related issues.

HDN's Goals include:

• To increase the number of people involved in popular discussion of HIV/AIDS and other health-and-development-related issues;
• To promote partnerships and networking;
• To improve the quality of and access to information;
• To increase accountability and transparency in decision-making related to HIV/AIDS and other health- and development-related issues at local, national and international levels;
• To document and advocate for the contribution made by electronic networking in HIV/AIDS and other health- and development-related fields;
• To devolve governance and control over existing communication and information systems in the HIV/AIDS global community and in other health- and development-related areas.

HDN strives to develop, support and implement projects that:

• Are appropriate and add value to developing countries and challenged/underserved communities;
• Are innovative, challenging, and push current thinking;
• Can demonstrate impact;
• Develop or involve local capacities (of selected country/community context) and use the principles of local management where possible;
• Build collaborations and partnerships, rather than create competitive rivalries;
• Are sensitive to gender, international in scope and consider north-south imbalances;
• Endeavour to involve countries that are often overlooked - those with poor internet connectivity, and those with low HIV prevalence;
• Are not associated (funding or affiliation) with organizations that discriminate against people with HIV;
• Ensure that agendas are not influenced by specific interest groups or organisations vis-à-vis the needs of other stakeholders.

Summary of ICT Initiatives

HDN employs electronic networking and communications to facilitate discussion and debate among its members and other participants. It is a ‘virtual' organization with members based in developed and developing countries. The HDN network moderates and maintains several different discussion forums that address issues of interest to different stakeholders and parties involved in efforts to deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. At present (as of June, 2003), the following moderated HIV/AIDS "eForums" are underway and accessible from the HDN homepage:

• INTAIDS – International forum on HIV/AIDS policy and news worldwide.
• AF-AIDS – Regional forum on HIV/AIDS in Africa.
• SEX-WORK – Forum looking at links between CSWs and HIV/AIDS.
• GENDER-AIDS – Forum on issues around gender and HIV/AIDS.
• PWHA-NET – Profiles People With HIV/AIDS (PWHA) networks and activities and facilitates discussion on shared issues, strategies and actions.
• SEA-AIDS – Regional forum on HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.
• BTS – “Break The Silence”: The international forum on health and development policy issues.
• ProCAARE – “Program for the Collaboration Against AIDS and Related Epidemics”: This forum is targeted at uniting health practitioners and communities with knowledge to address the epidemic.

All of these forums are moderated, and contributions are reviewed for appropriateness and basic editing. HDN networks also maintains a staff of around 100 Key Correspondents (the KC Team) who's role is to provide seed ideas for the discussions on the forums. Written contributions from the KC-Team stimulate submission of comment and views from other discussion forum members. KCs are based in various countries around the world and their contributions reflect their diverse technical backgrounds and experience with the HIV/AIDS environment. They are drawn from the fields of nursing, law, journalism, medicine/epidemiology, counselling/training and policy/strategic planning.

“KCs contribute summarised perspectives from their own countries and areas of work, based on their own specialized knowledge and experience. Contributions range from subjective views, summaries of strategies and policies, to interviews and site visits with leading local and national people or projects. This helps to encourage other forum members to contribute their own views and integrate developing country-based priorities and perspectives into international discussions.”

As noted, HDN also provides information and reports about ongoing conferences on HIV/AIDS and other related issues. Their KCs are often in physical attendance at these conferences and provide daily briefings and reports about the discussions and presentations that occur.

Observations

In a review of the HDN as part of a larger report on ICT and HIV/AIDS, Libbie Driscoll of Policy Research International noted that many of the registered participants utilize the network primarily to glean information and to keep up to date on developments and do not submit many postings. She notes that this passivity is generally true of many of these types of forums and is not in itself a negative feature. The HDN is also undergoing a process of decentralization, shifting the responsibilities for moderation to regional participants and steering committees.

Partners: Inis, SAfAIDS, UNAIDS, Fondation du Present, the Government of Ireland

Source:HDN website and Driscoll, Libbie. "HIV/AIDS and Information and Communication Technologies." Final Draft Report (November 2001)

For More Information Contact:

Tim France

Director & Programme Manager

Tel: (+353) 868 192324

Fax: (+353) 8658 192324

Rep.of Ireland

tfran@hdnet.org