Pan-African Conference 21 - 24 July 2002 Inter-Continental Hotel ...

Abstracts 10/22/02 11:26 AM Page 10
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This paper provides insight into the development of the SA HealthInfo
knowledge network, the rationale behind the design of the system and share
experiences as regards the development of the Nutrition Module. It also
reflects on the experience as regards the use of such systems in a developingworld
context, ICT issues at stake and the need to interact with other relevant
gateways and portal initiatives.
ICT: New technologies, and their relevance, challenges and opportunities in
the health sector / La technologie de l’information et de la communication
Salah Mandil, Ph.D.
Vice President eStrategies, WiseKey S.A, Geneva, Switzerland
The past 20 or so years have been rich with excitement and unequivocal
expressions of the importance of Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) to the health sector. The material of discussion groups,
workshops and conferences abound with that excitement and, though to a
lesser extent, examples of the uses of such ICT tools in heath care have also
been reported. In more recent years, the excitement has multiplied with the
emergence of new Clinical and Health Care Technologies and Practices, so
much that some hail it as an emerging New Healthcare Paradigm.
This invited address will highlight the most important of these new ICT and
ICT-based technologies, and point out the extent to which these are relevant to
the industrially developing countries. Actual examples, exclusively from
developing countries, will be briefly described in testimony to the views. The
examples will include applications in clinical care, knowledge-based systems,
surveillance and the management of health care services. The address will
also highlight the current challenges that have to be tackled, and the
opportunities that could and should be grabbed to cultivate these ICT
technologies for the achievement of equitable and quality health care services
especially to the under-served communities.
Capacity building for human rights using ICTs: lessons for nutrition
programming / Développement de capacités en TIC: Leçons des programmes
de nutrition
Firoze Manji
The Micronutrient Initiative, Canada
This presentation will describe the ways in which Fahamu has sought to use
ICTs for strengthening the campaigning, advocacy and organisational
capacities of human rights organisations in southern Africa. The project1 arose
from detailed investigations in the region of their training needs and
constraints to accessing ICTs. Access to the Web is problematic for most
organisations in the region because of high costs, low bandwidth and poor
telephone connections. As an alternative, we have developed interactive
CDROM-based learning materials for distance learning, with tutoring support
provided via email and regional face-to-face workshops. Courses developed
include: fact-finding and investigation; human rights monitoring and
evaluation; campaigning, advocacy and lobbying; leadership and
management; financial management; fundraising; using the internet for
research and advocacy; and training of trainers. The strategy in the
development of these courses has been to use ICTs as a complement, rather
than a substitute, for direct human interaction.
Lack of access to the web also creates serious difficulties for human rights
organisations in accessing information and news about what is happening in
the region. We therefore developed a weekly electronic newsletter covering
some 20 topics as diverse as conflict, human rights, development,
environment, health, social welfare, books and arts, internet resources. The
newsletter provides a weekly summary of developments on these subjects.
The initiative has been hugely popular, with the subscriber based growing
from 300 to nearly 8000 in a year.
The key to the success of these initiatives has been to invest efforts to ensure a
clear understanding of the needs of the target constituency, both in relation to
their training needs and their need for information.
Similar programmes could be realistically adopted for nutrition programming
based on a careful assessment of the needs of that constituency, and the
recruitment of appropriate experts to develop effective materials.
1
The ‘Adilisha Project’ is supported by grants from the European Union, the British Department for
International Development, and the Canadian International Development Research Centre
July 2002, Vol. 15, No. 2 SAJCN (Supplement)
ABSTRACTS
PROFILES: A computer-based process for nutrition policy analysis and
advocacy / Plaidoyer pour les décideurs politiques
R Mwadime 1 , J Ross 2 and H Stiefel 2 1 The Regional Centre for Quality of Health
Care, Kampala, Uganda, 2 The Academy for Educational Development,
Washington, DC, USA
PROFILES is a process for nutrition policy analysis and advocacy that uses
spreadsheet models to estimate the functional consequences of malnutrition in
terms that policy makers understand and care about. Nutritional problems
addressed include sub-optimal infant feeding practices, underweight,
stunting, iron-deficiency, vitamin A deficiency and iodine deficiency. Using
local demographic, economic and nutrition data, the consequences of these
problems are quantified in terms of performance, health and survival. The
implications for economic development, education and the health sector are
emphasised.
The PROFILES process typically includes the following steps: 1) identification
of nutrition policy reform priorities; 2) use of spreadsheet models to quantify
the potential gains in health, survival and economic productivity due to
feasible improvements in nutrition; 3) development of a long term strategy for
policy dialogue that uses these estimates to argue for increased investment in
key nutrition interventions; and 4) preparation of computer-based and other
policy communication tools to advance these arguments. These activities
typically occur during a 2-week workshop involving 10 - 15 local nutrition
advocates and up to 3 facilitators.
PROFILES has been used in over 20 countries worldwide. A recent review of
PROFILES experience in Africa has led to a number of suggestions for
improving the process, including paying greater attention to step 1 (see above)
and doing more to ensure continuity after the initial workshop. In addition to
some important policy successes, PROFILES has been credited with helping to
establish or strengthen nutrition networks, increase capacity, and identify
information gaps.
Future plans include the addition of models that quantify between
malnutrition and chronic diseases, increasing regional institutional capacity to
facilitate the PROFILES process, increasing the number and variety of
communication channels used, and making the process more flexible and
adaptable to decentralised (community or district-level) decision making.
IT and nutrition training / Le rôle de la TI dans la formation en nutrition
Britta Ogle, PhD
Dept of Rural Development Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural
Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
Trainers throughout history have made use of new technologies to stimulate
interest and to facilitate learning. Educational theories for some time have
emphasised relevance, problem-based approaches and learner-centered
training. Nutrition falls within the responsibility of many disciplines. Relevant
nutrition training requires preparing trainees in assessment and analysis of
nutrition-related community health and food problems, conducting relevant
research, implementing nutrition activities, educating the population and
evaluating institutions, policies and actions.
Young people in the South who are now training as nutritionists, doctors,
nurses, agronomists and food scientists are facing tremendous challenges as
decision makers and resource persons in their own countries. All efforts to
strengthen the capacity of these professionals are of outmost importance for
improvements in nutrition and the use of IT must be part of this.
Developments in the field of modern information technologies (IT) have been
dramatic and offers many opportunities for academic trainers world-wide. For
once the South and the North have the possibility to a more equal access to
new research findings, new discoveries within the subject area, more equal
access to debates, dialogues, conferences and informal exchange of
information and ideas. An increasing number of software applications are
available for both staff and students to use in numerous ways for individual
learning, for communication, in field projects, distance training or
examination. What advantages can this bring to nutrition training and what
changes are required in nutrition training to make optimal use of these
technologies, especially in the South?
A key group to reach are academicians at university departments or similar
institutions in the South, who are actively involved in higher nutrition training
of nutritionists, medical or other health professionals, or food scientists or
nutrition in agriculture professionals. The Global NutrITion programme is
designed specifically for this target group. It combines an updating of current
nutrition concerns with computer skills training and provides a basis for