Population & Health Materials Working Group Minutes of Meeting held on Monday, October 19, 1998 John Snow Inc. (JSI)


New Materials and Works in Progress | Reproductive Health Outlook | Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium | FamPlan Glossary Update and Future Plans | Discussion of Translators | Collaborative Distribution | Mailing Lists | Communication with the Field | Workshops | Webmasters’ Group | PHMWG Member Organizations | List of Meeting Attendees

New Materials and Works in Progress

Reproductive Health Outlook (RHO) http://www.rho.org

  • The presentation, by Jacqueline Sherris, Senior Program Officer at PATH, began with a brief explanation of what PATH is. PATH is headquartered in Seattle with offices in Washington DC and affiliates in other countries. PATH-Seattle has a special focus on technology.
  • PATH publishes the print version of Outlook in six languages; it is often published in-country with collaborating agencies who also do the mailing, and it is funded primarily by UNFPA.
  • Reproductive Health Outlook builds on PATH’s experience publishing Outlook. It is funded by the Gates Foundation and targeted to reproductive health program managers and decision-makers in low resource settings. It uses the Cairo definition of reproductive health, very few graphics. It was designed for speed, ease of navigation, and ease of downloading. It uses very few graphics. It also includes information from the WHO Reproductive Health library which includes evidence-based research.
  • Structure of RHO Website
    Summaries on reproductive health topics. Each summary includes an introduction, overview, and lessons learned. Also includes research summaries, an annotated bibliography, program examples, contact information, and presentation materials (for example PowerPoint slides) which can be ordered. Finally, each summary include links to relevant web resources, a glossary, and a ‘community forum’ where readers can post information and comments.
  • RHO will be updated on a quarterly basis.
  • PATH welcomes your suggestions for additional resources to include. They plan to add more materials that can be downloaded.
  • RHO Topics: Cervical Cancer, Family Planning, Harmful Traditional Practices, HIV/AIDS, Infertility, Reproductive Tract Infections, Safe Motherhood, Sexual Health
  • The web site was pre & post-tested in the field to find out what developing country users wanted: Quick download speed, ease of navigation and ease of use were the main criteria mentioned in the field.
  • Several reputable experts in reproductive health (Ward Cates, Gina Dallabetta) review the data on the web site for content validity. The research is presented in Information Summaries.

Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium

  • Presentation by Meriweather Beatty of JSI Research & Training and the Reproductive Health for Refugees Consortium
  • The RH for Refugees Consortium has developed a number of resources for RH health for Refugees:
  • Refugees and RH Care: The Next Step. An earlier report, Assessing Priorities, had stated that nothing was really being done to provide reproductive health care in refugee settings. Since then progress has been made, but mostly at the policy level. This report is a follow-up.
  • Contraceptive Logistics Guidelines for Refugee settings. Family planning Logistics Management Project for USAID (1996).
  • Guidelines for HIV Interventions in Emergency Settings. UNAIDS/WHO/UNHCR. Contact UNAIDS for copies.
  • Interagency Field Manual on Reproductive Health in Refugee Settings. UNHCR, 1995 (English and French). Contact Kate Burns (UNHCR) for information. This manual is being revised.
  • Introduction to Reproductive Health Issues in Refugee Settings: An Awareness Building Module. CARE, revised 1998. Contact Barbara Monahan.
  • Refugees and Reproductive Health Care: The Next Step. JSI Research and Training Institute/RHR Consortium, July 1998. Contact Meriwether Beatty
  • Refugee Participation Network: Women and Reproductive Health. Refugee Studies Programme/Oxford, UK, 1995.
  • Refugee Reproductive Health Needs Assessment Field Tools. Women’s Commission for Refugee women and children/RHR Consortium, 1997. Contact Rachel Jones
  • Reproductive Health Programming in Refugee Settings: A 5-Day Training Program for Health Personnel. CARE, 1997. Contact Barbara Monahan.
  • Reproductive Health for Refugees: A Selected Bibliography. JSI Research and Training Institute, 1995. www.undp.org/popin/refugees.htm
    or contact Meriwether Beatty
  • Reproductive health in Refugee Settings: Fact Sheets. Marie Stopes International/RHR Consortium. 1998. Contact Samantha Guy

FamPlan Glossary Update and Future Plans

  • Now that the first printed version has been distributed, and presumably next summer there will be an intern available to work on updating and improving FAMPLAN, what do users think are the priorities?
  • Both JHU/CCP and JSI use FamPlan when preparing translations. Some people felt that what was really needed was definitions; others wanted more current terms added, “empowerment” for example was mentioned. FAMPLAN is similar to the Dictionary of Population Terms which is under construction on the POPIN web site. Perhaps the two projects could work together, especially if FAMPLAN is to be put up on the Internet.
  • Please review and try out these other related online glossaries as well:
    • Dictionary of Population Terms: http://www.popin.org/~unpopterms/ (English/French/Spanish)
    • Women and Development Glossary: http://www.bureaudelatraduction.gc.ca/lexfem-e.htm (English/French)
    • Glossary of Health Communication Terms (Emerson College) http://www.emerson.edu/acadepts/cs/healthcom/Resources/glossary.htm (English only)
    • WHO Health Promotion Glossary: Go to http://www.who.int/hpr/hep/documents/. Click on “Health Promotion Glossary”. It is a PDF file, English only.
    • US Dept. of Health and Human Service Glossary of HIV-Related Terms: http://www.ama-assn.org/special/hiv/support/glossary/gloshome.htm (English only)
  • Multilingual Glossary of technical and popular medical terms in nine European Languages. Commissioned by The European Commission and produced by Heymans Institute of Pharmacology and Mercator School. Languages includes: Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Includes definitions in English only.

Discussion of Translators

    • A number of organizations expressed an interest in developing and posting on the website lists of recommmended translators and medical reviewers for the following languages: French, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian.
  • Peggy D’Adamo volunteered to send an email to the whole PHMWG list when someone has a specific request for a translator.
  • Steve Goldstein volunteered to post the list of translators that Population Reports uses. He reported that Population Reports is also looking for copy editors.
    • Jackie Sherris from PATH said that PATH uses a company based in Seattle called ENSO and they would recommend them highly. They also try to work directly with groups in-country. She also mentioned IMCR in Chile as a possibility for Spanish translations. ENSO can be contacted at info@enso-company.com or visit their web site at http://www.enso-company.com. They do translations into French, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Korean.
  • Nick Gouede of Population Council has a good French translator in New York City who also works for the UN. Contact him for information on that. PRB: This person translated into the latest OR publication into French. (Recherche Operationnelle)
  • Renuka Berry of AED offered a good translator for French->English and Spanish->English: Joseph Coblentz, 205-884-8881.
  • If you have translators to recommend (and you have asked them if it is OK), send their name and contact information to Peggy D’Adamo or Gretl Cox for a list to be posted on the web site.

Collaborative Distribution

  • Have organizations developed ways to find groups to distribute materials for them in-country? Are there materials produced by a number of groups that might be better distributed as a package? How could this be done? What sort of labor and costs would be involved? One idea would be to set up a clearinghouse to distribute materials, a single place that would distribute materials from a number of groups. This would be a long-term solution that would require funding.
  • Examples of single-time collaborative distribution do exist:
    • Population Reports distributed the IPAS wallchart for with its Postabortion Care issue
    • Outlook issue on postabortion care will be distributed by IPAS (IPAS will pay for extra copies)
    • Both INTRAH and WHO have also paid for extra Outlook copies to be printed (postabortion care issue)
  • OTHER STRATEGIES
    • UN Refugee Group has been able to use the UN pouch system to distribute materials to UN agencies on safe motherhood
    • Groups could provide the document on disk to organization in country for printing and distribution
    • Do mailings in-country to save postal costs. Help local groups to build their mailing lists.
    • Use the ‘interagency group’ model: when groups participate in ‘interagency task forces, etc. they are often willing to assume mailing costs and distribute materials as part of their activities.
    • Distribute materials in bulk to UNFPA Country Support Teams (make sure to get their prior agreement). Their goal is to provide technical assistance to their countries. Click here for a list: http://www.unfpa.org/ABOUT/GRTEAMS.HTM
    • Use a mailing house and negotiate a per pound cost
    • Share insights via e-mail as to the best way of sending documents, storage, and fulfillment
    • Have temps come in to type mailing labels
  • OLD MATERIALS
    • What happens to old materials from projects that no longer exist? Are they stored indefinitely? Thrown out?
    • In some cases they have been thrown out (AIDSTECH); in others they are still distributed (PRICOR)
    • For copies of USAID project documents, you can contact the Development Experience Clearinghouse http://www.dec.org/. The Development Experience System contains references to over 95,000 pieces of USAID-funded documentation, including studies, evaluations, conference proceedings, and surveys, about topics such as democracy, population and health, economic growth, the environment, and humanitarian assistance. Search the online database for documents or contact the Clearinghouse (tel) 703-351-4006 or (fax) 703-351-4039. There is a fee for ordering copies of documents.
    • Some organizations offer free copies of older documents as an incentive to get people to fill out and return questionnaires; seems to be a successful strategy
    • We need to be careful not to send out older, inaccurate information
  • DECISION:
    When an item is nearing printing, send an e-mail to the whole group asking if anyone is interested (and willing to pay if necessary) for extra copies. To send an e-mail to the whole group, contact Peggy D’Adamo

Mailing Lists

  • Each organization was asked to characterize their mailing list. Are the names individual or generic? Do they also keep e-mail addresses? What software do they use? How is the mailing list maintained? What is the policy on sharing or loaning the list?
  • POPIN Directory : http://www.popin.org/~unpopdir/
    • An online directory of population institutions jointly developed by POPIN, UNFPA, and others
    • Merges information from print directories to make it more accessible and more up-to-date.
    • Can be accessed alphabetically by name of organization, regionally, by country, and by type of organization.
    • Types include: educational organization, professional associations, funding agencies, research institutions, libraries and information centers, training, and other.
    • Can also be searched by keyword.
    • You can download mailing lists by region, country, or type of organization. The download format is in comma separated value (.csv) format and can be merged into word processing programs. The web site includes detailed directions for merging in versions of WordPerfect and MSWord.
    • PHMWG member organizations should adding their own main and field office addresses and use the directory themselves to create labels for organizations that are already included (IPPF, for example). A list was passed around and a number of groups volunteered to contribute to the list.
    • Peggy D’Adamo will coordinate between PHMWG and POPIN. If you want to contribute, contact Peggy D’Adamo
  • AED-SARA Project
    • Every project at AED has its own mailing list
    • SARA Project has 400-500 names in FilemakerPro of targeted individuals working in Africa
    • The mailing list is shared on a case by case basis
    • Contact: Renuka Bery
  • AVSC
    • List of 700 senior staff of agencies–personal names
    • Use their field offices to distribute in-country
    • Use their web site and mailbacks to update the mailing list
    • List is maintained by one person
    • Could be shared (as a MSWord file)
    • List is reviewed yearly by AVSC staff
    • Contact: Cassandra Cook
  • Family Care International
    • 10,000 names kept in FileMakerPro
    • Can be sorted by country, organization
    • FCI tries regularly to eliminate duplicates and update incorrect addresses.
    • Marilyn Piels suggests that if you receive duplicate mailings from the same organization, you should send one label back to help them correct the mailing list. (GOOD IDEA)
    • FCI has done joint mailings in the past and would be interested in doing appropriate ones in the future.
    • Contact: Marilyn Piels
  • FHI/AIDSCAP
    • 1,500 on AIDSCAP list
    • 60,000 on FHI list in Oracle/Access
    • Lists are being combinded into one database which will be sortable by various fields
    • Mailing list is proprietary and cannot be shared in full. Parts of the mailing list can be shared.
    • Anyone in the organization can add a record; only the person who added it can change it
    • Contact: Nina Frankel
  • FOCUS
    • Focus has a very small mailing list, since its audience is primarily other cooperating agencies.
    • Focus has gotten most of its mailing contacts from other CAs
    • Focus tries to put all of its publications full-text on its web site in order to minimize the necessity for mailing materials.
    • Contact: Laurel MacLaren
  • The Futures Group
    • Mailing list is maintained by librarian and updated by project administrators
    • Includes both individual names and titles
    • Includes two separate projects
    • 2,000 names in Access
    • Contact: Kay Willson
  • INTRAH/PRIME
    • 3,200 names in FilemakerPro
    • Publications are sent to regional offices and mailed in-country (cheaper postage rates)
    • Updated from returns
    • Mailing list has been shared in the past
    • Contact: Lucy Harber
  • JHPIEGO
    • 600 names on the mail mailing list. Also has regional mailing lists and lists for newsletter distribution.
    • JHPIEGO has started to collect e-mail addresses as well.
    • The list has not been shared before but JHPIEGO is willing to share
    • It is updated annually.
    • Contact: Elizabeth Oliveras
  • JSI
    • Each different project keeps its own mailing list and list of publications. Contact individual projects for information about each list and policy on sharing.
    • Mothercare has 3,000 names in Access.
    • The list is updated with returns, not targeted
    • Mothercare is willing to share its list
    • Contact: Suzanne Jessop (Mothercare) or Gretl Cox (general questions)
  • Management Sciences for Health
    • Maintains five different mailing lists. Uses software called Goldmine
    • FPMD Mailing List: 11,000 (English), 5000 (French), 5000 (Spanish). Most are managers, policy makers, service delivery people
    • Do try to target certain types of people and do include personal names
    • The list is weeded periodically and reviewed by field staff
    • Some exchanges have been made in the past with other organizations
    • Contact: Linda Suttenfield
  • Media/Materials Clearinghouse (JHU/PIP)
    • 6,000 name kept in Access
    • Includes individuals and organizations working in health communication
    • Anyone requesting materials from the M/MC or visiting the M/MC becomes part of the list
    • Each record includes name, job title, organization, address, language, email, and affiliation. Also tracks which M/MC publications have been sent out.
    • The M/MC has never been asked to share its mailing list and does not have a policy about sharing.
    • Contact: Susan Leibtag
  • Partnerships for Healthcare Reform
    • 3,000 names
    • List wasin FoxPro but is being converted to Access
    • Includes people interested in health care reform
    • List can be shared
    • Contact: Liz Nugent
  • PATH-DC
    • FilemakerPro
    • Contact: Ellen Clancy
  • PATH-Seattle
    • 23,000 names in Access for English/French versions of Outlook
    • Have exchanged with FHI and shared with UNFPA in the past
    • Try to send emails to get correct addresses
    • Collaborating organizations in-country maintain their own mailing lists
    • Contact: Jackie Sherris
  • Population Council OR Project
    • List of 3,500 OR people in Africa (individual names)
    • Can be sorted in various ways
    • Includes 1,000 people based in the US
    • Also have a listserv
    • Have shared mailing list in the past; will share on a case-by-case basis
    • Contact: Nick Gouede
  • Population Reference Bureau
    • PRB membership list: a subscription list that includes about 3,000 members — mostly in the academic field and based in the US. This list is not shared but can be exchanged.
    • International Programs Distribution List – 13,000 entries in Access, mostly in developing countries. Includes over 87 countries, 700 organizations with e-mail addresses. No individual names. A coordinator maintains and updates the list.
    • This list is classified by field of interest (i.e. population/FP, economics, finance, etc) and institutional category (Govt organization, USAID cooperating agency, USAID mission, etc.). This list is shared with other cooperating agencies in the US and in developing world.
    • This list is used to send PRB publications through mass mailings.
    • The mailing list is updated continuously through returned mail, having an in-country counterpart review the list; the Europa Yearbook, bounceback questionnaires, etc.
    • Contact: Sara Adkins-Blanch
  • Population Reports (JHU/PIP)
    • Largest mailing list with 110,000 names worldwide, plus 15,000 in India
    • Subsets can be created to share with other organizations
    • The list is maintained on a mainframe computer at JHU, not at JHU/CCP office. Corrections, deletions and additions are input at JHU/CCP.
    • List is divided into ‘key persons’ (director, reporter, chair, etc.) and ‘non-key persons’
    • List can also be divided by category or type of organization and by interest (medical vs. non-medical, UN, WHO, international agencies).
    • Population Reports responds to many requests each month (sends out 10,000 back issues/month); they also respond to all returns
    • Regional breakdown: Africa 26,000, Asia 20,000 (plus 15,000 in India), Latin America 38,000, West/North Africa 10,000, North America 10,000.
    • Using email to try to update the list
    • Also maintain a separate list (in Access) of 4,500 journalists and other cooperating agencies for their advance releases
    • Contact: Steve Goldstein
  • Quality Assurance Project
    • 1700 names in Access
    • Can be cross-searched by various fields
    • Includes individual names, mostly people interested in quality-assurance
    • Willing to share on a case-by-case basis
  • Refugee Consortium (CARE, PATH, Save the Children, Aga Khan, etc)
    • Tries to use UN pouch system to distribute materials in bulk to field offices of consortium members
    • In focus countries, the lead organization will be the mailer (in bulk) to the country; materials then distributed in-country
    • Also has a membership list that is mostly US-based PVOs which could be shared
    • They successfully use a bounce-back questionnaire, good for passed on publications, 700 e-mail addresses.

How We Communicate with the Field
Each cooperating agency shared information (both quantitative and anecdotal) on how it communicates with the field. This includes the number of hits or visits to each home page from developing countries and other places.

Discussion:

  • What can we do (if anything) to improve access in the developing world? We can provide our own field offices and developing country counterparts with better equipment.
  • JHPIEGO mentioned the idea of setting up several ‘technology learning centers’ which would provide on-site training where access to the web is already good.
  • We should not assume that giving people CD-ROMS without any training in their use is a better solution either. People need help installing CD-ROMS and training in how to use them effectively.
  • Perhaps we could make better use of existing PVO/NGO resource centers in the field…using them as a way to disseminate information and provide training in these kinds of technology.
  • Listservs can also be an excellent resource for training.
  • For an update on Leland Initiative activities, go to What’s New with the Leland Initiative and African Telematics
  • There is a new presidential initiative led by Ira Magaziner, who is an assistant to the president on technology. USAID will be involved through the Human Capacity Development Center. It will involve identifying 7-8 countries and saturating them with technology, creating a leapfrog effect, and skipping some stages in the technology development process. In Africa this initiative will pigggback on the Leland Initiative. We need to think about how PHN fits in with this.
  • Think about how we have measured our progress in the last two years. What can we do in the areas of: Technology and policy, Training, Content development in-country, Management of these technologies.
  • In the future we should no longer be looking at number of hits to web site, but at the number of user sessions. We need to develop other indicators of progress besides hits and user sessions. Think about number of e-mails received, amount of text downloaded, other indicators.

Web Statistics for Some Cooperating Agencies

  • AVSC
    • 10,000 hits/month
    • 70% from the US
    • 5% from developing countries
    • All AVSC field offices have e-mail
    • AVSC also has an Intranet
  • JHPIEGO
    • Listserv: JHPIEGO has started a listserv for trainers to share information and training tips. It now includes 175-200 people, mostly from developing countries. There are about 12-20 messages posted each month.
    • JHPIEGO corporate web site: 2,200 user sessions/month, 6-10% of them are from developing countries. 20-25% are unknown users.
    • REPROLINE: about 3-6% of the user sessions/month are from developing countries and 25% area unknown users.
    • INTRANET: The JHPIEGO intranet, JWATCH, is accessible to all Baltimore- based staff and some field offices. All 5 field offices also have CD-ROM versions of JWATCH.
  • JHU/CCP
    • 9,572 user sessions for the month of September, 1998
    • 57% of users were from the US
    • 19% of users were international
    • 9% of users were from developing countries
    • The average user spends almost 9 minutes on the site
    • The most active developing countries were: Thailand, South Africa, Brazil, India, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore. Colombia, Indonesia, Peru and Kenya.
    • All JHU/PCS/PIP field offices have email; some have WWW access
    • The JHU/PCS/PIP representative for the Uganda DISH project has successfully downloaded information and images from the JHU web site and used them in her own PowerPoint presentations.
    • The Essentials of Contraceptive Technology book has an online order form and has been receiving a lot of orders from the form for developing country people.
  • PATH
    • 100,000 hits/month to the Reproductive Health Outlook page
    • About the same number of hits to the PATH web site
    • 54% are unknown users
    • 16% are from the US
    • They are receiving a lot of e-mails from developing country users, which is a good indication of use.
    • They also did a survey of Outlook readers and found that 60% said they had e-mail and 40% said they had access to the world wide web.
  • Quality Assurance Project (QAP)
    • 3,000 hits/month
    • 90% from the US
    • 9% from Europe
    • 2% from developing countries or unknown

Workshops
The PHMWG will organize a series of 1/2 to full day workshops, focused on specific topics. The workshops will take the place of the upcoming May 1999 meeting of the group and will occur from April/May through summer 1999. The topics are:

  • How to set up an intranet (AVSC & JHPIEGO) to be held in New York
  • Authoring Multimedia CD-ROMS (JHU/CCP) to be held in Baltimore
  • Distance Learning (QAP, JHU, JHPIEGO and others) to be held in DC
  • Listserv Moderation (MSH & PATH) to be held as a listserv
  • Using the Internet for Information Dissemination (PRB) to be held at FHI offices in Arlington
  • Data Generation and Analysis (DHS?)

An e-mail will be send to all PHMWG members to get a count on the numbers of people who would be interested in attending each of the sessions. Results will be shared with all and each planned workshop agenda will be posted on the web sit.

CA Webmasters Group Update
The CA-Webmaster’s Listserv is made up of 23 webmaster’s from most of the major CAs. If your webmaster is not listed, contact Casey O’Brien and give him the contact information. Topics of discussion include, but are not limited to: Operating systems used, hardware and software used, development tools, graphics applications, and other software used in creating and maintaining sites, evaluation software, evaluation indicators and usage statistics, ethics and etiquette, and more.

PHMWG Member Organizations
Review the list. If your organization is incorrectly listed, contact Elizabeth Oliveras of JHPIEGO with any corrections.