HIFA launches TWO new projects to assist with COVID-19 response

18 October, 2020

Dear CHIFA colleagues,

We are delighted to announce the launch of TWO new, complementary HIFA projects. Both projects will promotes communication, understanding, advocacy and action across all six HIFA global health forums in four languages.

1. COVID-19

https://www.hifa.org/projects/covid-19

The HIFA COVID-19 Project is currently synthesising and analysing the longest ever discussion on the HIFA-English forum: more than 1000 substantive messages have already been exchanged among providers and users of healthcare information. We are grateful to HIFA volunteers at the Universities of Edinburgh and Toronto, who are undertaking this work with academic supervision from their faculty.

In collaboration with the Global Health Academy at the University of Edinburgh, we aim to leverage the experience and expertise of the HIFA community around how better to meet the information needs of health workers, policymakers and the general public in relation to the current pandemic, and to improve information readiness for future pandemics. The geographical scope is global and will include a special focus on Africa.

2. Essential Health Services and COVID-19

https://www.hifa.org/projects/essential-health-services-and-covid-19

The HIFA Essential Health Services and COVID-19 Project is looking specifically at the challenge of how to maintain and strengthen essential health services (EHS) during and after the pandemic, especially for the most vulnerable populations, such as children, older persons, people living with chronic conditions, minorities and people living with disabilities, in a spirit of solidarity and codevelopment.

In collaboration with the World Health Organization, this project will contribute to a wider WHO initiative: COVID19 Health Services Learning Hub (HLH), 'a dynamic and responsive, state-of-the-art learning architecture that will support Member States in maintaining essential health services during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, including the recovery and postpandemic phase. At its core, the HLH will comprise of dynamic communities of practice that will focus on sharing approaches and common strategies to health service challenges in the context of COVID-19.'

Our activity plan includes three major thematic discussions here on HIFA, each of which will be up to 6 weeks, and we aim to start the first one in mid-November. Our work will be closely related to current WHO guidance: Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the COVID-19 context interim guidance (June 2020). https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/covid-19-operational-guidance-fo...

Please spread the word and invite your contacts to join!

Join HIFA: www.hifa.org/joinhifa

Join CHIFA (child health and rights): http://www.hifa.org/joinchifa

Join HIFA-Portuguese: http://www.hifa.org/join/junte-se-ao-hifa-portuguese

Join HIFA-French: http://www.hifa.org/join/rejoignez-hifa-francais

Join HIFA-Spanish: http://www.hifa.org/join/unase-hifa-espanol

Join HIFA-Zambia: http://www.hifa.org/join/join-hifa-zambia

Best wishes, Neil

Let's build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare information - Join HIFA: www.hifa.org

HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of the HIFA global health campaign (Healthcare Information For All - www.hifa.org ), a global community with more than 19,000 members in 177 countries, interacting on six global forums in four languages in collaboration with WHO. Twitter: @hifa_org FB: facebook.com/HIFAdotORG neil@hifa.org