Strategic Mapping
Contents
Introduction
As part of our strategic planning, we would like to know what other global actors in the HIV field are currently doing in knowledge sharing and online learning initiatives.
Why the mapping is important:
- To have an overview of who is doing what, where, how, when
- To analyze the strengths and weaknesses of other NGOs/agencies online learning (SWOT)
- To provide a tool to assist with finding potential strategic partners for collaboration
- To help us decide how to allocate our resources for knowledge sharing and online learning and avoid duplicating existing work by other global actors
- To help us determine what activities to prioritize, which niche to focus on, and how to position our initiatives to ensure they are strategically and competitively unique propositions for enhancing professional learning by leveraging on conference content and our in-house IT, comms. and educational capacities
Why CoL is a good potential strategic partner
PART I: FACTS
Name of organization:
- Overview of knowledge sharing: e.g web resources, toolkits, other learning materials (give details)
- Overview of online learning: e.g. courses, forums, discussion boards, duration, no. of participants, feedback/evaluation (give details)
- Analysis of which audience they are targeting: Generic public, HIV professionals, Poz community, youth, women, etc.
ANALYSIS
Key strengths and weaknesses: e.g. by scanning evaluation, the look and user-friendly feel of website, the attractiveness and value of the knowledge presented for the user, the way it is communicated externally, how often is it updated.
- Opportunities: Is this a potential partner? How? Why? Would it be easy to approach?
- Threats: Is this a competitor? How? How should we differentiate to distinguish ourselves? Do they have more power/resources/greater public awareness?
Develop some Key recommendations
1 Group these by KS and OL, then by HIV and generic online learning for professional development
2 Paragraph - explanation of each recommendation.
- What should we focus on
- Why
- What are the implications of this recommendation in terms of resource allocation, and implementation challenges
- What is the rational/advantage of this recommendation e.g niche, positioning, partnering, etc.
Some potential global actors to consider
- WHO Knowledge Gateway – a global communities of practice on sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as HIV
- World Bank HINARI e-learning – not restricted to HIV, but for professional development in resource-limited settings
- WHO Health Professionals Networks - The Health Professions Networks (HPN) Team at WHO aims to harness the experiences, expertise and creative energies of health professionals worldwide
Mentorship initiatives for researchers in developing countries
1 Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, JIDC- Mentoring is a necessary part of learning to be a scientist and how to publish your research. The more prestigious the research publications become the more successful the scientists is considered; but how do successful scientists learn to publish? Most of us, when we are PhD students usually, attempt to write our first paper which is corrected by our supervisor and so the process begins. We are mentored, to a greater or lesser extent, in the art of getting papers accepted for publication.
2 AuthorAID - AuthorAID provides researchers in more than 50 countries with:
- a community space for discussion and questions where researchers can obtain advice
- access to documents and presentations on best practice in writing and publication
- world-wide training workshops on scientific writing
- a chance to network with other researchers
- personal mentoring by highly published researchers and professional editors
