New Partnerships in East Africa Support Regional Family Planning Goals
USAID’s East Africa Regional Mission has engaged Knowledge SUCCESS to help six local partners strengthen their work and programs in family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH). The new work is led by Amref Health Africa and supported by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, who serves as prime for the overall Knowledge SUCCESS award.
East Africa’s Culture of Knowledge Sharing
Knowledge SUCCESS received funding from USAID’s East Africa Regional Mission to support Regional Intergovernmental Organizations (RIGOs) and other nonprofit partners in achieving FP/RHprogrammatic goals. Since 2019, the Knowledge SUCCESS East Africa team has nurtured a culture of knowledge sharing in the region. Through events, strategic partnerships, and the establishment of an active regional community of practice (TheCollaborative), the team strengthens capacity in and practice of knowledge management (KM), with the ultimate goal of improving health systems, programs and policies.
“Knowledge management can be instrumental in addressing knowledge gaps and help to increase efficient learning across sectors,” said George Kapiyo, who will lead this project with his team from Amref Health Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. “We therefore aim to work with regional networks and professional organizations to pull out the FP/RH program successes of their work and make linkages to other technical and development priorities.”
The East Africa team has embraced KM approaches, like storytelling, that reflect the cultural heritage of the region. Efforts to help people find, share, and use information are more likely to be successful and sustained when matched to the local context.
The new work will focus on six organizations: East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC), East, Central and Southern Africa College of Nursing and Midwifery (ECSACON), Partnership for Population Development- Africa Regional Office (PPD-ARO), Eastern Africa National Networks of AIDS and Health Service Organisations (EANNASSO), East African Health Platform (EAHP), and the FP2030 East Africa Hub.
Building-off Relationships and Providing Tailored KM Support
In response to regional family planning priorities, such as increased access to and demand for youth-responsive FP/RH services, East African regional entities implement integrated programming to achieve goals.
“Despite the strong regional collaboration and coordination on family planning goals in East Africa, challenges remain in a lack of both organization capacity for KM and collaboration among networks and entities in the region.” Said Kapiyo. “Similar to other regional development contexts, a large number of actors and information can sometimes cause knowledge to become fragmented and lost.”
In alignment with this, Patrick Mugirwa, Director of Partners in Population and Development – Africa Regional Office (PPD-ARO), stated, “PPD-ARO appreciates the partnership with Knowledge SUCCESS which goes towards improving its KM systems and processes to enhance its convening ability, thereby improving commitment by member states to advancing KM by advocating for the inclusion of KM in their countries’ commitment plans.”
Knowledge SUCCESS will engage these six organizations in a variety of tailored KM activities, including but not limited to:
- Enhancement of RIGO websites to improve usability and promote knowledge sharing and use.
- Development of KM strategies and sustainability plans to integrate KM at the organizational level and promote a sustained culture of knowledge sharing.
- Facilitation of knowledge exchange sessions, including Learning Circles and KM trainings, which create a space for reflection on successes and challenges among peers.
- Development of content pieces in different formats (written, audio, and video), to document and package program experiences and best practices into different formats so others can use those learnings to inform their programs.
- Implementation of monitoring, learning, and adaptation activities including after-action reviews, pre- and post- surveys, and other learning assessments. Part of KM implementation includes evaluating the success of KM tools and techniques, and evolving or shifting as-needed. We will use these strategies to instill a culture of learning and reflection to improve the KM strategies.
“Improved KM and knowledge sharing within our organization is critical for creating to help us achieve our family planning goals,” said Dr Gloria Musibi, president of East, Central and Southern Africa College of Nursing and Midwifery (ESCACONM), on the new partnership.
She added, “In alignment with USAID’s commitment to collaboration, learning, and adapting (CLA), we are excited to partner with Knowledge SUCCESS in the region.”
Recent and Upcoming Achievements through KM Activities
Knowledge SUCCESS has already conducted an interactive training with the RIGOs to strengthen their understanding of KM and its value to their organization and its work. The training also served as an important bridge to gain support for KM – both from leaders of the organization to establishing champions within the organization, which will play an important role in sustaining KM initiatives moving forward.
To support ECSACONM’s mission to promote regional collaboration and professional excellence in nursing and midwifery, we partnered with ECSACONM on the first of a series of webinars aimed at ECSACONM membership and the broader regional FP/RH community. Together we hosted a webinar on the Role of Nurses and Midwives in Accelerating Postpartum Family Planning in East Africa, to share experiences, best practices, and innovations in postpartum family planning to improve quality services in the region. 500 professionals from across Africa registered and 109 attended the actual webinar.
Looking ahead, Knowledge SUCCESS is supporting ECSACONM in the upcoming launch of their new and enhanced website – stay tuned for updates on this.
This award will help improve the system of knowledge generation, sharing, and use for FP/RH in the region, harnessed by fruitful partnerships and a shared goal of improving institutional capacity for KM, in turn leading to improved FP/RH outcomes.
Moving forward, 2024 marks the new era in all our spaces, websites being revamped, more active social media presence and vibrant marketplace talks where Knowledge Management for Health practically cracks the code to Mashariki Afya wisdom*, thriving for greater impact in the health sector! says Jonniah Mollel, Executive Director of, The East Africa Health Platform (EAHP).
As we continue our impactful initiatives in East Africa, we invite you to stay informed and engaged. Explore the latest updates on our East Africa Regional work through our dedicated regional page or by following us on X. For professionals passionate about driving positive change in the region, we extend a warm invitation to join TheCollaborative.
* “Mashariki Afya wisdom” is a Swahili saying to express a collective knowledge shared by a group of individuals or a community.
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