News

New Products

What's New Archives

HIV/AIDS Toolkit for Tanzania Launched at USAID

An innovative resource for HIV/AIDS programming in Tanzania was presented to USAID staff and cooperating agencies on February 1, 2007 at USAID’s Global Health Bureau Office of Health, Infectious Diseases and Nutrition in Washington DC. The “HIV and AIDS Tools and Resources for Programme Managers in Tanzania” CD-ROM was developed by Noreen Mucha, M.P.A., in partnership with the Tanzania Commission for HIV/AIDS (TACAIDS) and the Quality Assurance Project. The toolkit is a comprehensive collection of key HIV and AIDS national guidelines, policies, surveillance and program management tools, and resources for program management and implementation in Tanzania in English and Swahili.

The impetus for the CD-ROM started in the spring of 2005, when Noreen Mucha was visiting Tanzania on a graduate school project. There she found a situation not uncommon in many countries—that despite all the HIV/AIDS activities, partners, and programs, there was no central repository or way of sharing all the emerging technical norms and protocols, communication and care & support strategies, educational and training materials, counseling tools, job aids and other valuable resources that would be helpful to both public and private sector programs alike, particularly materials in Swahili.

She began development of the CD-ROM as a special project under her graduate work at George Washington University, and in early 2006 showed a prototype of the CD-ROM to QAP’s Senior Behavior Change Communication Advisor Peggy Koniz-Booher, who immediately saw this as an important knowledge management tool for both the National AIDS Control Program and HIV/AIDS program implementers throughout Tanzania.

Ms. Koniz-Booher helped to identify funding under QAP to finalize the collection and technical review of the materials, the CD-ROM’s replication, and its official presentation at the 3rd National Multi-Sectoral AIDS Conference held in Arusha December 18-21, 2006 in conjunction with the launch of the country’s first-ever National HIV and AIDS Communication and Advocacy Strategy.

At the USAID briefing, Ms. Mucha described the development of this HIV/AIDS program resource and discussed its applicability to other country programs. The resources included in the toolkit were selected by a technical review committee based on relevance to Tanzania’s healthcare system, value in skills transfer, and multi-sectorial approach to HIV/AIDS.

For more information or to request a copy of the toolkit, please contact Noreen Mucha at noreenm@gwu.edu or Peggy Koniz-Booker at pkoniz_booher@urc-chs.com.

Return to What's New