The UNESCO HIV and AIDS Clearinghouse
The Clearinghouse was established in 2003 as the key HIV/AIDS database and information support facility of UNESCO Bangkok. Its aim was to improve access to best practices as well as to innovative information, education and communication materials produced from HIV/AIDS education projects, and to advocate and promote the utilization of repackaged materials in order to facilitate efforts to enhance knowledge, and attitudinal and behavioural change.
In the past five years, the HIV and AIDS Clearinghouse has provided information support to its target clientele by facilitating information and literature searches through its numerous databases, supply of requested documents and publications, dissemination of information and alert services, quarterly calendars of HIV and AIDS-related events and monthly HIV and AIDS updates; and by facilitating interactive networking and referral services.
To assess the information needs, and information-seeking and utilization behaviour of the Clearinghouse users, a user survey was conducted. This allowed the Clearinghouse to respond more accurately and effectively to the needs of its users. The Clearinghouse services that the majority of the respondents found most useful include: information and literature searches, supply of printed documents upon request, dissemination of information and alert services, and provision of quarterly calendar and monthly updates.
It is important to note that the terms used by the respondents to describe the value of the UNESCO Clearinghouse services included: reliable, useful/valuable, easy to access, updated, user-friendly, and comprehensive. All of these are important attributes for an effective and useful information Clearing House.
Under the 2006-2007 ADB-funded project "HIV/AIDS Vulnerability and Risk Reduction among Ethnic Minority Groups through Communication Strategies in the Greater Mekong Subregion", the HIV/AIDS Clearinghouse activities included a special focus on ethnic minority groups, and hard-to-reach disadvantaged groups.
The main Clearinghouse activities for the project were to collect, process, disseminate and share information and materials on HIV/AIDS, focusing ethnic and linguistic minority groups, and hard-to-reach and disadvantaged groups. An important part of this activity was to review, synthesize, and repackage existing information into accessible formats and information products tailored for segment target groups.
Under the project, the database of organizations working on HIV and AIDS in the Asia Pacific region has been regularly updated and maintained. As of the last quarter of 2007, the database contained almost 200 organization profiles, and increases by approximately 10 records per month.
As of the last quarter of 2007, the database of full text publications contained more than 210 publications on HIV prevention with a focus on Asia and the Pacific. Bi-monthly clearinghouse updates were disseminated to inform users of the new additions.
Also, a quarterly Calendar of HIV-related Events was prepared and circulated to the Clearinghouse's mailing list comprising of over 1,800 online subscribers to update users on key events in the region.
In addition, the Clearinghouse launched a new website for the 2006-2007 ABD-UNESCO project to provide easy access to a wealth of information resources related to HIV/AIDS, drug and trafficking prevention among ethnic minority populations in the GMS, including HIV/AIDS databases, ethnic minority resources, GIS maps, HIV/AIDS country profiles, a calendar of events and an online directory of organizations.
The website was illustrated in the June issue of the UNESCO Bangkok newsletter of which UNESCO printed 1500 copies. The newsletter is also available online here.
The old website of the 2004-2005 project "ICT and Preventive Education in the Cross-border Areas of the Greater Mekong Sub-region" was migrated to the Typo3 content management system according to an improved template for project web sites.
In parallel to the ADB-funded project, UNESCO is using UBW funds to organize trainings aimed at promoting the use of available online and printed HIV-related information. The UNESCO Clearinghouse, together with its partners in the Greater Mekong Sub-region including the Ministry of Education, Lao PDR; the Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam; the University of Danang; the China HIV/AIDS Information Network (CHAIN); Healthlink Worldwide; and the Yunnan Association of STD & AIDS for Prevention & Control is conducting a series of user training on information accessing skills.
The Clearinghouse is also coordinating the preparation of the joint ADB-UNESCO publication with the working title "Ethnic minorities at risk". This publication will serve as a key monograph on ethnic minorities and HIV-related issues in the GMS. It is expected that the publication will be ready in early 2008.
For more information on UNESCO Bangkok's HIV and AIDS Clearinghouse, click here. The Clearinghouse databases, calendar of events and other information materials can be accessed through this link or the resources section of this project web site.
