A question from the audience at the HIV Medical Association’s Community & Science Speak booth at the International AIDS Conference yesterday focused on what degree our government respects science and evidence-based interventions.  It reminded me of part of the Vision for the Conference that appeared in the information guide had read earlier in the morning.

Before last week, I had never heard of the knowledge management theory of “Clusters,” and I also probably would not have thought that the wealthy and cosmopolitan city of Dubai had much in common with Bangladesh.  However, after attending the 6^th Knowledge Management International Conference (KMICe), organized by the Universiti Utara Malaysia, I am considering how to apply lessons learned from Cluster theory in Dubai to the health care industry in Bangladesh.

Professor Dr. Julia Connell presented her research in Dubai where government tax policy has produced “clusters” – geographic concentrations of companies and institutions working in the same or similar industries.  These clusters exhibit “co-opetition,” the coexistence of cooperation and competition.  For example, many IT companies are located in the same neighborhood and can benefit from sharing resources, knowledge, staff, training, and even work, but they also benefit from a healthy competition between companies that foster innovation and drive for improvement.  If one company has more work than it can handle, it can refer clients to a trusted neighbor company.   Companies can also share specialized training opportunities and specialized equipment that would be costly to duplicate for each company.  Clusters can be very beneficial for their members, but as Dr. Connell’s research showed, productive clusters do not just happen with geographic proximity alone; clusters need to be facilitated. 

Twenty years after the Earth Summit, world leaders, participants from the private sector, NGOs, and other civil society groups came together to discuss sustainable development at Rio+20. Rio+20 or the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Key actors came together to discuss how to reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection. Topics covered included: energy, cities, jobs, food, water, women, health, oceans, and disasters. Amidst this greater conversation, on Tuesday, June 19, 2012, an innovative event and global conversation was held to discuss technology, digital and social media, and how these influence and relate to the Rio+20 conversations.

 

Girls learn how to use computers in a training mobile van parked near their homes in Guna district in Madhya Pradesh, India. The training program is supported by the NGO, Great India Dream Foundation.

© 2010 Anil Gulati, Courtesy of Photoshare

Rio+Social or #RioPlusSocial, brought people together in person and virtually to discuss how we can innovate using new media and technology to produce sustainable development. There was the ability for everyone to share their voice with just a simple tweet. Never before has there been the opportunity to join people together so easily to share ideas and opinions using a simple platform with a simple common hashtag (#RioPlusSocial). 

Throughout the nine-hour day, there were speakers from various sectors: technology, international development, social media, traditional media, and others. One main theme was about collaborating to make change. Using social media and technology is a great way to achieve collaboration, especially working with people in different geographic areas.

The Knowledge for Health (K4Health) project is pleased to announce the release of a special supplement to the Journal of Health Communication titled Meeting the Information Needs of Health Care Providers, Program Managers, and Policy Makers in Low and Middle Income Countries. Our own Knowledge Management (KM) Director Tara Sullivan is one of the supplement’s guest editors, along with: Neil Pakenham-Walsh, coordinator of Health Information for All by 2015 (HIFA2015) and co-director of the Global Healthcare Information Network; and Symphrose Ouma, Chair of the Kenya Chapter of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA).

Over the course of the K4Health project, JHU·CCP and our partners FHI 360 and Management Sciences for Health (MSH) have conducted a series of country-level qualitative studies of family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) information needs. The results of the India, Malawi, and Senegal assessments are included in this special issue of Journal of Health Communication, along with other related articles and commentary pieces.