Knowledge for Health

Gathering and sharing the world’s most accurate and current health resources
  • Mobile phone users sitting on a bench in Kolkata, India.

We all need access to the latest, up-to-the-minute, evidence-based information to do our jobs well. But for health professionals — from community health workers and physicians to program managers and policy makers — having the appropriate information and the ability to share it effectively can be a matter of life and death. If the information is out-of-date or misleading, or it isn’t communicated accurately or in time, the health consequences can be serious.

Knowledge for Health (K4Health) was the flagship knowledge management project of USAID. K4Health collected, curated and adapted the latest evidence and best practices on family planning, reproductive health and other global health areas, and then provided the tools that make it easy to share with the people on the ground who need it the most.

Towards this vision, K4Health developed and managed an unparalleled repository of freely accessible family planning and related health knowledge resources. These included:

K4Health worked to strengthen the knowledge management capacity of health-focused institutions and organizations, by providing training and professional development opportunities. It also partnered with governments and health ministries to incorporate knowledge management into governance and planning. K4Health also conducted research on knowledge management-driven global health interventions.

As part of its work, K4Health:

  • With Family Planning 2020, created Family Planning Voices, which provides a platform for people to tell their own stories about family planning and connect with others doing similar work around the world.
  • In collaboration with the East African Health Research Commission, launched the East Africa Health Research Journal.
  • In 2017, 2.1 million users visited K4Health’s portfolio of web-based platforms curating up-to-date resources on knowledge management, family planning/reproductive health and other health areas.

K4Health also led various communities of practice online and in-person, including the Global Digital Health Network, Post Abortion Care Connection and Global Health Knowledge Collaborative.

Funding

USAID

Location

East Africa, Caribbean, Uganda and South Africa

Duration

2013-2019

Implementing Partners

FHI360; IntraHealth International; Management Sciences for Health

Category
Capacity Strengthening, Digital, Family Planning, Kenya, Knowledge Management, Past, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda