Further to Neil's request, I took another look at the HIFA Strategy - which is a fine document, indeed. The ideas are all great.
[ https://www.hifa.org/news/revision-hifa-strategy-2022-2024-convene-stake... ]
Clearly, as always, the lack of funding is HIFA's main restrainer.
What's missing from, or what could be added to, the Strategy? Here are a few thoughts:
For HIFA, building collaboration with other organizations in this field should be a top priority. While it was a terrific achievement to achieve the new "Official Relations" status at WHO - and hopefully more WHO input (and ideally financing), it would be good for HIFA, both reputationally and financially, to cement relations with other big players in this field:
We made considerable progress with the World Medical Association (WMA, up to theior issuance of a very HIFA-friendly declaration. We should not take our eye off the ball - there are very clear action-oriented issues there. I would welcome the strategic plan giving more focus to these.
We should also find ways to engage with UNESCO. The areas of obvious collaboration would be health literacy, national health information planning (as a part of national information planning), and indicators/SDGs.
And, as the new Vice President of WAME, the World Association of Medical Editors (and thus future President-elect) I believe HIFA can definitely expand activities with WAME, particularly regarding networking of journal editors in Africa. We should also pick up the connections with the Knowledge Management for Development (KM4Dev) group, which is very active.
Finally, it is time to start thinking about how we can get involved in the build-up to the next global development framework after the SDGs finish in 2030. In about three years, all kinds of preparatory work will start, and now is the time for HIFA to get in at the ground floor to ensure health information doesn't get forgotten (as it did with the SDGs).
On a parallel track, what about HIFA getting more involved in new technology - discussing the likely impacts of technology on health information? How about setting up a Working Group on the Future of Health Information (both post-SDG and in relation to technology), and writing this into the Strategy?
Just some thoughts...
All the best,
Chris
Chris Zielinski
chris@chriszielinski.com
Blogs: http://ziggytheblue.wordpress.com and http://ziggytheblue.tumblr.com
Research publications: http://www.researchgate.net
HIFA profile: Chris Zielinski: As a Visiting Fellow and Lecturer at the Centre for Global Health, University of Winchester, Chris leads the Partnerships in Health Information (Phi) programme. Formerly an NGO, Phi supports knowledge development and brokers healthcare information exchanges of all kinds. Chris has held senior positions in publishing and knowledge management with WHO in Brazzaville, Geneva, Cairo and New Delhi, with FAO in Rome, ILO in Geneva, and UNIDO in Vienna. Chris also spent three years in London as Chief Executive of the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society. He served on WHO’s Ethical Review Committee, and was an originator of the African Health Observatory. Chris is the elected Vice President (and President-in-Waiting) of the World Association of Medical Editors. He has been a director of the UK Copyright Licensing Agency, Educational Recording Agency, and International Association of Audiovisual Writers and Directors. He has served on the boards of several NGOs and ethics groupings (information and computer ethics and bioethics). chris AT chriszielinski.com.
His publications are at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris-Zielinski and https://winchester.academia.edu/ChrisZielinski/ and his blogs are http://ziggytheblue.wordrpress.com and https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ziggytheblue
