 These toolkits are part of a series of multi-media knowledge packs entitled “Achieving the Millennium Development Goals”. This learning tool includes: documents, videos, interviews and web links that provide information to assist development practitioners to achieve the MDGs. Each toolkit presents successful approaches to achieving one of the MDGs based on practical country experiences. The objective is to provide users a learning platform with ‘just in time’ access to lessons of experience on ‘what works’ and ‘how to do it’. The focus is on identifying the key success factors and providing users with practical guidelines on how to replicate and scale up successful practices.
 | Traditional Healers Treat AIDS Patients - Experience of the Tanga AIDS Working Group In Tanzania, The Tanga AIDS Working Group (TAWG) has one goal: to alleviate suffering from HIV/AIDS using indigenous knowledge (IK). The group has treated over 4,000 AIDS patients with herbs prescribed by local healers. The impact has been most significant in alleviating the opportunistic diseases brought on by the AIDS virus. The patients who have responded most positively have lived longer, by up to five years. The Tanga regional hospital has allocated a floor to TAWG workers to enable them to test patients for HIV, treat them and provide counseling. They have also set up an information centre in town, which conducts active AIDS awareness campaigns and offers a support network to people living with AIDS. With support from the World Bank’s IK for Development Program, TAWG has organized community-to-community exchanges, involving their healers, people living with AIDS and staff working with patients to provide medical care and alternative income generating opportunities, in exchanges of IK with other communities in Tanzania. To help develop a collaborative process for the validation of IK, the Bank has established a partnership with the Global Research Alliance (GRA) with the first pilot underway to study the TAWG approach. | | Reducing Maternal Mortality - Experience of the Iganga District in Uganda
In the Iganga District of Uganda, a UNFPA-supported Rural Extended Services and Care for Ultimate Emergency Relief (RESCUER) Project seeking to reduce maternal mortality equipped Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) with modern communication technology. This involved the installation of a solar powered VHF radio communication system that included fixed based stations at the Primary Health Center, walkie-talkies for the TBAs and ambulance vehicles. Improved communication and transportation links between the TBAs and the health posts resulted in increased and more timely referrals as well as the improved delivery of healthcare to a large number of pregnant women. Getting connected bridged the distance between traditional healers and public health providers. A notable impact of the project was that maternal morality reportedly declined by more than 50 percent over three years. | | Community Knowledge Exchange Toolkits, I and II These toolkits are designed for preparing, implementing and evaluating community-to-community knowledge and learning exchanges. |
These toolkits are also available as CD ROMS. Please contact S. Prakash for a copy.
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