This abstract has been accepted at the 2024 DHIS2 Annual Conference
Community Building: PEPFAR’s Experience
In the vibrant ecosystem of DHIS2, a strong community serves as the bedrock for innovation, knowledge sharing, and ultimately, collective success. Our presentation will delve into the essential elements of building a thriving community, offering practical strategies for information dissemination, fostering meaningful engagement, and attracting the right participants. By showcasing two practical examples, the PEPFAR Data Use Community and the DATIM data exchange implementers community, the presentation demonstrates how effective community building leads to innovation and success. These communities have fostered knowledge sharing, collaboration, and problem-solving, ultimately enhancing the effectiveness and impact of DHIS2 implementations. The presentation will highlight the importance of community building in the DHIS2 context. By facilitating knowledge exchange, fostering collaboration, and generating collective insights, a well-structured community empowers users, developers, and implementers to achieve more together. We will also explore various ways to disseminate information within the community. Leveraging diverse channels like webinars, newsletters, blog posts, and social media is crucial to reach a wide audience and cater to different learning styles. Moving beyond mere information dissemination, the presentation will unpack techniques to encourage active information sharing. Creating dedicated forums and recognizing active contributors can significantly stimulate engagement and knowledge exchange. Establishing clear expectations from the outset is vital for community health. Defining the community’s purpose, target audience, and contribution guidelines ensures a focused and productive environment. Attracting the right people involves targeted outreach strategies, highlighting the community’s value proposition, and showcasing existing success stories. The presentation will emphasize the importance of regular meetings in maintaining community momentum. Establishing a consistent meeting cadence facilitates routine interaction and fosters a sense of belonging. Implementing interactive note-taking tools allows for collaborative knowledge capture and future reference. Building a thriving community is an ongoing process. By adopting the strategies outlined, stakeholders can cultivate a collaborative environment that fuels innovation, accelerates knowledge sharing, and paves the way for collective success.
Primary Author: Vladimer Shioshvili
Keywords:
PEPFAR, Community building, Knowledge sharing, Collaboration, Engagement, Outreach, Communication, Innovation, Success stories, Sustainability
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Thank you for sharing! The topic of community building greatly interests me, let alone when it’s in the DHIS2 context. I’m looking forward to your presentation and learning from it. 
