Title: The Response of Information Technology to the Challenge of HIVAIDS in Higher Education Institutions
1The Response of Information Technology to the
Challenge of HIV/AIDS in Higher Education
Institutions in Africa
- Presentation to
- Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting on
- Reforms in Higher Education and the Use of
Information Technology in Africa - Nairobi, 1921 November 2001
- M. J. Kelly, University of Zambia, Lusaka
2The Disproportionate Effect of HIV/AIDS on
Sub-Saharan Africa
- SSA has one-tenth of the worlds population
- SSA has two-and-a-half times more HIV/AIDS
infected persons than the rest of the world - SSAs adult infection rate is 25 times greater
than in the rest of the world - 4 out of every 5 AIDS deaths occur in SSA
- SSA faces the challenge of responding to the
needs of 90 of the worlds AIDS orphans
3HIV/AIDS Estimates for Sub-Saharan Africa
compared with the Rest of the World
4The Scope of HIV/AIDS
- Not a disease of Africa
- Alarming estimates for India, China, Russia
- Not a disease of poor countries
- Number of infected in USA exceed number of
infected in Zambia - Worst affected countries in SSA are also the most
wealthy - Not a disease of poor people
- BUT, factors which characterize poor societies
poor individuals contribute to higher rates of
HIV/AIDS morbidity mortality - Strategies against HIV/AIDS must encompass
strategies against poverty, vice versa
5University Responses to HIV/AIDS (1)
- Absence of good information (even on deaths)
- Considerable silence at institutional, academic
personal levels - In practical terms, much denial and secrecy
- Fear of openness anxiety about stigmatisation
some discrimination - Piecemeal uncoordinated responses
- The absence of strong institutional response
frequently compensated for by many generous
individual initiatives
6University Responses to HIV/AIDS (2)
- Regarded principally as a student problem
- Most students are aware of the issue but have
attitudes of denial, fatalism, invulnerability - Institutions treat of the HIV/AIDS issue very
briefly in orientation programmes - University social life frequently creates
high-risk situations for students - Few if any workplace education programmes exist
for academic or non-academic staff - HIV/AIDS is treated mostly as a health issue
7Framework for the Response of Higher Education
Institutions
- AIDS-affected higher education institutions have
two major HIV/AIDS responsibilities - 1. They must protect their continued
functioning as effective and efficient
institutions - 2. They must respond dynamically to the needs of
an AIDS-affected society
8Components of the Response of Higher Education
Institutions
- Institutional self-protection requires
- development of appropriate policy and management
structures - care and support for staff and students
- Responsiveness to the needs of society requires
- production of AIDS-competent graduates in the
numbers and disciplines required - dynamic multi-disciplinary collaborative research
- engagement with society and collaborative service
of its needs
9Information Technologys Potential and Modalities
for Supporting the Response of Higher Education
Institutions to HIV/AIDS
- E-mail websites CD-ROM
- information provision, databases, documentation
and library access - list-serves online discussions
- web-based discussion groups, workshops symposia
- networking
- information sources, question and answer sites
(e-mail or web) and chat rooms for personal
support/information - online publications
- distance education
- involvement with community organizations
10How IT has been Used in Other Settings to Respond
to HIV/AIDS
- A Chinese PLA established a website to help
others - AIDS Education Global Information System
(dedicated and comprehensive HIV/AIDS knowledge
base accessible via the web or e-mail) - Distribution of wind-up radios to facilitate
access of rural people to HIV/AIDS information - A CD brings 5,000 pages of the latest, in-depth
HIV/AIDS information to practitioners with poor
internet services - Online HIV/AIDS learning module for secondary
schools - A total wire-less off-the-grid system brings
HIV/AIDS messages to areas without electric power
or telephone lines - Online collaborative project for secondary
schools on HIV/AIDS (in 42 schools in Africa)
11Use of IT by Higher Education in Internal
Response to HIV/AIDS
- Management Policy Development
- evidence of posting of policies on websites
- potential need for networking, online
discussions, list-serves, interactive workshops - Staff Student Welfare
- aim is to facilitate coping, management, control
- evidence of interactive question-and-answer
e-mail facility, online support group (being
developed), interactive HIV/AIDS programmes
accessible at all times on student computers - need for chat-lines, roundtable pages, personal
stories pages, more information provision, more Q
A facilities, list-serves, discussion groups
both within and between institutions
12Use of IT by Higher Education in Teaching
Response to HIV/AIDS
- No known use, other than some information
provision and general list-serve discussions - Current teaching responses are piecemeal,
individual, uncoordinated (within across
institutions) - Tendency is to focus on teaching interventions
from the perspective of protecting students
against infection or its impacts - No clear vision exists of the implications of
HIV/AIDS for every profession, for new expertise,
for student numbers - There is urgent need for the networking of
specialists according to professional discipline,
for interactive workshops, teleconferencing, and
greater availability of materials related to the
way HIV/AIDS must be taken into account in
education/training for each profession
13IT and the Research Response of Higher Education
to HIV/AIDS
- Extensive use of e-mail websites for
information access, information-sharing and
discussion, but could be extended - Some IT-based inter-institutional interaction
- Some IT-facilitated sharing of library resources
- Needs are for
- more cooperation less silo-confined
HIV/AIDS research (within between
institutions), more research across disciplines,
research in fields other than biomedical, social
health sciences - more extended networking in dedicated areas
- data-bases on expertise within Africa and on
HIV/AIDS research undertakings (and more use of
this local research competence) - development of online publications for
dissemination of research findings
14IT and the HIV/AIDS Engagement of Higher
Education with Society
- Higher education institutions should not be ivory
towers, but listening, caring, responding,
collaborating communities, especially in context
of HIV/AIDS - A key mandate is to search jointly with
communities for solution to problems - World Links HIV/AIDS IT Project for Africa
(from World Bank Institute) encourages schools to
establish linkages with HIV/AIDS NGOs whereby - schools help NGOs to enhance their HIV/AIDS work
by becoming IT literate - NGOs train students to be peer educators and
home-based care providers
15The University of Natal Centre for AIDS
Networking (HIVAN)
- Key Components
- A globally accessible database, linked with a
website, of information, resources and networking
tools - Virtual and face-to-face forums (workshops, chat
rooms, symposia, etc.) that encourage the
development of networks involving local
international researchers, practitioners
policy-makers - Multidisciplinary action research, intervention,
and training programmes - A Campus HIV/AIDS Support Unit
- Multidisciplinary graduate training around
HIV/AIDS - A coalition of African Higher Education
institutions that interacts regularly around
issues of HIV/AIDS
16Using IT for Distance Education in Response to
HIV/AIDS
- Mobility being away from climate of norms
expectations relative affluence situation
that may lead to HIV risk behaviour - All operative for many full-time higher education
students - Forms of distance education can reduce or
eliminate the mobility and away-from-home risk
factors - IT offers considerable potential for effective
distance education and thereby can contribute to
reducing risk of HIV infection - IT programmes can also communicate
HIV/AIDS-related content, prevention, and
management messages - Delivery by e-mail, websites, interactive
programmes, .
17Prerequisites for Use by Higher Education of ITs
Potential against HIV/AIDS
- Committed leadership by senior institutional
executives, middle academic management, academic
governance bodies - Resources in the form of
- basic essential equipment in sufficient quantity
to cater for large numbers - connectivity to surmount costly unreliable
internet access - training for those developing programmes
- access to already existing HIV/AIDS educational
programmes, resources, research
18Acknowledgements
- Grateful thanks go to
- Ann N. Parsons, University of Cape Town Sean
Jones, University of Natal Shivani Khanna, Equal
Access Anthony Bloome, World Links Svava
Bjarnason, Association of Commonwealth
Universities Don Bundy, Karen Lashman, Yoshiko
Koda, Kelly D. Grable, and Shobhana Sosale, all
of the World Bank - for insightful bytes of information and
assistance that contributed to this paper