FHI - FHI’s Resource Center Built Capacity in China

JUNE 2007 — From 2000 to 2006, FHI's Technical Resource Center made a valuable and lasting contribution to the evolution of the HIV/AIDS response in China. Established with funding from the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to support the China-UK HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care Project (HAPAC), the Resource Center built local capacity to reduce the transmission of HIV/STI and provide care. The project completion report released in November 2006 noted that FHI's technical assistance "made a positive difference" at national and provincial levels, particularly in the areas of behavioral surveillance and behavior change communications.

How the Center Built Capacity
FHI's Technical Resource Center provided HAPAC and implementing partners in the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan with access to international technical assistance and experiences to inform and help develop the national policy framework for HIV/AIDS prevention and care.

The Center not only made available detailed and cohesive documentation on best practices and proven approaches, but brought targeted training programs, workshops, and seminars to China. It supported the attendance of representatives from China at international conferences, and organized and underwrote study tours that allowed Chinese participants to see for themselves the effectiveness of particular interventions.

Taken together, these activities provided China's public health officials and workers with the ideas and confidence they needed to create replicable models of HIV/AIDS prevention and care with requisite Chinese characteristics.

From "Push" to "Pull"
Initially, the Center had to "push" knowledge, expertise, and experiences new to China, as well as the entire concept of international technical assistance. But as FHI's unique in-house expertise and widely respected publications gained the trust of beneficiaries, the model of technical assistance shifted from "push" to "pull." Instead of having technical assistance pushed by the Center, project staff at national and provincial levels identified and requested the specific technical assistance they needed, pulling it from the Center into the project.

Influential, proprietary FHI publications were translated into Chinese and widely used by HAPAC management, staff, and partners. Contributors to these publications provided direct technical assistance. CDs in Chinese included FHI's Voluntary Counseling and Testing Participant's Manual and Expanded, Comprehensive, Integrated Response to HIV/AIDS in China: Experience from the Field. The Resource Center also released technical notes in Chinese on HIV surveillance, working with female sex workers, scaling up and improving the quality of HIV counseling and testing, and scaling up adherence support for antiretroviral therapy.

Courses, Tours, and Conferences
The Resource Center's training courses covered a wide range of topics, including behavioral surveillance, behavior change communication, and voluntary counseling and testing. The courses were a cornerstone of the Center's support to HAPAC. They were run by international and domestic experts identified and retained by the Center, many of whom were staff from FHI's Asia and Pacific Division and its offices in the United States.

Chinese experts, government officials, and implementers also learned much from the Center's meticulously planned and managed study tours to destinations such as Thailand, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Europe, Brazil, and North America. Chinese officials could see for themselves the operation and value of specific interventions.. Tour participants were carefully selected and briefed. On their return, they contributed evaluations and trip reports, along with some personal work plans that outlined how they would apply lessons learned.

The Center also encouraged, supported, and funded the attendance of Chinese representatives at the International AIDS Conference and other major international conferences to expose them to ideas and practices from other countries. Over time, these representatives became active conference participants who presented papers and posters. By the end of the project, they had become valued and sought-after participants at major conferences.

Keys to the Center's Success
The Center's independence was a key to its success, permitting freedom and transparency in its courses of action. It had a separate funding stream from DFID, and maintained a close, collaborative, and productive relationship with HAPAC. The project's technical cooperation officer in Beijing served as an essential bridge, ensuring that staff identified and communicated their technical assistance needs and that the Center's assistance was appropriate and effective.