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In response to the rapidly increasing HIV/AIDS pandemic in the region, the independent, non-governmental Regional Knowledge Hub for the Care and Treatment of HIV/AIDS in Eurasia was established in late 2003 by the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) in cooperation with the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Euro) under a grant from Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Züsammenarbeit (GTZ).
Like a hub of a wheel, the centre axis from which many spokes radiate, the Regional Knowledge Hub is the nucleus of a multi-pronged approach to improve HIV/AIDS care and treatment in Eurasia. Components include
- a repository of materials for mastering care and treatment;
- affiliated training centres;
- online training modules;
- strategic partners;
- online forums where experts and patients can discuss care and treatment of HIV/AIDS;
- an office that coordinates all of the Hub's activities, programs, and resources.
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By bringing together a community of global and regional experts on HIV/AIDS and patients living with the disease, the Regional Knowledge Hub provides a wide range of networking and information exchange opportunities; serves as an organizing point for providing treatment and care throughout the region; and promotes systems reform and absorptive capacity.
The main objective of the Knowledge Hub is to create the human resource capacity necessary to provide care to HIV-infected individuals by developing expertise among healthcare professionals, cultivating training capacity so knowledge and skills can be passed on to others, and massing a body of evidence-based resources and informational materials. To do this, the Hub is collaborating with international experts and educational institutions throughout the region to develop and provide a series of training workshops and online modules designed to give practitioners the skills necessary to improve care for patients living with HIV/AIDS. The Hub is looking to expand its list of strategic partners and plans to work with affiliated capacity-building centres throughout the region to precipitate change.
As part of a concerted effort to bring HIV/AIDS expertise physically closer to Russian-speaking healthcare providers, the Knowledge Hub is based in Ukraine at the Kyiv Medical Academy of Post Graduate Education (KMAPO), an affiliate of the Ukrainian AIDS Prevention Centre.
Tasked with developing a cadre of well-trained, knowledgeable, and skilled professionals who will work in close collaboration with community-based organizations dedicated to providing care and social support to HIV-positive individuals, the Knowledge Hub is part of a synergistic network that includes two similar centres-one focusing on harm reduction and the other on tracking and surveillance. These centres are designed to build technical capacity in countries throughout the region as they work to effectively access and utilize grants available to them through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and other large-scale donor organizations.
The Hub operates within the framework of WHO/Euro's "Capability Strengthening for Improved Utilization of Financial Resources to fight HIV/AIDS" project, which is funded by a grant from GTZ and serves as a crucial capacity-building mechanism to reach WHO's "3 by 5" targets for the region. Additional funding, support, and resources are provided by the
- World Health Organization
- Ministry of Health of Ukraine
- US Agency for International Development (USAID)
