There were 50 stakeholders who attended the two-day HIV/AIDS Research Dissemination Forum in Morogoro from different organizations and institutions, including TACAIDS and several ministries: 1) Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology; 2) Ministry of Finance and Planning, and; 3) Ministry of Energy. Other institutions represented were the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the National Institute for Medical Research, and Tanzania Center for Diseases Prevention and Control (CDC), National Bureau of Statistic (NBS). Attendees from academic and research institutions were from Sokoine University of Agriculture, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Catholic University Health and Allied Sciences (CUHAS), University of Dar es Salaam (USDM), University of South Carolina (USC), Henry M. Jackson Foundation Medical Research International (HJFMRI). The Morogoro Regional Commissioner and Regional Health Management Team were also in attendance.
A total of 15 presentations were made that varied from the 2016–2017 Tanzania HIV Impact Survey (THIS), to the assessment of the impact of behavior change communication strategies on sexual behaviors among youth, overview of HIV vaccine trials in Tanzania, lessons learned from supporting adolescents living with HIV in Tanzania, and HIV/AIDS coordination mechanism in resource-scarce settings in Tanzania. The brainstorming session occurred after the presentations and the participants’ inputs were organized in three categories: 1) perceived benefits of HIV/AIDS Research Dissemination Forum; 2) perceived challenges of organizing future HIV/AIDS Research Dissemination Forum and; 3) recommendations for future HIV/AIDS Research Dissemination Forum and national conference. The different categories and emerging themes are described in the following sections.
Perceived Benefits of HIV/AIDS Research Dissemination Forum
Participants reported several benefits of the forum, including the opportunity for policy makers from different ministries, researchers, programmers, and implementers to convene with the purpose of combatting HIV/AIDS. The gathering of these different individuals allowed researchers to share their research findings and work in progress, establish new collaborations and for non-researchers, policy makers, and other stakeholders to learn about the different HIV/AIDS-related research taking place in the country.
So, this forum is a very important forum as we have different people [policy makers, non-researchers]. So, the thing that we can do now, just from TACAIDS is to see the key people from this group.
There are other group here I know who have never [attended] those conferences but through this [Forum] they have a chance to present.
Participants emphasized the importance of having policy makers attend the HIV/AIDS research forum because policymakers do not often attend the HIV/AIDS meetings that researchers organize. Participants reported that bringing policymakers with researchers would enhance to possibility that policy makers can use their power to use the research findings to implement policies that can help make the progress necessary to advance HIV prevention, care, and treatment efforts. For example, participants from different ministries, regions, and sectors were able to either learn for the first time or gain a better understanding of the 2016–2017 THIS from a presentation made by a statistician from NBS. The findings from THIS showing that HIV testing was low among men were crucial in motivating the Prime Minister to request TACAIDS to develop the Male Catch-Up Plan and launch a male-targeted HIV testing campaign [4]:
During the THIS that has been presented by Cargano, we are working as a team, all of us, TACAIDS, [NACP], and everybody was there. But when the results came, who gave out the results? TACAIDS! And, during the World Health Day, that’s what happened. But, next to that, one of the issues that happened clearly, even in this meeting we have seen, testing services are there. Drugs are there. But why do, especially men, not utilizing our services? You need everybody else… We have just discussed about men who are driving these truck drivers.
Representatives from different ministries and institutions were able to learn how they can become involved in the campaign. Another benefit of the forum that participants reported was the ability for forum attendees to identify challenges of hosting similar HIV/AIDS research forum and provide recommendations on how to organize future meetings and a potential national HIV/AIDS conference:
So, I think the focus that if the question is there an interest in holding similar HIV meeting, yes! Because we have seen here, people have been interested… Potential challenges and solutions we will be sharing on the meetings and discussion we have reached here. Now, once we go back, we will come up with these solutions and share again with this meeting. This is what I am trying to see.
Perceived Challenges of HIV/AIDS Research Dissemination Forum
Aside from the perceived benefits, participants also reported potential challenges of organizing an HIV/AIDS research conference. As aforementioned, the low attendance policy makers at previous HIV/AIDS research meetings made the participants question whether enough policy makers would attend future HIV/AIDS research meetings. The potential poor attendance of policy makers and decision makers raised another challenge of how researchers would be able to have the support needed to translate the research into policies needed to make implement evidence-based interventions at the national or regional levels. Participants mentioned that the abstract requirement for attending future HIV/AIDS research forums or conference can also deter non-researchers from attending and contribute to the low attendance of policy makers and other stakeholders whose primary work does not involve research.
I don’t think that you have ever got something from the ministry over here, because they don’t write abstracts. Somebody cannot [may not] be a scientific but can have great ideas .We all see the politicians, we never have a paper from the parliament, but you [they] have great ideas, of which they are relating in this forum.
Related to the presentations, participants shared that if the conference is held too frequently (i.e. annually), then there is the possibility that there will be repetitive presentations from year to year. This concern stemmed from the fact that researchers may not have enough time to complete their projects and advance to new projects within one year since research projects take a long time to be developed, funded, approved by institutional review boards, and carried out. Other potential challenges were related to the costs associated with organizing a national or regional HIV/AIDS conference, the lack of coordination between organizations involved in HIV/AIDS programs, and the potential time conflict between the national conference and international HIV/AIDS conferences.
Recommendations For HIV/AIDS Research Dissemination Forum
Participants offered several suggestions for overcoming potential challenges described above and make key recommendations that can inform the development of a future HIV/AIDS Research Dissemination Forum or national conference. First, participants agreed that there is a need to have these forums and some participants suggested such forums happen every two years to give researchers more time so that they can come with new findings and minimize the costs of having the forum annually:
I think we need them every, after every two years because we need researches that will be really informative and that can be translated into policies. So, in coordinating these researches, I am suggesting whoever is interested in researching on HIV/AIDS in this country, after getting a clearance, or before getting clearance from the National Institute for Medical Research...should get some input on the topic or on the title from TACAIDS, so that in the process of whatever you are doing, or you are researching on, TACAIDS should be expecting something out of it. So that at the end, this research can have the flavor or it it tastes of a policy that is needed in order to, to inform whatever interventions we are designing in the fight against HIV/AIDS. That is what I would like to put forward.
Second, participants suggested that TACAIDS develop strategies in collaboration with other organizations to solicit funds to cover the costs associated with organizing such forums. Third, to increase the coordination among organizations involved in HIV/AIDS programs in the country, participants recommended that any issues between TACAIDS and other organizations are resolved in order to attract multi-sectoral stakeholders and increase teamwork and inter-organizational communication. Fourth, participants preferred a national-level forum over a regional-level one. An increase in inter-organizational communication can allow organizations to combine forums and come together instead of having several smaller forums. Participants also recommended greater cross-collaborations between researchers, policy makers, and program implementers prior to the conference in order to enhance the success of the conference. Regarding this recommendation, participants also stated that future forums and conferences should allot the first day for scientific presentations and the second day for policy dialogue and action plans. Participants also stated that presentations from personnel who do not submit scientific papers but can share relevant ideas. Furthermore, discussion-based forums, where presentations are delivered in simple language instead of in complex scientific terms and statistics, are preferred in order for members outside of the scientific community to understand. The following quotation illustrates another one of the key recommendations:
I am now seeing the contradiction because we have NACP and we have TACAIDS, when do you go to NACP they say they have the data, TACAIDS you have the implementations… When you have to discuss with your fellows at NACP who are doing the same activities, so that you share the same activities in the same event, you see… I’m proposing you put up a task force so that you resolve everything that may [be] part of the contradictions. That way when we start moving we move as a team, instead of moving as TACAIDS alone. Because in a way you go there to organize the events now that you need to organize.