Background

Exchange's achievements are outlined in the Output to purpose review: final report 2002

In 1997, the UK Government White Paper on International Development pointed out that sharing knowledge is an important aspect of partnerships that contribute to development. The health sector was identified by the White Paper as a key area where improved sharing and application of knowledge could have a significant impact. The production, synthesis and communication of new knowledge was seen as one of the important factors in helping to improve the health and well-being of the poorest communities in the world.

In 1998, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) commissioned a wide-ranging study to examine whether there was scope for a new and innovative partnership in health communication to be developed. During the first phase of this study, the potential benefits and drawbacks of various partnership arrangements were discussed at length in a collaborative exercise involving a broad cross-section of mainly UK-based health communication organisations. The idea of a Networking and Learning Programme - now called Exchange - emerged as a widely welcomed option, and was recommended by a Working Group in mid-1999 as the most sensible place for DFID to start in developing a more effective partnership relationship with the UK health communication sector.

In coming to that conclusion, the Working Group took into account the considerable depth and variety of health communication experience to draw upon in the UK, but noted that a number of limiting factors impeded theability of the sector to achieve maximum impact. These factors included:

• the fragmented nature of the sector as a whole, which leads to duplication of activities, gaps in coverage and, more importantly, limits the scope for concerted, strategic action, effective advocacy and fundraising. The lack of obvious focal points or structures also makes it difficult for funding agencies to interact with the sector intelligently 
• a limited amount of sharing of approaches and experience across the sector (for example, between organisations working with health workers, and those working with the media to inform public attitudes on the same health issues) 
• communication gaps between organisations working at different stages in the information chain, that hinder the effective flow of information up and down the chain 
• although some UK-based organisations are well connected into international networks, others are not so well linked, which prevents them sharing experience and taking advantage of broader international alliances. 

The Working Group recognised that there was substantial room (and enthusiasm) for sharing good practice across organisations, in order to improve the effectiveness of the sector as a whole. Exchange was proposed as a way of addressing these shortcomings and building on the opportunities that exist to make both the sector as a whole, and DFID’s aid programme, more effective.