Nepal’s Digital Library: ‘This is a big achievement for us’

Creating a searchable digital library for Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population had to start at the very beginning.  For MLI’s knowledge management consultant Sanjaya Singh Thapa, that meant setting up an office with an adequate Internet connection. “Right now, Internet is not as good in the government sector as is available to the public,” he said, “The whole setting up of the office was a challenge.”

The goal of the digital library project was to create a framework for an effective centralized information system accessible to policy makers, donors and the general public. It would promote learning and build national consensus on health sector policy options for scaling up services.

To help the process, MLI facilitated a peer-learning teleconference with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) of Nigeria. Having already completed the preliminary steps of developing a system to meet the information needs of national, state and local health care leaders, NPHCDA was able to offer advice and lessons learned to Nepal.