About – iCHORDS

About iCHORDS

iCHORDS (Improving Community Health Outcomes through Research, Dialogue and Systems Strengthening) Community of Practice is a platform for communication, collaboration and knowledge exchange within social and behavioural science research disciplines to address implementation gaps and current issues facing Neglected Tropical Disease programs.

What is a Community of Practice?

“A group of people who share a concern or passion for something that they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.” – Etienne Wenger

There are three main characteristics of a CoP:

Domain – A shared area of interest

Community – Member’s interactions and knowledge sharing
Practice – Building resources and ideas to improve the domain of practice

Vision

Building a community of practice to support Neglected Tropical Disease programming and research initiatives.

Mission

Maintaining a forum for collaboration, coordination, and knowledge management within the social and behavioural sciences to address implementation challenges and strengthen NTD programs through evidence-based research.

Goals

1) to collate and disseminate information generated across research and programmatic partners for use by NTD programs

2) to be responsive to challenges and research needs brought by NTD programs, which can be addressed through social and behavioural science

3) to provide a forum for collaboration and coordination amongst those engaged in implementation / programmatic research

4) to support the mentorship of early career researchers

5) to collaborate with other actors and networks within NTDs and the social and behavioural sciences

Acknowledgements

iCHORDS receives financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through their support of the Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases (COR-NTD) grant. COR-NTD is funded at The Task Force for Global Health primarily by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development. iCHORDS was previously funded by U.K. Aid from the U.K. government.