Monrovia, 30 October 2015: Health workers and researchers in Liberia will soon gain access to the world’s largest online collection of biomedical and health literature following the signing of  a five-year license agreement between the Liberian Ministry of Health and  World Health Organization’s (WHO) HINARI program – Access to Research.

The HINARI program is a partnership sealed in 2002 between WHO and major publishers to provide low and middle-income countries with free or low cost access to essential health literature. The agreement between MOH and WHO was sealed during the first planning meeting to enroll the country into the HINARI program convened from 19 – 20 October 2015 with support from WHO Liberia.

The health minister Dr. Bernice Dahn said that partnership with the WHO HINARI program was part of government’s concerted efforts to strengthen the capacity of the health workers by building innovative strategies that will enhance their performance. She urged all health workers to take advantage of this opportunity.

WHO Country Representative, Dr. Alex Gasasira said that the HINARI program is ideal for strengthening research capacities in countries with limited resources. The program contributes to strengthen the access to health information in health training institutions, research instructions, universities and hospitals. He pledged continued support of WHO for the MOH in accessing relevant information for the health workforce development.

HINARI Program Manager Kimberly Parker said that access to this program would contribute to improving knowledge among health workers thus translating to better health services for both patients and communities at large.

Currently, the HINARI program has over 14,000 journals (in 30 different languages) and over 46,000 e-books. Thousands of health workers and researchers from more than 100 countries benefit from this program, which in turn, contributes to improve global health.  The Ministry of Health, as the focal coordinating agency in Liberia, will ensure that health workers and researchers in health institutions have access to the HINARI program. 

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For more details, please contact: 

Technical:

Dr Clement Lugala Peter Lasuba, Email: clementp [at] who.int" target="_blank"> clementp [at] who.int