Helpful Resources Uzbekistan Program Tools and Resources Community Leadership Development Program (CLDP) (external link) Open World Leadership Center (external link)

Through its Community Leadership Development Program (CLDP), AIHA helped civic, political, and healthcare leaders from Uzbekistan build their capacity to address healthcare challenges using the Healthy Communities model.

The CLDP is sponsored by the Open World Leadership Center, a unique, non-partisan initiative of the US Congress that aims to foster mutual understanding between the United States and the countries of the former Soviet Union by building professional relationships and personal friendships among citizens.

While in Washington, DC, for orientation, Uzbek delegates received additional training on models for community development, leadership, and strategic planning. After that, they visited counterpart communities in the United States where they witnessed firsthand concrete examples of solutions to specific healthcare delivery challenges, including effective delivery of care and treatment services to people living with HIV or AIDS, community-based support services for at-risk youth, tuberculosis treatment and prevention, maternal and child health, and providing healthcare in rural settings.

Each exchange concluded with meetings in the host community, where delegates had the opportunity to share lessons learned and develop action plans for implementing programs in their own cities and towns.

The CLDP focused primarily on sharing Healthy Communities concepts with Uzbek delegates and providing them with the concepts and tools they need to work with colleagues at their home institutions and communities. Each Uzbek participant developed individual action plans to implement upon return. To date, 30 leaders from Uzbekistan have participated in the CLDP exchanges.

The CLDP is designed to build stronger communities that work to improve health through a broad range of citizen-based initiatives. The program brings together leaders of diverse backgrounds for a common purpose and provides them with the tools to translate their experience in the United States into a lasting partnership that reaches beyond the core group and benefits their entire community. It also strengthens the US communities who host the delegates. The US hosts learn from their counterparts and discover more about themselves and their own communities by sharing their successes with others.

The Uzbek participants have initiated several projects at their home institutions and communities after participating in the CLDP. In Tashkent, delegates introduced substitution therapy for injecting drug users, expanded services for drug users and HIV/AIDS patients, and improved TB diagnostics. Rural health providers found ways to more effectively train physicians and nurses to deliver high-quality primary care. US hosts found ways to support the work of their new Uzbek friends. For example, host families and professionals in Tampa, Florida, donated equipment and supplies to a rural clinic in Uzbekistan and provided assistance to allow the clinic to win a grant from the World Bank for much needed structural improvements.

Tools and Resources:

• Creating Healthy Communities Through Committed Leadership (CLDP workbook, English / Russian)