The Expanded Health Network Meeting brings together ACSD experts to discuss and be updated on new developments as well as review strategic approaches to support countries in the region towards achieving the health related MDGs. One of the initiatives to support these activities is the creation of a web portal for regional, inter- and intra-country information sharing.

The purpose of the web portal is to host a database of key regional- and country-documents that are of potential interest for inter-country sharing. In developing in the web portal, particular emphasis has been given to a 'menu of options' that includes the uploading, storage, search/ filtering and downloading of documents, which include Policies & Strategies, Interventions & Packages (Communities of Care), Guidelines & Joint Statements, Planning & Costing, Country Experiences and Monitoring documents. It is envisaged that countries will make increasing use of this valuable resource.

The web portal will also be used to host documents related to EHN Meetings, the next one to be held from September 28 to October 1, 2009. Meeting-related documents can be downloaded by country users before, during and after the meeting.

The development team at /RO/ESAR/UNICEF invites comments and suggestions from all users to further develop this web portal. Once the prototype is fully functional and enhanced with additional features, it will be integrated into the UNICEF intranet.

All users of the web portal are invited to contribute to its further development, by:

• Sending your comments and suggestions concerning the web portal to the YCSD development team. Address your emails to: Roshni Basu, rbasu@unicef.org with a copy to Kerry Kyaa, kkyaa@unicef.org
• Submitting your suggestions for additional documents to be uploaded to the database. Until further notice, all uploading will be done at regional level (ESARO/YCSD).