Community Guidelines

While the KAP is created for and with those wishing to find the common goals to beat NCDs, the WHO has full autonomy over all content and interaction within the site. The KAP uses WHO’s leveraging power to approach new forms of engagement, whilst safeguarding the community against any real or perceived conflicts of interest. All users must agree and adhere to the Community Guidelines outlined below.

KAP Terms of Engagement

As the KAP is a curated information service and engagement platform offered free of charge to its users, those individuals wishing to become registered users of the KAP are required to provide personal details and contact information. All new registrants agree to the following terms of engagement:

• Committed to and aligned with WHO normative guidance and tools, as appropriate to national circumstances; and By virtue of the scope of their activities and possible insights on and relevance to the prevention and control of NCDs, be in a position to constructively contribute to the KAP; 
• The participating entities should not seek promotion from the fact that it has engaged in the KAP Participation in the KAP should not be considered as a proof that WHO endorses the entity’s opinions, products and activities; 
• Are not impersonating anyone or representing any entity, aside from themselves by registering as a member of the KAP and participating in functions within the KAP;
• Understand that they participate in discussions only in their individual capacity;
• Will at all times maintain a professional tone; form part of the KAP community without receiving any financial or commercial benefits from participation;
• Undertake to only make contributions that are ethical and respect the confidentiality of the process, meaning: the privacy of other members and their contributions to the virtual discussions, respect for varied opinions, and a fair and objective attitude to ongoing discussions, free from prejudice or bias;
• Commit to uphold WHO’s integrity, independence, credibility and reputation, in particular by upholding confidentiality and not publicizing any knowledge or information shared within the KAP; 
• Declare that they do not have, or have had during the past four years, any formal association, affiliation, or link with the tobacco or arms industries, including any subsidiary of a tobacco/arms company or commercial entity involved with the manufacture, sale, or distribution of tobacco, arms, or tobacco related products; and
• Understand that the WHO GCM/NCD reserves the right to request additional information at any time in respect to their registration if deemed necessary;

All new registrants must agree to all the terms outlined. Failure to do so will result in the registration is invalid. 

When accessing the KAP as a registered user, use of the platform is subject to acceptance of the copyright code of conduct.

The KAP is committed to protecting user privacy as a member and visitor of the web site and a user of its resources. GCM/NCD is the owner of the information provided/collected on this website including all private messages through the private chat function.

We will not sell, disseminate, disclose, trade, transmit, transfer, share, lease or rent any personally identifiable information to any third party not specifically authorized by you to receive your information except as we have disclosed to you in this document.

Information Collection

When you request membership within the system, we will ask for information that personally identifies you. This information will include your name, location, and email address. 

This information will be provided to the system coordinators so they can create your account. Your personal details will be available in the contacts section of your profile. Your email address will be used as the primary channel for GCM/NCD to communicate alerts, news, discussions, new developments, and resources. At no time is communication within the system anonymous. All content created by an individual user is stored.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data that is stored on a visitor's hard drive while they are visiting this Web site. We may utilize a short-lived form of cookie when you visit this site. For the KAP, a cookie is only used to identify one unique visitor from another visitor during a particular session. A session is the period of active site-use while that unique visitor is linked to our server. We may use cookie technology during a session as a tool to carry forward your input information during use of the system. No personally identifiable information is stored on the cookie. The cookie expires and is deleted from the visitor's computer as soon as they close their browser or if they are not actively browsing our website. Should a previous visitor to our website return for a new session, they will be issued a new cookie and will in no way be recognized from a previous visit or session.

Third Party Links

This website may contain links to third party websites that are not controlled by the GCM. These third party links are made available to you as a member of the relevant GCM Portal service(s) and you agree to use these links at your own risk. Please be aware that owners and administrators of GCM cannot be held responsible for the content of third party Web sites nor are we responsible for the privacy policy or practices of those third party websites. Our privacy policy only applies to information we collect from you for navigation purposes while you are on the GCM Portal web site. If you should link to a third party website from the system, we strongly encourage you to review and become familiar with that web site's privacy policy.

Changes in our Terms of Use

We reserve the right to change this Terms of Use without providing you with advance notice of our intent to make the changes. If you have any queries, please contact your community administrator.

KAP Code of Conduct

The KAP is a curated information service and engagement platform offered free of charge to its users.

Copyright Code of Conduct

The KAP is a collaborative community-driven project. Copyright of any material made available by the KAP is held by a relevant service hosted by the GCM/NCD secretariat. Applications for reuse of materials and all other inquiries should be addressed to the relevant service administrator. Copyright for individual working documents and resources made available on the KAP and its services rests with the original publishers of these documents. The copyright-holders alone are responsible for the contents of their documents. When granted, access to service(s) and use of information provided via the KAP are subject to the specific license agreements of the individual KAP users.

Information provided by the KAP is made available for non-commercial use only.

The information presented is protected under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literature and Artistic works, under other international conventions and under national laws on copyright and neighbouring rights. Extracts of the information in the website may be reviewed, reproduced or translated for research or private study, but not for sale or for use in conjunction with commercial purposes. Any use of information in the website should be accompanied by an acknowledgement of the relevant author within the KAP as the source, citing the uniform resource locator (URL) of the web source. Reproduction or translation of portions or all of the information posted on this website, require explicit, prior authorization in writing.

Applications and enquiries should be addressed to the administrator(s) of the relevant KAP service. The designations employed and the presentation of the information in this website do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers' products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the KAP or the World Health Organization in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters. The World Health Organization does not warrant that the information contained in the website is complete and correct and shall not be liable whatsoever for any damages incurred as a result of its use. (C) Copyright World Health Organization (WHO) Knowledge Action Portal, 2018. All Rights Reserved. http://www.who.int/about/copyright/

Liability Disclaimer

This system contains submissions from parties outside the World Health Organization. The views expressed in these submissions are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the World Health Organization. The designations employed and the presentation of the information on this system do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers' products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the World Health Organization in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters. The World Health Organization does not warrant that the information contained in the website is complete and correct and shall not be liable whatsoever for any damages, including any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of this system. The authors of contributions to discussion forums are alone responsible for their contributions.

Types of Users & Content Submission Criteria

There are three types of users within the KAP:

• Unregistered Users

• Registered Users

• Registered Users – GCM/NCD Participants

Unregistered users

As a principal, unregistered users are unable to suggest resources for upload, comment on any aspect of the site, contact other users, or submit any information to any of the sections. They are restricted to read-only content which has been approved and published by the administrators.

Registered users

Any individual can create a profile within the platform - given they have no links to the tobacco and firearms industry, and that the necessary safeguards are met to protect WHO’s work from potential risks such as conflict of interest, reputational risks, and/or undue influence. In addition to creating a personalized profile, registration enables users to save resources and contact other users.

Individual registration does not enable access to individual Communities (formerly Communities of Practice, or CoP). All registered users must apply separately to join individual Communities. Applicants for Communities must provide a Conflict of Interest (COI) form and are assessed by the relevant Communities facilitator. All resources shared by a Communities member remain within the closed environment of that Communities discussion and are not publicly available unless decided so by the relevant WHO focal points. In addition, all comments posted within Communities must be approved by the relevant Communities facilitator. There is an inbuilt flagging option for any approved discussion comments deemed to be inappropriate or raising suspicion.

Registered users – GCM Participants

Registered users whom are GCM Participants are granted the same access as registered users. In addition, they are granted access to contact the KAP administrator to suggest resources for consideration. To become GCM Participants, these entities have already undergone a strict due diligence and risk assessment/management process aligned with WHO policies, including the WHO Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors (FENSA). The KAP administrator, following assessment criteria and other necessary guidance as needed, decides whether the resource should be published, revised, or rejected based on set criteria.

Content Submission Criteria for GCM Participants

1. Story/content relates to one or several strategic GCM/GNP areas and/or GCM initiatives on NCD prevention and control:
   • Multisectoral action: working across government sectors for coherent NCD responses
   • Multistakeholder collaboration, including: engagement with civil society, academia, private sector, grassroots innovators, youth, and women and girls,
   • Meaningful engagement of people with lived experience of health conditions.
2. Story/content illustrates challenges, lessons, practical aspects, success and impact of NCD and mental health policies and programmes at country or sub-country level;
3. Story/content is in the format of a story/article/multimedia/editorial piece directed at a broader audience (i.e., understandable to an informed, non-technical audience) and of recent date (i.e., not older than 5 years);
4. Story/content is submitted by a GCM Participant, or covers an initiative led by a GCM Participant or partner; and/or
5. Story/content documents major milestones in NCD prevention and control (including beyond GCM/GNP focus).