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In
Acord
Newsletter
Issue 2: June 2001 Article 6: HIV NEWS 1. ACORD teams meet to develop first Pan-African HIV/AIDS programme 2. ACORD joins Campaign Coalition to fight HIV/AIDS ACORD teams meet to develop first Pan-African HIV/AIDS programme By WINNIE BIKAAKO , ACORD East Africa Regional AIDS ProgrammeACORD has taken its first concrete steps towards developing a single crosscutting HIV/AIDS programme across its work in Africa. Twenty-nine participants, including nine ACORD HIV/AIDS field officers and five partners' representatives met in Pretoria in March to agree on the overall mission, objectives and strategic approach of the new programme. The development of this programme is in line with ACORD's new direction in which activities are structured along linked thematic and geographical lines. The HIV/AIDS programmes, like the other emerging thematic programmes, will link programmes to each other and with the wider environment and will aim to advance ACORD's understanding and capacity in promoting rights, social inclusion and social justice in a specific thematic area. The other four emerging themes are currently civil society, gender, conflict and livelihoods. From discussions around programme methodologies, funding strategies, research and advocacy priorities, it emerged that linking programme activities with research and advocacy, and integrating the HIV/AIDS programme with other ACORD thematic areas such as conflict, gender and livelihoods would require greater coherence in our programme interventions. It also emerged that ACORD would need to undertake more research on the dynamics of HIV/AIDS in conflict situations and would need to assess the impact of HIV/AIDS and our interventions on the communities. The scope of the programme would have to be expanded to include more work on community capacity building, impact mitigation and care and support of people living with HIV/AIDS and their affected families, and ACORD would need a global advocacy agenda to allow it to contribute to influencing policy decisions at community, national and international levels. There would also be a need for development and dissemination of best practices and a quality control mechanism for research and service delivery.Staff are already in place to work on the management of information, communication, advocacy and research. The three priority areas identified as needing further attention were building the capacity of programme staff, funding and facilitation of partnerships and exchanges. This workshop was a useful planning tool in that it allowed for representation and greater ownership of the process. It also drew on the staff's commitment to HIV/AIDS which enriched the input. The workshop also confirmed the possibility of creating coherence and inter-linkages between research, activities and advocacy, both across regions and themes.
ACORD joins Campaign Coalition to fight HIV/AIDS ACORD and fourteen other of the UK's foremost AIDS and development organisations have joined forces in a Campaign Coalition to fight HIV/AIDS effectively in developing countries. The alliance aims to generate and mobilise political will and resources on the scale required to reverse the upward trends in HIV prevalence in developing countries and to ensure adequate access to treatment, services and care for those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in the developing world. It aims to increase UK resources available to fight HIV/AIDS in developing countries and to increase the effectiveness of responses of national and international institutions to HIV/AIDS in these regions. It also urges the UK government to use its influence internationally in support of such approaches. The alliance is committed to its work being led by the need of affected communities and people living with HIV in developing countries and will strive to give them a voice and visibility. It is also sensitive to the impact of its activities on people living with HIV and affected communities in the UK. As a group, it believes that effective responses to HIV and AIDS are those that enable individuals and communities to take effective action themselves and with others. By raising awareness of the impact of HIV and AIDS in developing countries, it will aim to create an enabling environment for the HIV-related work of other organisations. The coalition's key messages for its initial work will be: the scale and impact of the crises is enormous and is getting worse; there is hope - we know what works; sustained action will make a difference. The other organisations in the alliance include: UK NGO AIDS Consortium, Unicef, Save the Children, Diana Fund, Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) Actionaid, International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Elton John Aids Foundation, Cafod, Oxfam, Tearfund, African HIV Policy Network, NAT and Christian Aid. |
