The resource pack, of which this report is part, was developed following an international workshop held at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The workshop brought together those working in HIV/AIDS Focal Points within the agricultural, education and finance ministries and others working on mainstreaming in Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. The pack consists of a 60 page document, a CD-Rom and a policy brief aimed at influencing decision-makers in key government sectors.
The workshop and resource pack were developed due to a concern about the lack of clarity from governments, donors and NGOs about exactly what HIV/AIDS mainstreaming is and how to work towards it. The resource pack aims to address these gaps in knowledge by:
- Offering a definition of HIV/AIDS mainstreaming developed by the participants at the workshop.
- Presenting a conceptual framework which distinguishes between HIV/AIDS-specific work and mainstreaming work on two dimensions: The internal aspects of the organisation and the external service delivery work.
- Exploring the key strategies used by those attempting to mainstream. These include: Research; information systems and predictive models; HIV/AIDS Focal Points; training; influencing and establishing high-level commitment; financing; developing indicators to monitor mainstreaming.
The experiences from the three countries represented at the workshop have highlighted some key issues about mainstreaming HIV/AIDS:
- Greater clarity is needed among donors, governments and NGOs as to what they mean by HIV/AIDS mainstreaming and how different sectors can work towards a fully mainstreamed approach.
- Supporting effective HIV/AIDS Focal Points is important. Frequently, Focal Points are given HIV/AIDS mainstreaming as an add-on to existing heavy workloads and do not hold influential positions within their ministry. Hence, they often become frustrated and ineffectual.
- Training is often a one-off, focusing on basic facts about HIV/AIDS rather than its impact and links with the sector in question. Training needs to start by looking at the impact of HIV/AIDS on the core work of the sector and at ways the work of the sector may increase vulnerability to HIV and the impacts of AIDS.
- Under sector wide approaches (SWAps), funds for separate HIV/AIDS mainstreaming projects are less likely to be available. In the long-term, this may lead to greater sustainability of mainstreaming within the sector but in the short-term, it means funds for starting up mainstreaming are difficult to find.
- In Uganda and other countries, the World Bank has decided not to adopt SWAps and to fund HIV/AIDS mainstreaming separately. Experiences from Ghana provide ideas on how to institutionalise mainstreaming work by matching donor project funding with core sector budget support.
- There are few examples of attempts to measure progress towards HIV/AIDS mainstreaming. Some ideas for indicators are presented to support thinking in this area.
