This report from Support to the International Partnership against AIDS in Africa (SIPAA) examines the lessons drawn from SIPAA’s own work between 2002 and 2005. Although SIPAA faced difficulties in tackling local bureaucracies and achieving recognition in certain areas, it also made some real achievements. Its experiences have reinforced the importance of listening to people living with HIV/AIDS, maximising local resources, forming inter-African networks and supporting local leaders and National AIDS councils (NACs) with long-term partnerships.
SIPAA was a three-year programme funded by the Department of International Development to foster co-ordination between the responses of national, regional and local African groups to HIV/AIDS. Operating in nine countries, SIPAA’s overall objective was to reduce poverty in Africa by lessening the impact of HIV/AIDS.
It advocated an African-driven approach, employing an entirely African staff to work strategically within the National AIDS Council (NAC) government agencies. Its specific aims were three-fold: enhance each country’s response to HIV/AIDS, use the links between HIV, AIDS and poverty to inform policy and improve each country’s monitoring of its HIV/AIDS response.
SIPAA’s experiences have generated several broad lessons:
- SIPAA’s support of smaller local organisations with great potential but little track record strengthened the response to HIV/AIDS at community level. This has allowed money to reach grassroots groups, and has built a bridge between the NACs and the local response.
- SIPAA’s decentralised approach to supporting local government, religious and civil society leaders effected change which is more likely to be locally accepted and sustainable. Supporting community leaders to find their own solutions encourages local ownership and reduces discrimination against individuals with HIV/AIDS.
- SIPAA was responsive to the different needs of each NAC by performing needs assessments from the outset and providing training and technical advice. Many NACs face difficulties with weak structures and rigid bureaucracies, but have an important role to play in coordinating the national response to HIV/AIDS.
There are various policy and practical implications:
- A national response should meaningfully involve people living with HIV/AIDS. Programmes should train people with HIV/AIDS in proposal writing and organisational management so that they can effect change at community or national level.
- Nationwide networks between people with HIV/AIDS encourage co-ordination in the national response and allow individuals’ voices to be heard. This can combat stigma and discrimination.
- It can be hard to encourage trust in partnerships, especially between donor and recipient groups. Transparency, communication, flexibility, complementarity and time can help build long-term partnerships.
- Identifying and using African skills and resources ensures an Africa-specific response to HIV/AIDS. Regional offices help to link up key areas in policy and practice, and provide a centre for recording achievements, mistakes and lessons learnt.
- Managing and sharing knowledge between African countries about good and bad practice in the response to HIV/AIDS is complex but important. SIPAA’s support of exchange visits encouraged the sharing of information and the engagement of politicians. There is still more to be done in collecting and transmitting grassroots experiences.
