SPAN coordinates a HIV/AIDS
– Environment Working Group
(HEWG) with participation from
MET, UNDP, UNAIDS, national
NGOs and Namibia's Ministry
of Health.
SPAN tackles staff health
with HIV/AIDS initiatives
Namibia’s HIV/AIDS pandemic threatens the entire social and economic fabric of the country, including its capacity for environmental management. Lack of management capacity and ineffective workforce problems are compounded by the high mortality and morbidity rates among protected area staff from HIV/AIDS related illnesses.
Namibia is ranked fifth in the world in terms of HIV/AIDS prevalence, with an overall rate of over 20 percent among the adult population with much higher localized rates. Average life expectancy dropped from 59 to 48 years for men over the 1990s, and 63 to 50 years for women due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The pandemic is a top government priority and, fully aware of the extent of HIV/AIDS problems within its system, Namibia’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) is planning an institutional HIV/AIDS policy that includes educational and well-being programmes for all its staff.
The GEF-funded Strengthening the Protected Area Network project (SPAN) is assisting MET by financing a study on the current impact of HIV/AIDS on PA management and the development of a plan for the PA service. Planned interventions include the placement of a field health worker for the PA who will coordinate confidential counseling, testing and health care programmes for individual parks. SPAN will also support a field-level staff HIV/AIDS sensitization programme.
SPAN places a high importance in addressing HIV/AIDS issue in PA management. It has established and is coordinating a HIV/AIDS – Environment Working Group (HEWG) with participation from MET, UNDP, UNAIDS, national NGOs and the Ministry of Health. This group has already been instrumental in identifying the need for, and commissioning, a study on the assessment of the linkages between HIV/AIDS and the environment, using parks as the entry point and is also developing funding proposals to cover the main HIV/AIDS project, which could be a transboundary initiative for Namibia and Botswana.
Developing an institutional HIV/AIDS and well-being programme will improve the welfare and morale of staff and decrease long-term infection rates. By providing access to health care centers and good health information by all staff, SPAN will have helped establish a model for government institutions with proactive HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation measures, which can be replicated by other sectors in the public service and used as a model for HIV/AIDS mainstreaming of government agencies.
The HIV/AIDS – Environment Working Group has already entered into a partnership understanding with similar stakeholders in Botswana. A number of appropriate products and processes used in Namibia are being replicated in Botswana.
An innovative approach to linking HIV/AIDS and the environment has been the Conservadom, a conservation-branded condom. This unusual communications tool was produced by the HIV/AIDS – Environment Working Group, along with more traditional materials such as brochures and posters.
Celebrating 100 years of conservation 
