Development and the HIV Epidemic: A forward-looking evaluation of the approach of the UNDP HIV and Development Programme

1. INTRODUCTION: THE UNDP HIV AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME AND THE SPECIAL PROGRAMME RESOURCES

UNDP's HIV and Development Programme is engaged in responding to the HIV epidemic using approaches consistent with the adoption of the development paradigm of sustainable human development (Banuri et al, 1994, p.21)1. It aims to build the capacity of people, communities and nations: building capacity to understand the ways in which the epidemic evolves through its interaction with human development, and the ways in which people can act in response to its causes and consequences.

 During the fifth UNDP programming cycle (1992-96), Special Programme Resources (SPR) were made available to enhance the relevance, impact and effectiveness of UNDP's technical cooperation programmes. These resources were to be used to improve current procedures for, and approaches to, programme and project design, implementation and evaluation; and for exploring new catalytic and innovative approaches to development. The HIV and Development Programme (HDP) was allocated $5m for the cycle, subsequently reduced to $3.5m².

 The HIV and Development Programme was established in January 1992 to provide policy guidance to the organisation on HIV-related personnel and substantive issues, to coordinate all activities undertaken by UNDP in this area and to provide programme support to UNDP country offices and other units. The Terms of Reference of the Programme are contained in Appendix 4.

 The establishment of the Programme was funded from UNDP's inter-regional programming resources, complemented by extra-budgetary support from the Netherlands, Australia and Norway. Since SPR funds could not be used for staff costs, the Programme has used extra-budgetary support, received in recent years from the United States of America and from Australia, for core costs: staff, communication, travel, translation and publications. The SPR was used to finance the activities undertaken and managed by this staff. This has been a constructive use of both sources of funding. The work of the Programme depends essentially on both sources of funds: without the capacity created by other sources of support, the Programme could not have used the SPR in the way it did. Therefore, although the stimulus for the evaluation came from the need to evaluate the use made of the SPR, the evaluation is of the approach of the Programme as a whole.

 The HDP used the SPR to explore and enhance understanding of the ways in which the principles and approaches of sustainable human development can be applied towards developing understanding of, and effective responses to, the HIV epidemic. Its approach was based on a set of related understandings about the nature of human development, the nature of the HIV epidemic and the role of UNDP.

 Based on these understandings, the HIV and Development Programme recognised that the HIV epidemic demands an urgent and effective response. However, the Programme recognised also that this response must take place in a context in which governments, development professionals and other agents of change find themselves facing new and highly complex phenomena. New knowledge and programming approaches are needed to develop effective responses to the multidimensional aspects of the epidemic. It was therefore decided to use the SPR resources to explore the possibilities of such knowledge and programming approaches.

 This was done through a series of interrelated activities which addressed key areas of focus using improved methods of development practice, working in collaboration with the people whose lives are affected, and the organisations which support them, and with other individuals and agencies, including UN agencies, interested in developing sustainable responses to the HIV epidemic.

 The approach used by the HDP recognised that the most effective responses would grow out of people's action within their own contexts: their own communities and their own countries. The approach was therefore based on capacity building, with an emphasis on the development of effective partnerships with those responding, in order to ground responses in people's shared experiences of the realities of the epidemic. The approach involved constant reflection based on the lives, dreams and hopes of those people struggling to respond.

 Within the framework of this approach, based on the principles of sustainable human development and recognising the collaborative role of UNDP, a central question which was constantly explored through the HDP in relationship with its partners was, "How can we, together, move forward?  

1. The term 'sustainable human development' is used here because it summarises the purpose and approaches of the new development paradigm which is emerging as a result of dissatisfaction with traditional methods of technical cooperation. Sustainable human development has been defined in UNDP discussion papers as, "...the enlargement of people's choices and capabilities through the formation of social capital so as to meet as equitably as possible the needs of current generations without compromising the needs of future ones" (Banuri et al, 1994, p.21).

 2. SPR allocations 'INT/92/400 - Minimising the impact of HIV on development', and 'INT/93/401 - Partnership programme to enhance national capacity to analayse and respond to the psychological, social and economic determinants and consequences of the HIV epidemic': these two allocations were evaluated simultaneously, and for the rest of this report are referred to as the singular, "SPR".