Halting the spread of HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS has a devastating impact on those who live with the virus as well as their families. The pandemic also has wide-ranging repercussions on all sectors of society and can damage the fabric of entire communities. When teachers die from HIV/AIDS, the children they used to educate lose out; when doctors and nurses fall ill, hospitals struggle to provide patients with the care they need; when parents die, their children are often left to fend for themselves and become vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.

The scale of the crisis points to a major development challenge. The number of people living with HIV globally has now reached an estimated 40.3 million. In 2005, 3.1 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses; of these, more than 500,000 were children. Even though there is evidence that rates of infection have decreased in certain countries (including Kenya, Zimbabwe, and some countries in the Caribbean), overall trends in HIV transmission are still increasing. As a trusted development partner, and co-sponsor of UNAIDS, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNDP works to prevent the spread of the virus and reduce its impact. We help countries put HIV/AIDS at the centre of national poverty reduction strategies, we promote coordinated and effective responses to the pandemic and we help countries develop the capacity to protect the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS.

In sub-Saharan Africa, where the pandemic has taken its worst toll, HIV is claiming the lives of society’s most productive members—farmers, doctors, teachers, civil servants, scientists and agriculture workers. A strategy developed by UNDP—the Southern Africa Capacity Initiative (SACI)—aims to help Southern African countries address the impact of capacity erosion in key sectors, including public services, agriculture, health, education and the private sector. This $42 million initiative helps governments to develop policies that respond effectively to the unique challenges of providing services in the HIV/AIDS era—developing leadership capacity and skills, and empowering institutions to continue functioning and delivering services. We also help countries cope with the loss of skilled public sector workers by expanding training opportunities and laying the foundations for long-term human resources strategies.

In Botswana, SACI helped the Directorate of Public Service Management improve the efficiency of human resources management by cutting red tape and simplifying lines of reporting. A similar approach was adopted in South Africa to identify bottlenecks and take remedial action in the KwaZulu Natal and Limpopo health sectors. Increased efficiency in record-keeping and scheduling led to significant reductions of hospital waiting times. In Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia, SACI helped governments seize information and communication technology opportunities and assessed the challenges presented by e-governance to improve service delivery in the public sector. SACI is also benefiting from UNDP’s corporate partnership with Microsoft through the recently established Shared Solution Network portal, which facilitates knowledge sharing among various key stakeholders. The SACI framework has been adopted by the UN Regional Team as a key capacity development tool that could be used by several UN agencies. Other African countries are now looking to join this initiative.

In Asia—where the number of people living with HIV/AIDS rose from 7.1 million in 2003 to 8.3 million in 2005—a flagship UNDP capacity development programme, Leadership for Results, has made a measurable impact on the fight against HIV/AIDS. In China, the programme helped transform institutional structures by giving officials the tools to coordinate HIV/AIDS policy more effectively among different government departments. The programme supported efforts to promote greater openness about HIV/AIDS, more widespread education about the epidemic, and increased tolerance for people living with the virus. In the city of Xintai, in the Shandong province, a successful initiative was developed to spread awareness about the pandemic, reach out to vulnerable groups and provide support for HIV-positive individuals. These efforts are all the more important given that knowledge about HIV/AIDS and the way it is transmitted remains limited in China, particularly among the rural population and migrant workers. A joint initiative between UNDP and the China-based EPIN Technologies, a leading player in the country’s new media industry, contributed to raising awareness about HIV/AIDS by showing education clips onboard trains in China. By using EPIN’s plasma advertisement outlets, this campaign will reach millions of passengers, highlighting the basic facts about HIV and the need to treat those living with the virus with respect and tolerance.

One of the main hurdles in the fight against HIV/AIDS is the stigma and discrimination suffered by those who live with HIV. Fear of rejection often prevents people from seeking medical help and support services. Moreover, the threat of stigmatization stops people at risk from getting tested, thus hampering efforts to halt the spread of the virus. In Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP used its Leadership for Results programme to launch a number of sensitization initiatives. In the Dominican Republic, for instance, our efforts focused on helping to tackle the spread of HIV/AIDS among the armed forces—a highly vulnerable group. We supported the establishment of a Network of Military Educators, the first of its kind, to help promote understanding and tolerance for those who live with HIV/AIDS among officials and recruits. Building on this success, UNDP also worked with a large group of people living with the virus to improve their leadership capacities and help them negotiate effectively with government officials and service providers. The training we provided gave them the tools and skills needed to have a significant impact within their communities and help bring about a change in attitudes towards the epidemic.

In November 2005, UNDP trained 30 leaders of HIV/AIDS groups in the Dominican Republic to help strengthen their skills in promoting greater tolerance towards people living with HIV within their communities.

In the Arab region, UNDP has been working closely with governments, civil society and religious groups to increase awareness about HIV/AIDS and build leadership to break the stigma associated with the virus. In collaboration with UNAIDS, UNDP mobilized religious leaders from the Arab region to speak out about HIV/AIDS. As a result, in December 2004, more than 80 key religious figures from 18 Arab countries signed the ‘Cairo Declaration’ calling for solidarity with those who live with HIV. Since then, five sub-regional workshops have been held to help religious leaders gain a better understanding of the reality of HIV/AIDS in the region and its impact on communities. According to Sheikh Tuhamy Ragy, senior Muslim religious leader in Morocco, “After my participation, I immediately started to contact Imams and Ullama and formed ‘rings’ to train them on HIV/AIDS work. Each ring has 10 major leaders. Tens of thousands listen to the messages of these leaders each week. We faced difficulties; leaders were hesitant to speak about these issues…but we used references from the Koran and gradually the silence is breaking down and the leaders are catching the vision.”

The HIV/AIDS pandemic represents a significant threat to development, stability and growth prospects in many countries. The level of funding mobilized to meet this challenge must therefore be proportionate to the magnitude of the crisis. One of the principal resources for large-scale HIV/AIDS programmes on prevention, treatment and care is the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Using its broad-ranging experience in fund management and procurement, UNDP is responsible for the implementation of projects financed by the Global Fund in 26 countries around the world. In Belarus, for instance, we helped secure a $6.8 million grant from the Global Fund to support prevention initiatives among drug users, commercial sex workers and prisoners. In 2005, UNDP began training over 500 outreach workers and specialists, who will, for the first time, provide advice and support to thousands of young people whose lives have been shattered by the use of drugs. UNDP is also addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS in prisons through the training of 1,800 medical personnel and volunteers who offer counseling, care and support to prisoners. This is one of many large-scale projects financed by the Global Fund in which UNDP has been working closely with governments to develop national capacities to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS.