Read this article in:
13 October, 2006October 2006
ICEM Workshop on Peer Education
Peer Education was the central topic of the 3rd Regional Workshop for national coordinators, which was held in Johannesburg from 6 to 8 September 2006. Participants from ten sub-Saharan African countries acquired the necessary skills as peer educators and, in turn, train peer educators from ICEM affiliates in their own countries.
National coordinators identified key functions for peer educators, the core contents of a peer educators’ programme, the qualities and skills required by peer educators, the sustainability of programmes and the role of unions in peer education.
The ILO draft toolkit on behaviour change communication was an important tool in the workshop. Participants received the CD-Rom of this seven-part toolkit which provides essential resources on developing programmes.
National coordinators also reviewed progress on activities since the 2nd Regional Workshop, in November 2005, and agreed to forward information on workplace policies and collective agreements with HIV/AIDS clauses to the Regional Coordinator in order to compile a best practice guide.
For the remainder of the year, national programmes are planned in the participating countries. The 4th and final regional workshop in the present project cycle will be held in Johannesburg from 4 to 7 December, focussing on accessing external funding sources at national level and the writing of project proposals.
(Source: Report Regional Coordinator)
Gates Foundation Supports the Global Fund – Advocates Empowerment of Women
Shortly before the International AIDS Conference took place in Toronto in August, the Gates Foundation announced that it would give USD 500 million to the Global Fund over the years 2006-2010, at a rate of USD 100 million per year. This is a significant increase from the USD 150 million that the foundation gave over the four years 2002-2005.
At the opening night of the Toronto Conference, Bill Gates called the Global Fund “a fantastic vehicle for scaling up treatment and prevention”. He went on to say that
“Right now, one of the most widely practiced approaches to prevention is the ABC Program, or Abstain, Be faithful, use Condoms. This approach has saved many lives and we should expand it. But for many at the highest risk of infection, ABC has its limits. Abstinence is not often an option for poor women and girls who have no choice but to marry at an early age. Being faithful will not protect the woman whose partner is not faithful. Using condoms is not a decision that a woman can make by herself. It depends on a man. We need to put the power to prevent HIV in the hands of women.
So we need tools that will allow women to protect themselves. This is true whether the woman is the faithful, married mother of small children or a sex worker trying to scrape out a living in a slum. No matter where she lives, who she is or what she does, a woman should never need her partner’s permission to save her own life. To be clear, as we discover and distribute preventative tools that women can use without a man’s cooperation, we are not excusing men from their obligations to be responsible and to protect their partners. We’re just reducing the consequences to women if they don’t.”
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation received some USD 31 billion from Warren Buffet, which brings its total assets to around USD 60 billion.
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 63, 19 September – GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org)
TAC Day of Action – Call for Minister of Health to Resign
A Day of Action on 24 August, called for by South Africa’s Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), was marked by protests in cities throughout the country, as well as at several South African embassies, calling for the resignation of Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
The Global AIDS Alliance stated that “For many years an effective response to the HIV/AIDS crisis was hampered by disastrous pseudo-scientific policies. South Africa has the knowledge, the skills and the resources to be in the forefront of the fight against the pandemic.”
With a prevalence rate of close to 20 percent, around 5.5 million people are living with HIV/AIDS; more than 800 are dying every day. This is in the first place an avoidable human tragedy. But it is also affecting the investment climate in the country, with foreign companies increasingly being concerned about the impact of HIV/AIDS.
(Source: TAC Press Release, 20 August and Press Release Global AIDS Alliance, 23 August)
Roche Transfers Know-How for Generic Production
The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche has granted a cost-free licence to three African generic producers – two in Kenya and one in South Africa – to produce a generic version of its AIDS drug Sequinavir. The drug is used in second-line treatment when resistance to first-line treatment has been developed.
(Source Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 23-24 September 2006)
Namibia Up-scales ART
The Namibian government expects to treat more than 30,000 HIV-positive people with antiretroviral drugs by the beginning of 2007. This will cover about 58 per cent of those requiring treatment. Under Namibia’s treatment programme, which started in 2003, the number of deaths from AIDS-related illnesses has dropped from 3,627 in 2004 to 3,230 in 2005. 90 per cent of the people who have been receiving ARVs since the programme started in 2003 are still alive.
The procurement of ARVs is mainly financed by PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. According to the WHO, Namibia is among the top countries to provide ARVs.
(Source: Global Fund Website reprinted with permission from the Kaiser Family Foundation and GlobalHealthReporting.org)
Jamaica: Business Joins the Fight against HIV/AIDS
19 private-sector companies committed to join the fight against HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination at the workplace, during the launch of the Jamaica Business Council on HIV/AIDS. The Council’s mission also includes prevention and treatment strategies for the workplace. USAID and pharmaceutical company Merck provided USD 100,000 to set up the Council. No mention is made of the role of unions to fight HIV/AIDS at the workplace.
About 25,000 Jamaicans are living with HIV/AIDS, equivalent to a prevalence rate of 1.5 per cent.
(Source: The Jamaica Observer, 22 September)
Global Fund Considers Grant Requests
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has announced that its Technical Review Panel has recommended 85 requests for funding, worth a total of USD 949 million over the first two years of the grant period. This represent 43 per cent of all eligible proposals received by the Global Fund for the 6th Round, for which the deadline was 3 August.
At present, only about USD 650 million is available for Round 6 grants. Proposals worth this amount will most likely be approved by the Board Meeting at the end of October, with the remaining USD 300 million worth of proposals being approved after adequate pledges are received in 2006 or 2007.
(Source: Global Fund Observer Issue 64, 10 October – GFO is a free service of Aidspan www.aidspan.org)