How Communities Perceive HIV/AIDS Donor Funding
In the past decade global health resources focused on HIV/AIDS have increased dramatically. To date there is limited information on what impacts these investments have had on communities affected by HIV and AIDS, how local groups access these resources or how these funds have shaped their responses.
To explore this issue, a study titled Aid for AIDS was conducted in three African countries; namely, Kenya, Malawi and Zambia to find out how community groups perceive and respond to the funding environment for HIV/AIDS. In Kenya, the study was conducted in Nairobi and Nakuru. The results show that while access to services and resources has improved, aid for HIV/AIDS responses does not always support the provision of sustainable,linked up, empowering and holistic responses at community level. "For example, you come to me to concentrate on prevention and stick to prevention and not move from there, yet the community wants to integrate these with programmes that target orphaned and vulnerable children. In such a case, the programme can’t help the community because it does not take into account the community’s needs," points out one local programme manager of a youth organisation in Nakuru, Kenya.
The analysis is based on structured in-depth interviews with a wide range of stakeholders drawn from: local community members, community groups and organisations, local government employees, national civil society organisations, national government officials, international donor agency officials and staff of international NGOs. The communities noted that they often have to adapt and shift to fit the funding priorities of donors or their intermediaries. As a result, they are at times unable to implement the programmes that they think would be most appropriate. Further, marginalized groups, such as sex workers and men who have sex with men, are often excluded from the HIV/AIDS response, or feel they have little voice in programme strategies. Many community organisations do not feel fully involved during the priority setting process for allocating HIV/AIDS funds.
These and other preliminary findings from the research project will be shared with stakeholders at a consultative meeting to discuss potential policy implications of the findings. The meeting will be held on Friday, December 4 2009, 9.30 am– 4.00pm at Holiday Inn Hotel, Royal Palm Hall, Westlands, Nairobi.
‘Aid for AIDS’ is a research project organised by Institute of Development Studies (IDS, UK), The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), the Institute of Economic and Social Research (INESOR) of the University of Zambia and the Research for Equity and Community Health (REACH) Trust (Malawi). This is an independent three-country research project, financially supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Researchers from Aid for AIDS are available for interview. For more details about the
research project or the consultative meeting contact:
Dr George Mgomella
Research Officer
African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)
Shelter Afrique Center, Longonot Road, Upper Hill
P.O. Box 10787-00100 GPO
Nairobi , Kenya
Tel.(Office) +254 20 2720 400/1/2;
Email:info@aphrc.org
Web: www.aphrc.org
Promoting the Well-being of Africans through policy-relevant research on population and health
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