IRIN HIV/AIDS Weekly - 145
Africa
5 September 2003


NEWS:

SWAZILAND: Feature - Business responds to AIDS challenge
KENYA: Corruption allegations plague AIDS body
SOUTHERN AFRICA: Local agricultural knowledge key to fighting HIV/AIDS and
food insecurity
AFRICA: Hospitals are getting worse - WHO
AFRICA: Activists sceptical over global drug agreement
AFRICA: EU coordinating €600 million for vaccine clinical trials
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: WFP distributes food to health centres,
HIV-infected
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: NGO receives US $500,000 for HIV prevention

LINKS

1. Website for HIV-positive women
2. Southern African Regional Poverty Network
3. HIV/AIDS Community Response Database
4. International HIV Treatment Access Coalition

CONFERENCES/EVENTS/RESEARCH RESOURCES

1. Home and Community Based Care conference
2. Botswana AIDS Research conference
3. Case Study of the MTV Staying Alive Campaign
4. International Students Conference on AIDS
5. "The Pop Reporter"

VACANCIES

1. HIV/AIDS Global Project Manager

NEWS

SWAZILAND: Feature - Business responds to AIDS challenge

Alarmed by the impact of AIDS on the workforce, Swaziland's business
community is taking the lead in providing health programmes to safeguard
workers and management.

"Businesses are understanding that it can't be left to government to find
a solution," Musa Hlope, former executive director of the Federation of
Swaziland Employers (FSE) told PlusNews.

By studying how individual firms are promoting the AIDS awareness message,
and managing solutions, Swazi businesses have become proactive, after
initially appearing to be overwhelmed by the pandemic.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2464

KENYA: Corruption allegations plague AIDS body

Kenya's AIDS NGOs are hoping that recent allegations of corruption and
misappropriation in Kenya's National AIDS Control Council (NACC) will not
affect the country's AIDS programmes and funding.

The council's director, Dr Margaret Gachara, was suspended after she
obtained an inflated salary by "improper" means, NACC spokesman Kassim
Mambo, told PlusNews. The country's HIV/AIDS coordinating body is also
under investigation after being accused of mishandling money.

"She (Gachara) used fake documents to negotiate her salary. We [NACC]
don't have official information about how much it was, but what has been
reported in the papers is that it was about US $27,000 [per month],
compared with the normal director's salary of US $4,000 per month," Mambo
said.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2452

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Local agricultural knowledge key to fighting HIV/AIDS and
food insecurity

The explosive impact of HIV/AIDS on food security in Africa is now well
recognised. But little has been done to empower rural communities with
local resources to cope with this crisis, a report has found.

"The tendency is for donors and NGOs to merely assist by providing aid.
While this is needed, people also have the capacities to cope, and their
approaches are sometimes more tangible. Sometimes aid and [agricultural]
policies don't reach the most vulnerable," Josep Gari, author of the
report commissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), told
PlusNews.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2469

AFRICA: Hospitals are getting worse - WHO

Shortages of essential medicines and medical equipment, a staffing crisis
and inadequate infrastructure are undermining the quality of hospital care
across sub-Saharan Africa.

This could jeopardise plans to provide anti-AIDS drugs to people living
with the HI virus, delegates attending the World Health Organisation (WHO)
regional committee meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, heard this week.

According to a report presented at the WHO meeting, hospitals in Africa
are "getting worse in terms of both the scope and quality of health care
they provide" - despite receiving a "significant" portion of public
resources.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2463

AFRICA: Activists sceptical over global drug agreement

After two years of wrangling and delays, World Trade Organisation (WTO)
members last week finally agreed on a deal that eases access to generic
drugs for developing countries.

It will enable poorer countries to import generic versions of patented
medicines from countries producing the cheaper drugs, such as India or
Brazil, without violating patent rules.

Yet AIDS activists have called the agreement "flawed", as it still does
not provide a "workable solution".

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2455

AFRICA: EU coordinating €600 million for vaccine clinical trials

The EU is leading a programme to accumulate €600 million for clinical
trials in Africa that will conduct research and development on possible
vaccines for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

The programme, known as the Europe-Developing Countries Clinical Trials
Partnership (EDCTP), intends linking national clinical research programmes
from across Europe with scientists working in developing countries, mostly
in Africa, to develop new drugs.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2453

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: WFP distributes food to health centres,
HIV-infected

HIV-infected and -affected people as well as health and nutritional
centres in the Central African Republic have started receiving relief aid
from the UN World Food Programme, a senior official told PlusNews on
Tuesday.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2456

NGO receives US $500,000 for HIV prevention

A Japanese NGO, Amis d'Afrique, has received US $500,000 from the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation to support an HIV education and prevention
project in the Central African Republic, the director of the NGO, Mizuko
Tokunaga, told PlusNews on Tuesday.

Tokunaga said the funds would be used over a five-year period for HIV
education, seminars on HIV prevention, and the training of community
animators in the southern provinces of Ombella Mpoko and Lobaye, with a
combined population of 549,708. Tokunaga said the education segment of the
programme would start next week.

More details:
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=2458


LINKS

1. The Well Project, an initiative designed by and for women living with
HIV/AIDS, this week launched a new website aimed to fulfil the need for an
online, comprehensive, woman-specific HIV resource. The site offers the
latest information on living with, and managing HIV for, HIV-positive
women, health care providers, and advocates.

TheWellProject.com includes fact sheets, data sets, summary slides, a
searchable clinical trials database, a resource directory and a physician
network for expert discussion on treatment. Members will be able to
participate in confidential and secure discussion boards, read about real
people living with and successfully managing HIV, download advocacy tools,
and receive a regular email newsletter highlighting the most up-to-date
information about women and HIV.
http://www.thewellproject.com

2. The Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN) website is
dedicated to showcasing the voices of Southern Africans on poverty issues
and has recently been updated with a whole host of new documents covering
children, HIV/AIDS, land, microfinance, social security and corporate
social responsibility.
http://www.sarpn.org.za/

3. HIV/AIDS Community Response Database is an online searchable database
of grassroots programmes throughout the world, serving children affected,
infected, and orphaned by HIV/AIDS. The database is a project of the
Children's AIDS Fund and The Pendulum Project.
http://www.childrensaidsfund.org/cmdb/index.htm

4. The International HIV Treatment Access Coalition includes people living
with HIV/AIDS and their advocates, NGOs, governments, foundations, the
private sector, and academic and research institutions working to expand
access to HIV treatment to the growing number of people living with
HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries by disseminating and
exchanging information.
http://www.itacoalition.org/


CONFERENCES/EVENTS/RESEARCH RESOURCES

1. The conference secretariat of the 6th International Conference on Home
and Community Based Care (HCC) for People Living with HIV/AIDS, to be held
in Dakar, Senegal, from 8 to 11 December 2003, has announced an extension
of the scholarship and abstract submission deadlines.

They have both been extended to September 15, 2003. Abstract and
scholarship submission forms are available at:
http://www.dakarvih2003.sn/anglais/aregistration.html

For more information:
Conference Secretariat Dakar VIH 2003
Coordinator: Mme. Magatte Mbodj
BP 28461, Dakar-Médina, Senegal
Tel: +221 842 4755
Fax: +221 842 2951
Email: mailto:cipeccvihdak@sentoo.sn
http://www.dakarvih2003.sn

2. Botswana's AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA), in collaboration with all
stakeholders and developmental partners, will be hosting the country's
first national HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections and other related
infectious diseases research conference (NHASORC 2003). This will take
place from 7 to 12 December 2003 in the capital, Gaborone.

The main aim of NHASORC 2003 is to provide a platform for sharing research
data and experience by scientists that have done, or are currently
intending to do, HIV/AIDS research in or about Botswana. NHASORC 2003 will
identify research gaps and impediments to research implementation. NHASORC
2003 will also be used as a framework for streamlining national research
priorities and determining dissemination modalities, in line with the
country's National Strategic Framework (2003-2009).

Researchers are invited to submit their abstracts and participate in the
conference. Interested national, regional and international individuals or
groups that would like to hold skills building workshops, pre-conference
and /or satellite meetings are also invited to submit their proposals.

For more details: www.naca.gov.bw/nhasorc
NHASORC 2003
NACA P/bag 00463
Gaborone, Botswana
Tel: +267- 3903188/3904083/3903185
Fax: +267 3903273/3170960
Email: nacaemail@gov.bw or bmonare@gov.bw or cosborne@unicef.org

3. Since 2002, YouthNet - a programme coordinated by Family Health
International - has partnered with MTV on the Staying Alive campaign,
which reached over 800 million households worldwide, making it the largest
public health campaign ever. The campaign produced five hours of
television available to TV and radio stations around the world, and also
produced a website with HIV/AIDS information, referrals, and programming
in English, French, and Spanish.

A case study was recently published by YouthNet, detailing the successes
and experiences of the 2002 Staying Alive campaign.
http://www.fhi.org/en/Youth/YouthNet/ProgramsAreas/MediaInterventions/index.htm

4. The first International Students Conference on AIDS (ISCA) is taking
place from 2 to 6 February 2004 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with the theme
"Youth: Force for Change". The conference's primary target is tertiary
students but anyone can register to participate. The meeting will provide
a platform for the exchange and sharing of knowledge and experience about
HIV/AIDS among students.

For more information:
Hamisi Andrea Kigwangalla
Chairman, International Steering Committee, ISCA
PO BOX 65007
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Tel: +255-744-636-963
Email: mailto:hamisi75@yahoo.com

5. "The Pop Reporter", the INFO Project's weekly newsletter for the
world's reproductive health care professionals, has launched a new
customised edition. This feature allows subscribers to customise their
subscriptions, tailoring issues to both topic and delivery preferences.
Now subscribers may choose from more reproductive health themes such as:

- Family Planning/Reproductive Health Research and News
- HIV/AIDS Research and News
- Maternal and Child Health Research and News
- Men's Health Research and News
- Population Research and News
- Women's Health Research and News
- Youth Health Research and News

Issues may be delivered in pdf file attachment; html file attachment; a
plain text email; and an email notification with a web link to your
customised issue. Sign up for the new Pop Reporter:
http://prds.infoforhealth.org/signup.php


VACANCIES

1. Oxfam Great Britain is an international development agency with a
Southern African office based in Pretoria, South Africa. The organisation
is looking to appoint an HIV/AIDS global project manager to provide
leadership, to project manage the implementation of Oxfam's global
HIV/AIDS strategy, and to establish the Centre of Learning on HIV/AIDS in
the Southern African region.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Project-manage the corporate HIV/AIDS strategy, with full attention to
issues of gender and other aspects of diversity, with particular emphasis
on mainstreaming in Oxfam's development and humanitarian programmes.
- Develop the Southern African region as Oxfam's first Centre of Learning.
- Lead on advocacy and communications within the global HIV/AIDS team.
- Develop a programme and systems for knowledge management for Oxfam in
the HIV/AIDS field.

REQUIREMENTS:

- Appropriate academic qualifications and a sound knowledge of HIV/AIDS
issues, especially as they relate to international development policy and
practice.
- Proven strategic project management experience, and excellent
conceptual, analytical and critical thinking abilities.
- An understanding of mainstreaming issues, and experience in providing
advisory support to senior managers, as well as the ability to communicate
effectively in English.

This is an open-ended contract post offering a competitive salary
commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Interested candidates should fax or email CV's by Friday 12 September 2003
to:
ACTION APPOINTMENTS.
Fax: +27 11 339 6584
Email: actionapp@icon.co.za


IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 880-4633
Fax: +27 11 447-5472
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za

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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003


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