Zambia

The Alliance has been working in Zambia since 1999 mobilising community responses on HIV by providing technical support, training, mentoring, and funding to community-based organisations (CBOs).

Adult HIV prevalence in Zambia is estimated to be 13.5% and there are over 690,000 orphans due to AIDS. Activities are implemented through local partners with a focus on:

• community mobilisation for integrated health services


• youth HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment


• sexual and reproductive health rights.

WHAT WE DO

Current projects

• The ‘Regional Youth Programme in Zambia, Malawi and Swaziland’, which aims to improve the sexual, reproductive and psychosocial health of young people (aged 10-24). Alliance Zambia supports the project’s implementing partners by building their organisational capacity through training and technical support.
  
  One of the programme’s approaches is to train traditional advisors about HIV and sexual health so that they can give accurate information to young people in their communities, you can read more in this case study. You can also read about how the programme is working to reach young people both in and out of school here.
  
  The programme is funded by Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) and will run from 2011-13.
  
• The Africa Regional Programme : Zambia: Emerging Voices  is a two-year project which aims to increase the uptake of integrated health services for female sex workers (FSW) aged 18-24 in Chipata District, Eastern Province, through a combination prevention approach. The programme is funded by the Swedish International Development Agency. 
  
  There is scarce country-level data on key populations (the groups that are vulnerable to or affected by HIV and AIDS) and limited programming. The programme is in line with the 2011 Prevention Convention on rolling out prevention interventions to FSW whose needs have been previously unmet. The project objectives include strengthening the evidence base, strengthening community and health systems in Chipata District and building the capacity of civil society to implement programming for both FSW and men who have sex with men (MSM).

Key achievements

• The Alliance has worked in Zambia since 1999. In 2005 a country office was established (Alliance Zambia) to manage a comprehensive portfolio that included the successful community treatment adherence programme known as ARV Community Education and Referral (ACER). By placing people living with HIV (PLHIV) at the heart of service delivery, ACER pioneered the Alliance’s renowned ‘expert patient’ model that informed future work in other countries such as the Uganda Networks Programme and Malawi BRIDGE project.  It was also integral to the Alliance’s Africa Regional Programme, renowned for its work tackling stigma and discrimination. By 2008 Alliance Zambia was reaching over 800,000 people a year. 
• From 2010-11, Alliance Zambia was an implementing partner of a UKAid funded project to reduce maternal mortality which reached over 100,000 people in Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda and Zambia. It aimed to mobilise communities, change policy and improve referrals of HIV positive women. Read more here.
• In 2013, the Alliance Zambia Country Office was closed due to a lack of significant new funding.  The projects listed above were transferred to the Southern Africa AIDS Trust in order to meet our ongoing commitments to implementing partners and the communities that they serve.  The Alliance secretariat remains committed to finding ways to continue to  contribute to the civil society response to HIV in Zambia.
• Read more about our annual achievements on our interactive map.