NGO support toolkit (English)  >  Technical support 

HIV/AIDS themes

Organisations involved in the HIV/AIDS response need HIV-related technical support, to ensure they keep in touch with new and changing ways of working. This should encourage the more efficient use of scarce resources and allow organisations to move from initial responses to more developed and sustainable responses. There is also the need to strengthen the voice of NGOs and CBOs in the context of an increasingly professionalised global response, which can only happen if good practice is constantly being updated for community organisations working in the field.

Community organisations may need specific technical support in codifying their organisational knowledge and capturing learning within the organisation. This will help ensure there is consistency of approach amongst all staff and volunteers. In particular this will help NGOs and CBOs which are diversifying and developing new and unfamiliar programmes of work.

HIV-related technical support should begin with a thorough assessment of existing knowledge and understanding in different NGOs and CBOs. Such an assessment should include looking at self-identified gaps, deficits and aspirations in knowledge or understanding. In addition, one might find weaknesses in methods which the organisations are unaware of. Technical support providers should also consider the needs an organisation may have when preparing for unfamiliar areas of work, for example with new communities or new types of activity, or when an organisation is scaling up its work.

An ever expanding range of HIV-related topics are now being included in community responses. Priorities will depend on the capacity and capability assessment, but can be grouped under prevention, care and impact mitigation;

Themes where technical support in HIV prevention might be needed include:

• epidemiology and vulnerable groups
• realities and misconceptions about transmission and prevention
• obstacles to the adoption of HIV prevention methods
• sexually transmitted infections management

Themes in HIV care might include:

• access to treatment
• linking HIV with other locally relevant aspects of the healthcare system, e.g. tuberculosis
• community care and support

Themes in impact alleviation might include:

• orphans and vulnerable children
• responding to stigma and discrimination

Themes in relation to working with particular vulnerable groups and communities might include:

• sex work
• harm minimisation for drug users
• sensitivity to gender, sexuality and the specific needs of women and girls
• men who have sex with men

Themes in relation to methodologies might include:

• working with marginalised and hard-to-reach groups.
• information, education and communications
• achieving community participation
• peer education and other methodologies
• materials development
• the involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS.

NSPs may need to support organisational learning in very different ways depending on the different situations and different levels of experience of particular NGOs and CBOs. For example, detailed technical information is just as important as broad conceptual learning. Local good practice may be more relevant and accurate than international models of best practice, or may actually be out of date when compared with international evidence. Technical support providers will have to achieve a balance between addressing the full range of complex issues to an NGO or CBO, and the need to avoid overloading it with too much unfamiliar information too quickly

Issues to consider

• NGOs and CBOs may have encountered radically different models of what constitutes effective HIV prevention or comprehensive social care from different kinds of donor and state agencies.
• It is important that NSP technical support providers themselves have a good understanding of HIV/AIDS before they provide technical support to partner organisations.
• NSPs need to emphasise in their technical support the linkages between themes – for example, between prevention and care work.
• The dynamic nature of the epidemic means that knowledge, technologies and treatments for HIV are constantly increasing and changing. It is essential that NSPs keep abreast of developments to ensure that their technical support is up-to-date and relevant. NSPs need to make sure that they have good access to quality information, keep a constant, two-way flow of information to and from their partners, and maintain internal processes for information exchange amongst staff.

• Send to a friend
• Printer-friendly