Welcoming the Civil Society HIV/AIDS Network in Nigeria (CiSHAN)
29 September 2008
After two years of collaboration and partnership with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, CiSHAN – a national network of civil society organisations working on HIV in Nigeria – has started the process of becoming a linking organisation of the Alliance. Welcome to the family!
A field review team from the Alliance visited Nigeria in August 2008 and assessed CISHAN against the essential criteria of the Alliance’s accreditation system. As a result of the successful evaluation, CISHAN is now eligible to sign an agreement to become a linking organisation.
"CiSHAN is so glad to be finally joining the Alliance family. This will increase our credibility and visibility internationally, and will bring networking and learning benefits," said Ayo Ipinmoye, CiSHAN's Executive Secretary. "The process of accreditation through a peer review was very helpful to us, and has allowed us to really develop our systems so that they become stronger."
CiSHAN was established in August 2000 and works through over 2,000 members and 72 community based organisations. It has a decentralised model of governance and project implementation and carries out work at the national, zonal and state levels. It has national coverage, with zonal offices in 12 states. The head office is in Abuja, led by Executive Secretary Ayo Ipinmoye.
CiSHAN’s vision is of a Nigerian society free of HIV and AIDS and all its social, political, economic and cultural consequences. CiSHAN is also committed to reversing current HIV trends by ensuring that the rights of those living with or affected by HIV are respected and people living with HIV are able to live a normal life.
CiSHAN’s target groups include people living with and affected by HIV, communities, families and vulnerable groups. Their projects have a wide scope and include care and support, prevention, stigma reduction, palliative care, voluntary counselling and testing, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, poverty alleviation/wealth creation, mainstreaming, gender and human rights, advocacy, resource development, programme development and management, capacity building and enhancement and community mobilization.
The Alliance’s accreditation system rigorously assesses Alliance members against high institutional and programmatic standards to improve their responses to HIV and their accountability to the communities they serve. The Alliance also uses the accreditation standards to assess organisations who seek to join the Alliance.
Also, congratulations to the China country office, which has become the first Alliance member organisation to be accredited.
The China country office took part in the piloting of the accreditation tools in February 2008. The China office was recently assessed against the final accreditation standards and the accreditation committee decided that the China Country Office be formally accredited to the Alliance.
