Alliance to showcase African success stories at ICASA 2008
25 November 2008
The Alliance will showcase its work with communities all over Africa at the 15th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa, to be held from 3 - 7 December in Dakar, Senegal. As well as sharing its experience and learning, the Alliance will also be there to ensure the voice of communities is heard by donors and policymakers in attendance.
The Alliance will be launching a joint Alliance/Global Fund/UNAIDS publication on African civil society responses at the conference. ‘Civil society success on the ground’ uses nine case studies to illustrate the importance of community systems strengthening to HIV responses, and the different models that can be adopted. The report builds on a joint Alliance/Department for International Development (DFID)regional meeting held in South Africa at the end of 2007. It’s hoped that the publication will help to increase the level of Global Fund resources channelled to scale up community-based organisations and civil society-led service delivery – by the inclusion of these components in future Global Fund rounds.
The Alliance also has the opportunity to make its voice heard at a consultative meeting on the Programme for Action, to be held on 6 December at the conference. The Programme for Action is a joint European Commission / European Union Member State strategy to confront HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB in developing countries during the period 2007 – 2011.
Other key Alliance events include a plenary session on leadership and community involvement in HIV responses, led by Milly Katana, director of Alliance Uganda, who will discuss models that work in Africa. There will also be an oral presentation on strengthening the capacities of men who have sex with men in HIV prevention in Morocco, and skills-building sessions on developing tools to tackle HIV stigma and discrimination.
There is also a strong community component to the conference this year, and the community programme is being co-chaired by Magatte Mbodj, executive director of Alliance linking organisation Alliance Nationale Contre le Sida (ANCS) in Senegal. Areas such as the community convergence space in the community programme will provide a great opportunity for open discussion of key issues faced by community responses. There will also be daily lunchtime discussions with representatives from financial institutions, the United Nations, and the scientific community.
Please see the ICASA 2008 website for full details of the conference.
