HIV/AIDS : a crucial part of cinfo’s predeparture training

HIV/AIDS challenges who we are and what we do as development workers. For international cooperation, HIV/AIDS has become a significant factor in all countries and a challenge to all programmes, be they long term or short term programmes. In certain countries, where the prevalence is particularly high, HIV/AIDS has caused a huge setback in economic development and demands new, courageous, and creative approaches to face the challenges.

In their article called “HIV/AIDS: background information for international cooperation”, (2003) Drs Clara Thierfelder and Claudia Kessler Bodiang recall the facts:

“In December 2003, the number of persons living with HIV/AIDS worldwide was estimated at 40 million…More than 95% of all HIV infected persons live in developing countries.
Beyond the individual and national dimension, the HIV/AIDS epidemic has become a global development threat. It impacts dramatically on the young and productive generation.
In heavily affected countries, HIV/AIDS does not only greatly challenge already weak health systems, but threatens equally the social and economic development. Decades of investments and progress reached are being lost due to the impact of the AIDS epidemic… Particularly young, economically productive men and women are dying of AIDS. This explains the dramatic consequences on the social, political and economic stability of the most affected countries. Negative developments are expected for years and decades to come. Projections warn of a reduction of the Gross Development Product of up to 40% over the next 20 years in those countries, where more than 10% of the general population are HIV infected.”

The reason why cinfo designed a new predeparture workshop dealing with HIV/AIDS.

As a platform offering pre-departure and re-entry services for professionals in the field of international cooperation, cinfo is in contact with many future or returning expatriates. Over the recent years, a growing number of them have shared their difficulty in dealing with HIV/AIDS during their missions, at personal, social, professional and intercultural levels. The nature and the intensity of these challenges is usually unexpected, and expatriate staff, as well as their accompanying partners, do often feel unprepared to cope with these challenges. HIV/AIDS challenges the appropriateness of their work and their perception of their role. Furthermore, HIV/AIDS raises enormous intercultural issues: the way one talks – or does not talk- about HIV/AIDS and related issues changes from culture to culture.

Most organisations who offer pre-departure trainings do now include HIV/AIDS in their programme. The points addressed in these programmes usually range from providing information on HIV/AIDS and its impact in the country of destination, to the expatriate’s personal protection and health, and when available, a briefing on the organisation’s HIV/AIDS policy. But little seemed to exist to address specifically the HIV/AIDS related issues expatriates will be faced with.

Within this context, cinfo has designed a specialised programme that picks up three crucial elements to enable development workers to be effective implementers of development programmes, taking into account the central dimension of HIV/AIDS and the new policies the pandemic requires. Indeed, it is one thing to know the theories and policies, but it is another to be skilled to handle HIV/AIDS in a culturally sensitive way, as a honest development partner, and/or as a sexually active person.

The content of the workshop

First, the programme addresses the human element, namely “How do I as an individual from within my culture cope with being effective and human in the face of the demands that HIV/AIDS will make on me?” This involves taking the time to reflect on the challenges HIV/AIDS presents to one’s own values and beliefs. For example, how do I feel about my child being cared for by someone with HIV/AIDS? How do I handle demands of various kinds that will be made on me by close friends and colleagues whose family members will be struggling with the virus? How do I tell a colleague that the organisation’s health policy only covers the 3 children he has fathered in wedlock and not the other 2 out of wedlock or his brother’s 3 who live with him? How do I cope with regulations and policies that have been developed in my culture and do not work in another culture?

Second, the programme raises awareness of the need to change the way of thinking when designing development responses in an HIV/AIDS affected environment. This includes the imperative to mainstream HIV/AIDS in all programmes. And very importantly, it requires analyzing the interlinking social, economic and political impact, visualizing the medium to long term consequences, and labelling the shifts that are required in each social system to accommodate the impact. This is the first step towards ‘mitigation planning’.

Third, the challenges and complexities of intercultural communication are addressed within an AIDS impacted environment. How do expatriates and friends and/or colleagues from the host country bridge cultural differences, in terms of perception, ways of communicating, attitudes, and values? Simulations and case studies invite participants to reflect on their own challenges in a very concrete and real way.

The workshop facilitators have developed and tested tools that help take participants through a reflective and analytical process complemented by case studies taken from real situations. The workshop also analyses real scenarios to help participants be open to the complexities of mitigation development planning and to help them become a significant change agent.


Participants of the workshop

The workshop is designed first and foremost for professionals preparing for expatriation with an organisation of international cooperation, be it long-term cooperation or humanitarian aid. It is open to the expatriates who hold the contract as well as their accompanying partner. Programme officers working at head office and attending the workshop will discover concepts and tools that will help them shift their role in accompanying and supporting projects in regions with high HIV/AIDS prevalence, as well as some signposts for countries where the prevalence is still low among the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in the society.


To come to this workshop is to give yourself time to think about yourself and how you are going to cope when HIV/AIDS touches your life and challenges your deeply held values, beliefs and attitudes.