THE ELECTRONIC BULLETIN OF THE SWISS PLATFORM FOR HIV/AIDS AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION April 2008

At this year’s aidsfocus.ch-conference on the issue of „Aids and Livelihood“ it became very clear: Without strengthening the rights of women and children the goals of global poverty reduction will not be achieved!

Because as a rule, women usually are the ones who feel responsible for the food security of their children, who are tilling the fields for subsistence, and who pass on traditional knowledge about work in the fields. However, if the basics are taken away from them, as for example access to their own land, then the consequences are precarious for the entire African continent. The HIV/Aids crisis aggravates the fact that traditional customs do not grant women and children property rights leading to a disastrous increase of poverty. After having been raped by their own husbands and infected with Aids, the women are quite often blamed by the family of their husband to be responsible for his death – as a „punishment“ they are chased away from house and home. Who are left behind are poor, sick and despairing people marginalized from society hardly able to fight for their rights.

Fortunately enough, there are the other women who are no longer willing to put up with it, who rise and fight for their rights – such as the two representatives from women’s rights organisations from Kenya and Uganda who were present at the conference; since many years, they are committed to stop human rights violations against women and children; in questions of inheritance regulations they have already been able to achieve small successes. For them, “Empowerment“ is the most important key to success, women must be made aware of their rights, their self-esteem must be strengthened and with the support of networks they must be enabled to stand up for their rights themselves. In addition, they demand accelerated measures to expand and implement women’s rights to land and property as leverage for strengthening women and their status. In spite of small successes there is a long way ahead of them!

Please find a documentation of the Conference in this issue of aidsfocus.news.

Martina Staenke Collaborator aidsfocus.ch

The conferences on “AIDS and livelihoods. Securing property and inheritance rights” looked at the complex inter-relationships of HIV/AIDS, poverty and securing livelihoods in the countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The papers of the conference will be published in the reader, the Bulletin of Medicus Mundi Switzerland No 109. Additional papers with stories, experiences, discussions and reflections on the issue will complement the picture.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

aidsfocus.ch signed-on to the letter of the Berne Declaration to the Swiss Federal Counsil concerning the issuing of compulsory licences by the Thai government and actions by the Switzerland. “In particular, it must respect Thailand’s right to use the tools provided by the TRIPS Agreement, and to issue compulsory licences for public health. In sum, Switzerland must stop exercising pressure on Thailand to dissuade it from issuing compulsory licences.”

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) began providing antiretroviral therapy (ART) in 2000 and has today reached over 80,000 people in more than 30 countries. However, efforts to further increase access to treatment and maintain and improve quality of care are coming up against a wall due to the severe shortage of health workers. This is contributing to unnecessary illness and death.

The impact of the human resource crisis is witnessed by MSF across southern Africa, the epicentre of the AIDS pandemic. Further progress will not be possible unless certain national and international barriers are overcome.

http://www.msf.ch

This report from Kindernothilfe takes a close look at community based approaches, self-help groups and their ability to alleviate the burden of HIV/AIDS affected families and children.

The study on two Ugandan community based development projects demonstrates the importance of enabling people to manage their own affairs in their respective localities. In compliance with the Ugandan Government’s endeavour for decentralisation and the devolution of decision-making powers to local communities the approach of African Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE) contributes successfully to alleviate poverty in the rural settings of Uganda. Even after a relatively short period of only two to three years substantial positive changes are visible in the villages.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

London, 8 April 2008 - About 175 members of Parliament in the United Kingdom have signed a motion that calls on the Department for International Development (DFID) to place women at the center of its HIV/AIDS strategies worldwide, the Herald Express reports. The motion, part of the "Women Matter" campaign run by the group VSO, also calls on DFID to influence other international agencies to focus on the impact of HIV/AIDS on women.

http://www.kaisernetwork.org

Cape Town, 22 April 2008 - Health experts have warned of a possible increase of cervical cancer among HIV-positive women if nothing is done to prevent the Human Papilloma Virus, which causes this form of cancer.

According to Prof. Denny the solution to the problem lies in vaccination. “I think it’s going to be very important to vaccinate HIV-positive people. And, particularly, kids who acquire it through maternal-to-child transmission prior to their own sexual exposure,” she said.

http://www.health-e.org.za

KAMPALA, 8 April 2008 - Throughout his childhood, Gordon Turibamwe, 20, was sickly, suffering from frequent bouts of malaria and chest infections, but his father only told him he was HIV-positive when he was aged 16, something Gordon says caused him serious trauma.

"I was so shocked and so angry with my dad for a long time," he told IRIN/PlusNews. "I immediately thought I was going to die, I had very little hope."

http://www.plusnews.org

PLoS Med, March 2008 - The advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) dramatically improved the prognosis for both adults and children infected with HIV who had access to treatment. However, the optimal timing for initiating treatment remains controversial, particularly in children. This debate lays out the case for deferred treatment against the case for early initiation of HAART in children.

http://www.aidsportal.org

Boston, 15 February 2008 - Scientists are no further forward in developing a vaccine against HIV after more than 20 years of research, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist has said. Professor David Baltimore, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), said there was little hope among scientists. But he underlined that they were continuing efforts to develop a vaccine.

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Kampala | Washington, DC – HIV/AIDS implementers from around the world will gather in Kampala, Uganda from June 3-7 for the 2008 HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting. Recognizing the rapid expansion of HIV/AIDS programs worldwide, the focus of this year’s meeting is building the capacity of local prevention, treatment, and care programs; enhancing quality; and promoting coordination among partners. The meeting’s theme is “Scaling Up Through Partnerships: Overcoming Obstacles to Implementation.”

http://data.unaids.org

Geneva, 14 March 2008 - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is committed to the systematic integration of tuberculosis control in Red Cross and Red Crescent HIV programmes at community level, particularly in countries where co-infection has become a public health emergency. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 250,000 people living with HIV develop tuberculosis (TB) every year. Some 14 million adults are co-infected with TB and HIV – and 70% of them live in Africa.

http://www.ifrc.org

Noragric prepared a review on the current views on the relationships between agriculture, HIV infections and AIDS-related diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. Often considered unrelated, this report, drawing on review papers and original research suggests that agriculture both is severely affected by HIV and AIDS and that the state of agriculture significantly influences the spread of HIV.

The report points out that few sub-Sharan African countries have substantial analyses of the rural and agricultural situations in their Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). Few countries have national policies that give high priority to agriculture and the link between agriculture and HIV and AIDS is missed. Therefore one of the biggest and most dangerous risks for farmers in sub-Saharan Africa is HIV and AIDS.

http://www.umb.no

This guide from the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance project outlines key steps for integrating food assistance and nutrition into HIV programmes. It identifies key challenges to integrated HIV programming: inadequate understanding of how to address the overlaps between HIV and food security, problems raising resources from multiple funding agencies which may not be available at the same time, difficulty attributing results to any single intervention, and differing objectives and targets between HIV and food security programmes. Furthermore, the intensity and urgency of HIV or food assistance programmes often makes it difficult to focus on integration.

http://www.wfp.org

This toolkit from the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, was developed for assessing and building capacities for high quality responses to HIV in intermediary organisations. Intermediary civil society organisations play a significant role in building community responses by establishing partnerships with selected grassroots organisations. Through a capacity building programme of grants and/or technical support, they support the community response in scaling up their HIV programmes. Increasingly, intermediary organisations are also required to develop their own capacity to undertake this work.

http://www.aidsalliance.org

The primary purpose of this document from UNGASS is to provide key constituents who are actively involved in a country’s response to AIDS with essential information on core indicators that measure the effectiveness of the national response. These guidelines will also help ensure the consistency and transparency of the process used by national governments. In addition, this information can be used by UNAIDS to prepare regional and global progress reports on implementation of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.

Countries are strongly encouraged to integrate the core indicators into their ongoing monitoring and evaluation activities. These indicators are designed to help countries assess the current state of their national response while simultaneously contributing to a better understanding of the global response to the AIDS pandemic, including progress towards meeting the targets in the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.

http://data.unaids.org

Under the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS (GCWA), the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), together with the United Nations Populations Fund (UNFPA) and Young Positives are developing 23 country Report Cards with the aim to strengthen HIV Prevention strategies for girls and young women. Each Report Card provides a country profile, information on HIV prevention from the legal, policy, service availability and accessibility, rights and participation perspectives and includes quotes and issues raised by young women and girls of the country. They also discuss key social and cultural issues, including the role of men and boys in HIV prevention.

http://www.ippf.org

This toolkit from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Inter-Agency Task Team (IATT) on Education aims to help education staff from development cooperation agencies, including both development and humanitarian-oriented multilateral and bilateral agencies as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other civil society organisations, to support the process of mainstreaming HIV and AIDS into education sector planning and implementation. It is designed to be used as a reference tool or a resource for training and discussion, depending on the local needs and context.

http://unesdoc.unesco.org

The Lancet 2008 - Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is increasingly available in Africa, but physicians and clinical services are few. We therefore assessed the effect of a home-based ART programme in Uganda on mortality, hospital admissions, and orphanhood in people with HIV-1 and their household members.

Households were visited every week by lay providers, and no clinic visits were scheduled after enrolment. We compared rates of death, hospitalisation, and orphanhood during different study periods and calculated the number needed to treat to prevent an outcome.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Journal of Internal Medicine, March 2008 – According to the author, Prof. Kallings, Founding President of the International AIDS Society (IAS), Science responded to the challenge of AIDS by rapidly identifying aetiology, describing pathogenesis and transmission routes, and developing diagnostic tests and treatment. However, this did not prevent the global spread of HIV, with 25 million fatal cases so far, another 33 million infected, and disastrous socioeconomic and demographic consequences.

In spite of unprecedented political attention and financial resources, the response is falling further behind the growth of the epidemic. With no cure or vaccine in sight, scaling up prevention is of paramount importance.

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com

Ausserholligen | The course offered by SDC aims to provide information on and skills in mainstreaming HIV/AIDS. It aims to strengthen participants’ motivation and competence to mainstream HIV/AIDS as relevant for their work.

At the end of the day, participants should know what is understood by the comprehensive approach and be able to apply the concept of risk/vulnerability reduction and impact mitigation.

http://www.deza.admin.ch

Zürich | In July 2008 Aids & Child will be organizing a meeting for young people affected by HIV/AIDS. Young people who take part in this meeting will have the chance to get constructive support in coming to terms with their illness and will improve their ability to live with HIV/AIDS. Exchanging ideas with others will strengthen their personal resources and also help them perceive their responsibility in a social context.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

Bern | The Afro-European Medical and Research Network (AEMRN) will be holding their first annual Strategic Planning Symposium on the theme: “Knowledge Management, Resource Mobilisation and sustained HIV/AIDS Research in Low-income Countries - Case of Sub-Saharan Africa”.

The programme include presentation of papers from selected speakers around the World as well as brain storming and plenary sessions on Knowledge Management, Resource Mobilisation and HIV/AIDS Research.

http://www.aidsfocus.ch

aidsfocus.ch is a project set up by Medicus Mundi Switzerland. aidsfocus.ch is sponsored and shaped by 33 partner organizations who support the aims and activities of the platform through their financial contributions, expertise and commitment.

Partners: Afro-European Medical and Research Network, AIDS & Child, Bethlehem Mission Immensee, Caritas Switzerland, cinfo, CO-OPERAID, Déclaration de Berne, Doctors without Borders, Esperanza Medicines Foundation, FEPA, Fédération Genevoise de Coopération, Gemeinschaft St. Anna-Schwestern, HEKS, IAMANEH Switzerland, International Federation of the Blue Cross, INTERTEAM, Kindernothilfe Schweiz, Kwa Wazee, medico international Switzerland, mediCuba-Suisse, missio, REPSSI, SolidarMed, Swiss Aids Care International, Swiss Aids Federation, missio, mission 21, Swiss Aids Care International, Swiss Catholic Lenten Fund, Swiss MIVA, Swiss Red Cross, Swiss Tropical Institute, Tear Fund, Terre des hommes Foundation, terre des hommes schweiz, and World Vision Switzerland.