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To remain relevant in the region, donors need to develop HIV-positive partnerships.
Donor responses
It is important for international donors to adjust their partnership strategies and methods of funding to make them more relevant and appropriate to working in conditions of high HIV/AIDS prevalence.
While some international NGOs, particularly members of STOP AIDS NOW! in the Netherlands, have been at the forefront in assisting partners, most others have lagged behind. They have been little more than ‘concerned bystanders’.
To remain relevant in the region, donors need to develop HIV-positive partnerships which will require international NGOs to integrate HIV/AIDS into their partnership strategies in sub-Saharan Africa. They will also need to develop their own staff competencies to engage with these issues.
Some key tips for developing HIV-postive partnerships
- Focus more on organisational capacity, rather than simply on development projects. If development organisations are not resilient then they will not meet programme deliveries and targets.
- Accept the higher ‘overhead’ costs and reduced outputs that working in contexts of high HIV prevalence entails. This means adjusting predicted results and budgets.
- Integrate a workplace HIV/AIDS response into grant appraisal, monitoring and evaluation processes
- Develop clear guidelines for support to partners, including how much they will contribute to implementation of a workplace response.
- Catalyse partner response to HIV/AIDS through dialogue, field visits, and dissemination of information.
- Sponsor HIV/AIDS capacity building processes, such as training, workshops, consultancies and exchanges for partners.
- Strengthen skills in HIV/AIDS mainstreaming among local providers of capacity building services.
- Fund research, workshops, publications and dissemination of good practice regarding organisational responses to HIV/AIDS.
- Explore collaborative ventures with local insurance companies and health providers.