National AIDS Council consults stakeholders on HIV/AIDS planning

In an effort to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, the Zimbabwe National AIDS Council(NAC)met with AIDS organisations to set in motion a process to facilitate HIV/AIDS prevention and care by district HIV/AIDS committees throughout the country.

According to a Safaids report, the NAC consulted different stakeholders including disadvantaged groups, civic organizations and the private sector to reach a common understanding of what needed to be done. They also identified who the intervention programmes would benefit and defined how the programmes could be conducted.

Groups targeted for intervention programmes include sex workers, the hearing-impaired, the blind and people with other forms of disabilities. The consultations revealed that HIV/AIDS education programmes did not include sign language or braille literature for the blind. The response to HIV/AIDS has mainly been from civic groups, ASO (AIDS Service Organisations) and the international donor community. The private sector has only recently begun to develop intervention programmes, the report said.

Last year, the Zimbabwean government introduced a compulsory levy on company and income tax, in an effort to raise funds for HIV/AIDS intervention programmes. The AIDS levy was collected, yet organisations and individuals questioned how the funds would be used. Since its introduction, the disbursement of funds has been hindered by logistical and political problems. Pressure has been placed on the government to define distribution criteria and the monitoring mechanisms to be used for managing the fund. The NGO sector has been called upon to develop a strategy to advocate and lobby government for better policies in HIV/AIDS prevention, the report said.