Scaling up the Response to HIV & AIDS through Support to Institutional Mechanisms for Coordinated and Sustainable Delivery

Brief Description

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Lesotho collaborated with the Government of Lesotho and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID), as part of the country’s efforts to accelerate measures to curb the spread of HIV & AIDS, and respond to the challenges brought about by the pandemic. This was done through the formulation of a programme of support to scale up the national response to the HIV & AIDS through strengthened national and district capacity and coordination mechanisms.

Purpose of project: To enhance the national response to HIV & AIDS by strengthening national and district capacities and coordination mechanisms.

Project strategy: Due to the changing environment in the country, both DfID and UNDP revisited the original plan to ensure relevance in direction and activities. The project supported the establishment and operationalisation of the National AIDS Commission in 2006 with results outlined below. Once NAC was established with systems in place – mainly through the support provided through this project, it was agreed to re-align the focus of the programme to support the implementation mechanisms of the national ‘Know Your Status’ Campaign as a key priority of the Government of Lesotho in the response to HIV.
 

Interim 2007 results:
• Institutional Capacity building: A booklet on roles of the Public Service in the fight against HIV & AIDS has been compiled, with versions in English and Sesotho printed, and distributed through the Ministry of Public Service and the Lesotho Institute of Public Administration & Management. The booklet will greatly assist civil servants as a reference manual in dealing with HIV & AIDS and related issues in both their personal and professional lives. Additionally, a senior staff member from the Lesotho Institute of Public Administration and Management (LIPAM) is a member of the HIV & AIDS Mainstreaming network, which has been trained and capacitated on how to integrate HIV & AIDS into LIPAM curriculum for further training of the Public Service.

• National AIDS Secretariat and Commission: With the commitment and support for implementation of the ‘Three Ones’ principle, since July 2005 the project funded an interim Secretariat of four (4) employees to support these processes.

• Capacity building for the National AIDS Commission Board of Commissioners was undertaken through a study tour hosted by the Kenya National AIDS Council from 14-18 May 2007. The board was represented by two members of the Board (Legal Portfolio and Stakeholder Portfolio) and the NAC Chief Executive. It is envisaged that this will strengthen the Board of Commissioners in their oversight role in coordinating the national response to HIV & AIDS.


HIV & AIDS Mainstreaming
- As one of UNDP’s key areas, HIV & AIDS Mainstreaming is being undertaken in Lesotho to enhance the country’s capacity in the development, adoption and sharing of methods and toolkits to facilitate mainstreaming of HIV & AIDS into development and local planning. A group of Economic Planners and key HIV focal persons from line ministries and institutions of higher learning including LIPAM and IDM have been undergoing an in-country series of trainings facilitated by UNDP Country Office and the UNDP Regional Service Centre in order to equip them with skills in mainstreaming HIV & AIDS into national planning processes.


Know Your Status Campaign
• 3, 600 community health workers and people living with HIV & AIDS have been trained in HIV Testing and Counselling and are offering door-to-door testing and counseling.
• Supervision tools for community based activities were developed and pre-tested in Mafeteng during the 2-week accelerated mass campaign.
• As of end of June 2007, the number of people who knew their status in Lesotho was 200,221 people
• In an effort to strengthen the KYS campaign and meet the national target of testing 1.3 million people by the end of the campaign, the KYS team adopted an alternate plan, and utilised an accelerated mass campaign strategy. The accelerated mass campaign was held in Mafeteng from 6 – 25 August 2007, during which the KYS technical team provided technical support supervision to the district team and supported the district in effective planning and continued implementation of the mass campaign.
• The district coverage in HIV testing as of March 2007 was 27 185; and within the two weeks of the mass campaign 13 342 people were tested in the district; exceeding the 2 weeks target of 11 448. This therefore highlights the effectiveness of the mass campaign even though it is a costly exercise.