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Government outlines new AIDS strategy
IRIN PlusNews. 01 December 2006. Republished courtesy of IRIN PlusNews.
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The South African government marked World AIDS Day with the release of a broad framework for its HIV/AIDS strategy over the next five years.
The nine-page document listed as key targets a 50 percent reduction in the rate of new HIV infections by 2011, and the provision of treatment, care and support to 80 percent of HIV-infected South Africans. Youth were identified as "a special target group" that would receive particular focus in the new plan. A monitoring and evaluation framework, an element acknowledged as largely missing in the previous plan, was also identified as a priority.
The framework's release coincided with publication of guidelines for the restructuring of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), much criticised in the past as ineffectual and non-inclusive. Poor coordination by the country's national AIDS body was identified in the framework as a major weakness of the 2000-2005 National Strategic Plan.
A new and improved SANAC will consist of high-level representatives from the business, religious, NGO, academic, media and human rights sectors, as well as a number of government departments. A technical committee charged with monitoring implementation of the national strategic plan is to meet at least four times a year. Another committee, "linked to but separate from SANAC", will be responsible for financial management, including grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Several elements of the framework and the SANAC guidelines seemed to reinforce recent moves by the South African government to work more closely with civil society in its AIDS response. A commitment to involve all government departments and civil society sectors appeared first in a list of principles underpinning the framework. The SANAC document concludes: "If we work together, AIDS can be beaten. South Africa is uniting in its efforts to combat the epidemic and from now on, SANAC will embody that unity and purpose."
Government bowed to pressure from activists and medical experts last week to delay the launch of the full National Strategic Plan for 2007-2011, originally intended for release on Friday.
"It was largely a matter of a need for broader consultation," explained the health department's chief director for HIV/AIDS, Dr Nomonde Xundu. Input from a technical task team over the next three months will culminate in a conference in March 2007, at which representatives from the various sectors will adopt a final version of the plan. A first meeting of the newly formed SANAC is expected to take place shortly after the conference.
AIDS activists and experts who have seen drafts of the strategic plan welcomed the delay. "ARV [antiretroviral] treatment is the most complex health initiative ever undertaken in this country," said president of the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, Dr Francois Venter. "We need this plan to be fantastic and, at the moment, it's not even close."
Xundu described the draft plan as in need of "fine-tuning", but AIDS Law Project head Mark Heywood said it contained serious shortcomings, including the lack of a thorough assessment of the previous strategic plan, the absence of a budget, and the lack of engagement with the recommendations that emerged from a civil society conference in October.
"There hasn't been much consultation with stakeholders who have the most immediate relevance, in particular the medical community - the health professionals and the health researchers," Heywood said.
The latest draft, dated November 2006, set a goal of increasing provision of treatment by 100,000 a year to adults, to reach a target of 650,000 by 2011 (the target figure for children was 100,000). The targets have been widely criticised as too conservative, considering that an estimated 800,000 people need treatment now and an additional 500,000 HIV-positive people are expected to need treatment every year, according to the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society. "We need to scale up much faster," said Venter, pointing out that the draft targets would meet only about 20 percent of the need.
The broad framework released on Friday contained no target figures for treatment, but Xundu confirmed that the figures in the draft would be reviewed in the coming months. She also made the distinction between the strategic plan and a yet to be developed operational plan.
"This is a statement of what needs to be done and should be used as a guide," she told PlusNews. Local and national government departments will use it as a basis for developing implementation plans.
At a World AIDS Day event in Mpumalanga Province on Friday, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka called on all South Africans to work together in fighting the HIV and AIDS pandemic. "If we focus our energies on conflicting with one another and on differences between us, we will lose sight of our shared goals, and weaken collective resolve and effort to implement this plan. We have a lot more that unites us."
This item is delivered to the English Service of the United Nations' Humanitarian Information Unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the UN. |
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