Faith-Based Responses To HIV/AIDS in South Africa - CADRE Report

HIV/AIDS strategies in South Africa have generally emphasised the role of the formal health system led by national and provincial governments in providing support to areas such as condom distribution, the treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), treatment of opportunistic infections and, more recently, the provision of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs).

Less attention has been paid to documenting and analysing the many and diverse activities conducted by non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations and other institutions, including faith-based organisations, at community level. These organisations provide a range of HIV/AIDS-related services across the continuum of prevention, care and support, treatment and rights. Much however remains to be understood about the nature, scale and scope of these contributions and the way in which they supplement and interface with more centralised responses.

In 2003, the Department of Health of the Government of South Africa commissioned the Centre for Health Systems Research and Development (CHSRD) and the Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking (HIVAN) to develop a national database of HIV/AIDS organisations that would be translated into a public access, searchable repository of information about community-level activity around HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The database was intended to disseminate information about HIV/AIDS-related projects, mobilise support for on-going projects, identify possible areas of collaboration, and assist the Department of Health and donors to improve, plan and optimise resource allocations in support of national response to HIV/AIDS.

Towards the end of 2003, HIVAN issued a national call for submissions with a request for organisations of all types (non-governmental organisations (NGOs), community-based organisations (CBOs), faith-based organisations (FBOs), donor agencies, philanthropic agencies, and the private sector) to submit details about any HIV/AIDS-related projects, programmes, initiatives, or research. Data was collected with the assistance of a 24-part questionnaire that gathered details about the organisational profile, services, clients, publications, access to funding, networking, resource needs, employees, capacity, and the settings in which activities are conducted (see Appendix 1).

By early 2005, data from more than 2000 organisations and groups had been entered into the National AIDS Database (hivan.org.za/aidsdatasearchadvance.asp) and entries for organisations continue to be added to the database as they are received. In October 2004 a collaboration between CADRE and HIVAN was initiated to analyse the contents of the National AIDS Database with a view to better understanding HIV/AIDS response in South Africa, including the growth of the non-governmental sector, organisational capacities, absorptive capacities for funding, service areas, duplication and gaps, collaboration and reach. This report presents selected findings from this research, focusing on the activities of the faith-based organisations (n=162) listed in the database as of October 2004. Full Story on the right