AIDS on the Agenda: Adapting development and humanitarian programmes to meet the challenge of HIV/AIDS

Overview

AIDS on the Agenda is written for policy-makers, managers, and programme staff in development and humanitarian agencies, to promote debate about the challenges that confront them in a world which has been changed forever by the pandemic of AIDS. The book considers three possible responses to the problem:Do nothing, Try to specialise in direct AIDS work.Adapt core programmes and internal systems to respond to the impact of AIDS. The author argues for the third approach as the essential initial response to the problem. She shows how mainstream work in a wide range of sectors – including food security, livelihoods support, education, health promotion, and emergency provision of water and sanitation – can be modified to reduce susceptibility to HIV infection and vulnerability to the impact of AIDS. She also offers practical advice on modifying personnel and financial systems to protect the interests of staff and the viability of organisations when operating in AIDS-prone contexts. The text is based on case studies drawn from the experiences of three agencies (ActionAid, Oxfam International, and Save the Children UK) and their partners; and on insights contributed by a wide range of other organisations. The project was funded by the UK government’s Department for International Development.