Major intervention areas of the Business Plan include harmonising policies for prevention, care and support, and treatment; capacity building and mainstreaming HIV/AIDS into all SADC policies and programmes; enhancing sharing of technical information and resources on HIV/AIDS among member states; facilitating resource mobilisation for the regional multi-sectoral response; and effective monitoring of the epidemic in the region.
Guidelines will also be put in place by the end of 2007 on programme interventions in high transmission areas such as cross border and high traffic sites.
The Business Plan stresses the importance of harmonising regional guidelines by the end of 2005 with respect to Mother to Child Transmission.
Issues of bulk procurement of medicines; production of generic drugs in the region; harmonisation of existing guidelines on Anti-Retroviral Therapy as well as access to affordable essential drugs for treatment are emphasised in the Business Plan.
A regional Protocol on Sexually Transmitted Infections treatment will be developed and adopted by the end of 2007 while a regional policy on Orphans and Vulnerable Children will be put in place by the end of 2006. It is estimated that close to four million children in the region aged 0-14 years are orphans due to HIV/AIDS.
The refinement of the Business Plan for HIV/AIDS took place at a three-day workshop on the implementation of the SADC HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework, from 26-28 July 2004 in Benoni, South Africa.
A report on the Business Plan will be presented to the SADC Council of Ministers meeting this month in Mauritius.
The workshop underscored the importance of a regional response to HIV/AIDS to complement national initiatives given that the pandemic is trans-boundary.
It also recommended the establishment of tools to track HIV/AIDS resource flows and utilisation in member states from a regional perspective.
The SADC region continues to be the most affected by the epidemic in the world and it is estimated that about 14 million people in the region are infected with HIV/AIDS.
