Civil Society in the move towards ending AIDS

Zolani Kraai | Thursday August 21, 2014 11:53

This was revealed by Professor Keitseope Nthomang, a social work lecturer at the University of Botswana, during a national consultative meeting on Tuesday, aimed at strengthening civil society engagement in the global and national development agenda towards ending AIDS in Botswana.

Nthomang said men and women aged between 15 and 49 years with more than one partner who had used a condom during their last sexual intercourse declined from 90.2% in 2008 to 81.9% in 2013. He further said people aged between 15 and 24  who reported to have used a condom  when they engaged in sexual activity with non-regular partners in the last 12 months dropped from 78.4% in 2008 to 65.2% in 2013. He said 33.3% of pregnancies were unplanned according to 2011, Antenatal Clinics Surveillance.

Regarding complacency results in Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) treatment adherence, Nthomang said the First line adult ART failure rates increased from less than 6% recorded in 2012 to over 10% in 2013, with pediatric first line ART failure rates at 15%.  On the civil society success and challenges in HIV response, Nthomang said good participation in promoting and delivering HIV Counselling and Testing, treatment literacy, anti-stigma discrimination and advocacy campaigns of the removal of pre-employment testing the CSO has done well. He however said CSO governance and accountability poses a challenge as its lagging behind. “Funding sustainability and long term funding predictability remains a challenge and it very often influenced by lack of effective coordination of CSO and relationship with government and private sector,” said Nthomang. He further highlighted some lessons learnt from the 30 years of HIV response, citing that people living HIV were not just figures of the diseases but could also  act as role models and key stakeholders in the planning, coordination and implementation of the response interventions. “Improved systems linkages and integration, communication can be more efficient and be sustained in linking communities hence the need to engage in evidence-based advocacy and networking,” Nthomang said. He also stated that HIV matters have to be sufficiently linked to broader development issues such as poverty.

The meeting, which was supported by UNAIDS and National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA) in collaboration with Botswana Network of Ethics Law and AIDS (BONELA) and Botswana Network of AIDS Service Organisation (BONASO) sought to harness creativity and innovation of CSOs, given their grassroots context specific orientation to input Vision 2016, National Development Plan 11,  National Strategic Framework III and Global Fund processes. Top of the agenda was for the CSO in Botswana to contribute to a proposal to be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September 2014. The meeting will pave way for the final Sustainable Development Framework, which will be adopted at the Heads of State and Governments summit to be held in New York in September 2015.