Mbn hiv/aids evaluation final report Team of consultants

HIV/AIDS commitment of the CFAs

Real commitment to integrate HIV/AIDS into all CFA’s functions will be challenged when dealing with increased overhead costs related to the funding of the implementation of internal workplace policies of counterparts. One cannot deny the extra overhead costs for organisations in the South, especially those working in High Prevalence Regions, when HIV/AIDS workplace policies have been put in place. Donors will be challenged to take position. Up till now, as budget support is the main funding instrument, some of these additional costs are covered. However a coherent, transparent approach and an official statement in support to Programme Officers was lacking until recently. Within the SAN! Project on managing HIV/AIDS at the workplace, the directors of four members (NOVIB, HIVOS, ICCO, and Cordaid) adopted formal ‘Guidelines on Support to Partners to Manage HIV/AIDS in the Workplace’ in December 2005. These guidelines apply for the two SAN! Pilot countries India and Uganda. These guidelines agree, amongst other issues, on the process of developing and implementing a workplace policy as well as on the commitment for covering the cost of the workplace policy. Only NOVIB adopted these guidelines for all countries, instead of the two SAN! countries, Uganda and India.

The development of a HIV/AIDS workplace policy is also a challenge for the CFAs themselves, taking into account the susceptibility to HIV of staff travelling abroad, the susceptibility to HIV/AIDS of staff at regional offices and the importance of being an example for the counterparts, “practice what you preach”. All CFAs have started to invest in workplace policy development since 2004, but there are a few differences between them:

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  HIVOS did not regard a workplace policy as being relevant for the headquarters. No specific AIDS work with staff has been organised at headquarters. As the organisational culture is an open and tolerant culture there is not a felt need to elaborate specific guidelines on destigmatisation. Cases of affected staff (also at regional offices) will be dealt with case by case. At their regional office in Harare a workplace policy has been developed and in the Costa Rica office a policy is in the draft phase. The India office has not yet taken this initiative and is expected to do so because of the SAN! Project on workplace policies. Medical kits for staff do include clean needles and necessary material for blood transfusion.
  
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  Plan has the intention to develop an HIV/AIDS workplace policy. Staff susceptibility to HIV is not discussed yet. Staff is seen as mature adults who know how to behave and protect themselves. Staff does not receive a medical kit when travelling abroad. Plan International is elaborating general guidelines for the country offices.
  
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  NOVIB, CORDAID and ICCO did develop a workplace policy based on the principle of the ILO code of practice. Senior staff of Cordaid did approve the workplace policy; they are currently in the implementation phase. In December 2005 a three days internal workshop was organised with staff at NOVIB to discuss the draft workplace policy and the outcome will result in a formal approval early 2006. The further aim is to integrate the HIV/AIDS workplace policy in a number of existing personnel documents, like the travel policy, sexual harassment policy. After consultation with Novib staff living with HIV/AIDS it became clear that HIV positive staff, also in the Netherlands, do prefer to work in a place with a written HIV/AIDS workplace policy. It helps to break down barriers. ICCO is still in the process of drafting a final version. Staff susceptibility to HIV/AIDS is not discussed in an explicit way with all staff but is included in the basic training organised by ICCO for people who will work abroad. All three organisations give medical kits to their staff when travelling abroad, including clean needles, gloves and for NOVIB, also condoms.
  

HIV/AIDS expertise of staff

The operational guidelines of the CFAs are general guidelines, hence implementation of the policy depends a lot on the capacity of staff. HIV/AIDS capacity of staff needed to be built and is an ongoing process. Staff can rely on the HIV/AIDS policy officers and to a lesser extent on the focal points: trainings and workshops have been organised, tools, videos and references to websites have been made available.

HIV/AIDS capacity differs a lot from person to person. The evaluators have interviewed some staff with limited HIV/AIDS capacity. In several interviews with staff the following bottlenecks were mentioned:

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  Feedback from the HIV/AIDS work group through the focal points to the programme officers and general staff is sometimes poor
  
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  Trainings and capacity building workshops are not obligatory and attendance is rather poor
  
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  HIV/AIDS is not formally included in the appraisal systems and not many tools are made available. Some efforts have been undertaken:
  
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    Novib did integrate HIV/AIDS systematically in the toolbox used for programme appraisals and did elaborate a tool for HIV/AIDS mainstreaming ( nine box model – to develop a route for HIV/AIDS mainstreaming)
    
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    ICCO did develop a tool for the elaboration of a HIV/AIDS country analysis but due time constraints this instrument was almost not put in practice
    
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    The African desk at Cordaid did develop a checklist for HIV/AIDS mainstreaming but this is not systematically used by programme officers, mainly due to lack of time.
    

Since July 2005, HIVOS has installed a separate HIV/AIDS department with HIV/AIDS experts that monitor all HIV/AIDS related programmes. At the regional offices HIV/AIDS expertise has to be build up. At some offices, like the Harare office specific HIV/AIDS expertise has been attracted. At the Bangalore office, the programme officer is still in a capacity building process to acquire HIV/AIDS expertise.

The other CFAs deal with HIV/AIDS as a cross cutting issue, relevant for all departments. Novib, Cordaid and ICCO have appointed a HIV/AIDS expert in the policy department, Plan works with a HIV/AIDS resource person. The strategy of these CFAs is that all programme officers should acquire enough skills to deal with HIV/AIDS in the dialogue with counterparts. During the interviews with programme officers, it became clear that the HIV/AIDS expert have an important role within their organisations. Many programme officers appeal to the HIV/AIDS officer and appreciate their support (mostly feedback on project proposals and HIV/AIDS analyses). No staff member interviewed considers him/herself as being AIDS-competent. Several reasons can be found to explain this overall feeling. It is experienced as difficult to start the dialogue with counterparts on such a sensitive and also personal issue as HIV/AIDS (especially with faith-based organisations and/or religious leaders). The problem is so complex and no evidence-based solutions that fit for all are available. Staff also has to cope with loss of staff at counterparts and is emotionally confronted with the daily consequences of HIV/AIDS, sometimes experiencing a feeling of powerlessness. In 2005 the Cordaid en Novib HIV/AIDS officers developed a trainings tool (CD-rom) for programme officers “Personal or business” on how to communicate with partner organisations on HIV/AIDS. The CD-rom is based on real life cases. It was funded by Cordaid, Novib and SAN! with some technical assistance from PSO.