These guidelines dealing with the legal, ethical and counselling issues related to HIV testing of children are intended for HIV and AIDS practitioners working with children. They were developed through an extensive consultative process with key staff from the South African Department of Health, the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), civil society, non-governmental organisations, academics, policy makers and practitioners working with children. The guidelines cover a range of topics: counselling of children of different ages and developmental levels and assessing a child’s capacity to give informed consent; pre- and post-test counselling for children and for parents and caregivers of children unable to consent independently; follow-up and referral of children and/or parents or caregivers; client-initiated or voluntary counselling and testing and provider-initiated counselling and testing as applied to children; counselling guidelines relative to disclosure of HIV status by and to children; key qualities and competencies required for HIV counselling of children; and the physical environment and use of appropriate materials in work with children and young people.
Useful Resources
This document draws together the experiences of seven countries that have successfully eliminated leprosy as a public health problem, often under
extremely challenging conditions. A hard copy is available via email.
fundsforNGOs are offering a free download to their resource on ‘Lesser Known International Donors You should look for Funding in 2015’. It contains a list of profiles of those funding agencies that are not very well known but do offer active grants to NGOs around the world. Their application process is not as complex as that of traditional donors and there is less competition for seeking grants from them. These agencies also fund ideas for social change.
1. Useful Publications
Commission for Africa: Our Common Interest: Report Of The Commission For Africa. Report issued March 05 by Commission (Commission Chair: Tony Blair). Aims to address, respond to, and outline recommendations for, Africa's development needs. The elimination of preventable diseases, and responses to HIV/AIDS, are integral to the context considered by the report (Chapter 6: Leaving no-one out: investing in people). Recommended practical actions include 'strengthening health systems in Africa so all can obtain basic health care' (http://commissionforafrica.org)
UN Millennium Development Project: Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The final report of the UN Millennium Project released January 2005 suggests how we might achieve the Millennium Development Goals which include reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases by 2015. It outlines practical investment strategies and possible approaches to their financing. Specific sections in the published report relevant to public health issues include 'Health systems: ensuring universal access to essential health sciences' (Chapter 5: Public investments to empower poor people) and the summaries of the Development Goals by area and target (Appendices 1 & 2). Both the full report and an overview are available on the Millennium Project site (www.unmillenniumproject.org/reports/index.htm) In addition a book by Jeffrey Sachs (UN Millennium Project Director) entitled[The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime by (0141018666) was also recently published (April 05) by Penguin (www.penguin.co.uk)]
World Bank: World Development Indicators 2005 Report (0-8213-6071-X) released by World Bank April 05, with national and regional development statistics. Data covers 'Health: expenditure, services, and use' and 'Disease prevention: coverage and quality' (www.worldbank.org/data/wdi2005) (http://devdata.worldbank.org/wdi2005)
Global Monitoring Report 2005: From Census To Momentum (0-8213-6077-9) published by World Bank with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) April 05. Chapter 2 ('Scaling up service delivery') reviews the progress to MDG's, including those in child/maternal health and disease (www.worldbank.org)
World Health Organisation: World Health Report 2005: Make Every Mother and Child Count, published by the WHO. This is an annual report, with the 2005 edition focusing on the need, and possible strategies, for the improvement of maternal/child health. 'Calls for greater access to life-saving interventions and a 'continuum of care' approach to start before pregnancy and extend into the baby's childhood'. Detailed statistical annexes are included. Issued to coincide with World Health Day (www.who.int/whr/en)
Also useful in the context of these reports is an earlier study, published last year (2004). The second assessment report prepared by the Global Forum for Health Research, 'Monitoring Financial Flows for Health Research' (ISBN 2-940286-27-2), is available in full on the Global Forum's website. In analysing funding levels and priorities it could be an additional source of information on the cost, value, coherence and impact of recent health research internationally (www.globalforumhealth.org)
INASP Newsletter (November 2004), which focused on the 'Global Review on Access to Health Information in Developing Countries'. Please see www.inasp.info/newslet/nov04.html.
2. Useful websites
- Useful summary of Wellcome Trust's 'major overseas programmes', currently including research based in Kenya and in Malawi is accessible at www.wellcome.ac.uk/node4240.html
- Overseas Development Institute Humanitarian Practice Network http://www.odihpn.org/ A useful site for those working in development, particularly Health and Education, with information regarding current and past projects, publication and events
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine - Press releases on latest research involving LSHTM can be found at http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/news/2005/
Earlier this year, 'HIF-net at WHO' subscribers contributed ideas and perspectives around the theme of 'Local creation and adaptation of health information'. This took the form of a vibrant discussion on 'HIF-net at WHO'. Along with other material, the content of this discussion is helping to inform the G8 DOTS Force, a high-level international body 'addressing the global digital divide'. In addition, 'HIF-net at WHO' subscribers and others worldwide contributed more than 30 detailed case stories on health information, which were collated by INASP. These are now available in full at the URL provided.
The Local government Community of Practice is a ‘virtual’ community that seeks to enable interaction on various gender and governance issues. Ideal for local government practitioners and academia this platform invokes participants to learn and share best practices, resources and critical thinking on gender and service delivery across the SADC region to bring ‘the local government we want’. Members are encouraged to make use of the Local Government Gender Score Card tool that measures the Centres of Excellence (COE) progress in gender mainstreaming and sensitive service delivery. Aligned is a newly developed Local Government Citizen’s Score Card that provides an opportunity for community members served by COE councils to assess and measure council’s progress towards achieving gender sensitive and responsive service delivery. The results from these tools aim to assist in strengthened policies and development projects that are implemented to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and SADC Gender Protocol Agenda 2030.
This Web site details the loveLife initiative, which attempts to reduce HIV infection among South African adolescents by promoting sexual health and healthy futures for young people. The National Survey of South African Youth is available (you need Adobe Acrobat reader to access the chapters of the report), as well as a resource guide to HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Lastly, information about how the project is reaching out to youth--as well as adults--is detailed.
This training manual on mainstreaming gender into Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes is an integrated approach to both gender and WASH issues. It aims to provide participatory gender-sensitive training to water professionals at the policy, project and administrative levels through building their capacity for mainstreaming gender into WASH programmes. The authors hope this manual will be useful to other public, private and civil society training institutions and agencies, both in Rwanda (where this manual was written) and in other countries around the world. The manual aims to provide participatory gender-sensitive training to water professionals at the policy, project and administrative levels and promote an understanding of and commitment to the importance of participation of both women and men in sustainability of these programmes. It is divided into three modules, which cover WASH programmes, theoretical concepts of gender, gender mainstreaming and analysis tools, and gender-sensitive indicators and a log-frame for WASH programmes.
At the last ICASA in Ouagadougou, UNAIDS, the Union Economique et Monetaire de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (UEMOA), and GTZ, co-hosted a Satellite Conference on the theme: "Concrete Experiences with Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS across Development Sectors in Africa". Starting from the material presented at the Conference, we have co-edited a document under the title "Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS: A Conceptual Framework and Implementing Principles" with the assistance of JSAConsultants, Ghana. To obtain a copy of the document please contact us at gtzrap@ghana.com
Making or acting in your own film is possible with an innovative project in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa. The Home Movie Factory is a space in which anyone can go to make a movie. The project is free and is open to interested individuals or school groups, or orgabisations. The process takes about three hours from your entry into the Factory to the watching of your short movie, which will probably be between 10 and 20 minutes long. Arriving at the Factory, you start in the meeting rooms where your group’s ideas will be workshopped into a script. Each person will take a different role as the process unfolds - you may want to act, you may want to operate the camera, or you may want to be a timekeeper. You will then make use of the sets available to construct your movie and an hour or two later you will be able to watch it. The project runs for two months, starting on 1 September 2012.