Botswana launches community-driven HIV campaign

Botswana’s National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA) on Thursday said it plans to implement a new community-driven bottom-up HIV prevention approach. The latest approach to HIV fight was developed as a recommendation of the 2013 HIV Prevention Conference held in Francistown in northern Botswana.

In a statement calling for NGOs to show interest to build community competency for implementation of the Communities Acting Together to Control HIV Model in six districts across the country, NACA said the model would be delivered through civil society organizations in close collaboration with the district leadership and the local structures such as chiefs, district multi-sectoral AIDS committees and district health management teams.

The initiative positions the vision of zero new infections as a community goalpost and sets off a national race towards this target at the district level, spearheaded by traditional leaders.

NACA said a closer analysis of community HIV initiatives such as Community Capacity Enhancement through Community Conversations revealed that although they aimed to generate bottom-up engagement and mobilization, they are driven by a top-down design.

It noted that this approach had led to weak community ownership and interest in HIV programming as they have simply become consumers of services.

APA