Our theme this year: ‘Scaling up for success’ recognises that there is an urgency to take stock of best practices in treatment and prevention and to scale these up sufficiently to begin to roll back the onslaught in numbers and impact that the epidemic is currently waging in Southern Africa. We know what needs to be done. We have a National Strategic Plan that is all at once comprehensive, challenging and ambitious. We need to examine the evidence of how these goals can be achieved critically, assess feasibility and then remove all obstacles and barriers to implement as widely and as efficiently as possible. We need to identify the gaps in the evidence and systematically set out to meet those knowledge gaps. More than ever before we need to come together as a region, declare war on the epidemic and begin to see the rates in Southern Africa decline.

Five tracks form part of the Conference’s programme, and they are:

• Track 1 - Basic Science
• Track 2 - Clinical Sciences
• Track 3 - Epidemiology, Prevention and Public Health
• Track 4 - Social and Economic Sciences, Human Rights and Ethics
• Track 5 - Practices and Programmes

For more information on the 4th South African AIDS Conference, please visit the website here

SA AIDS Conference 2009 – SABCOHA Satellite Sessions

In parallel to this year’s SA AIDS Conference in Durban SABCOHA is delighted to offer two-days of Private Sector Capacity Building Sessions.

The first day will be targeted at Peer Educators and will come in the form of a workshop conducted by Dr David Dickinson, Wits Business School, empowering Peer Educators and Workplace Program Coordinators to address the reality of Multiple Sexual Networks.

The second day will offer two workshops, one on Linking Company Level Reporting to the NSP and the other one will focus on Strengthening the Relationship between Traditional Health Practitioners and the World of Work.

For more information on these sessions, please contact Anita Volker at [email protected].

HIVAN / WCRP Forums - The HIVAN / WCRP Forum has a new partner - the US Consulate. They have come on board to help sponsor more workshops, as well as enabling our members and colleagues to meet with some of their very interesting visitors. We had more than 14 Forums this year, including five Youth Peace Forums, and a special celebration for International Peace Day. Every forum has 60 to 90 people participating and the YPFs have over 1000 young people at theirs.
16 Days of Activism - WCRP and HIVAN joined with Diakonia and the KZN survivors of violence for a very successful 16 Days of Activism against Violence against Women. The E-campaign of “Ring the Bell! Stop the Violence!” also saw articles in the press, a march, a wonderful T Shirt campaign at the City Hall preceded by a beautiful service at Emmanuel Cathedral .

HIV/AIDS is an issue which is very familiar to communities in South Africa. However, each community has both shared and unique challenges, based on a variety of factors. It is communities who are able to identify the problem, come up with potential solutions and organise themselves to put a plan in action who will ultimately contribute to greater community wellness. This defines the NGO community.

This conference is the first of its kind, which will focus on building the organisational capacity of communities to respond effectively to their unique needs. We all have passionate ideas, but sometimes lack the sustainability to maintain programmes and services. This conference will help to build networks and knowledge sharing, with the ultimate goal of increasing community wellness through NGO sustainability and organisational capacity building.

This Conference will:

• assist organisations to build organisational skills
• identify other capacity building opportunities
• provide learning opportunities to expand existing or new skills
• provide an opportunity for organisations to share the best practices
• serve as a major annual networking opportunity for the CBO/NGO/FBO communities

Delegates attending the NGO Conference on 23 and 24 October at the CSIR in Pretoria can expect to go home with tangible tools and knowledge that will put successful and sustainable organisations within their reach.

The conference objectives are to:

• Build the organisational capacity of communities to respond effectively to their unique needs;
• Encourage networks and knowledge-sharing; and
• Increase community wellness through sustainable NGOs.

Presentations by experts in their fields include:

• Entrepreneurial approaches to financial sustainability
• Assessing and planning for NGO success
• Community mobilization - putting planning into action
• Human resource management
• Clarifying the role of boards and committees
• NPO Legal status
• Organisational sustainability from a donor’s perspective
• Taking advantage of non-monetary resources
• Community-based information systems
• Reporting systems: NGO needs vs donor requirements

Other value-adding aspects to look forward to are:

• Skills-building sessions that cover anything you always wanted to know about running a viable and successful organisation.
• Major international donor organisations such as PEPFAR, USAID, German Technical Co-operation (GTZ), DFID and the Royal Netherlands Embassy have been invited to attend and be available to interact with delegates.
• Each delegate will receive a Toolkit worth at least R1000 that includes valuable guidelines on the sound running of non-governmental organisations, including tools to assess the need for services in their own community.

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille, who has praised and welcomed the initiative for an NGO Conference, will deliver the closing address on 24 October.

For more information, please visit the ac3 NGO Conference website here

EXCEPTIONAL OFFER – IF YOU ACT FAST!!!

Register a delegate for the upcoming TB Conference
in Durban (1 – 4 July 2008) and receive
a full set of 9 HIV-911 Directories of HIV-related support services in South Africa
- valued at R1 800 per set

This offer starts today and is limited to the first 20 organisations to respond to this announcement so act fast …

Registration form available online here
Or download the registration form here

Please make sure you immediately alert the HIV-911 Programme of your registration by sending an email with full delegate details (and date of your registration) to [email protected]

Once HIV-911 has verified your delegate registration with the TB Conference organizers we will notify the first 20 organisations that they have been successful in securing their set of HIV-911 directories. Drectories can be collected from the HIV-911 stand at the TB Conference. A register will be taken.

To learn more about the HIV-911 Programme visit www.hiv911.org.za or call 0860 HIV 911 / 0860 448 911

Message from the Conference Chairperson, Dr Refiloe Matji, Regional Director, University Research Co, LLC
South Africa will host a TB Conference from 1 - 4 July 2007 at ICC Durban with an overarching theme “Working as One”. Tuberculosis continues to be a major problem in South Africa despite availability of medicine to cure the disease. More than 20 000 people die in South Africa on an annual basis from TB. The situation in South Africa has been further worsened by the emergence of multi drug and extensive drug resistant TB. One of the major challenges in South Africa is that systems to support TB patients whilst on treatment are very weak. TB treatment takes a long time; therefore it is important that structures are set up at community level, at the work place or in any place that is convenient for the patients whilst on treatment. It is due to these problems that the Foundation for Professional Development is organizing this conference to bring all partners, both in the public and private sector, community members and the civil society to discuss TB and to come up with solutions to combat TB. It is time that all South Africans unite to fight this disease and finally “WORK AS ONE”.
I look forward to meeting you at the TB Conference in July 2008.
For more information on the TB Conference, please click here

Starts: 1 July 2008
Ends: 4 July 2008
City: Durban
Country: South Africa

ARV Access for Africa (AA4A), a subsidiary of IDA Solutions in the Netherlands is proud to announce a symposium/master class/seminar aimed at examining and solving some of the current challenges to the reliable supply, quality of care and effective use of HIV/AIDS and related medicines and diagnostics, and capacity development. The main challenges include quality assurance of medicines, the supply chain itself, including selection, procurement, pricing, licensing, medicines for children, the actual care which patients receive and the lack of human and other resource capacity to meet them.

This symposium, to be held in Cape Town, SA from 16 to 18 April 2008, aims to explore these matters at a high level, contribute to the debate about them, challenge conventional wisdom about how best to deal with them and explore new directions in solving them. It will function as a forum for the dissemination of information about them. It will provide a unique opportunity to take forward and achieve progress in their resolution.

DAY 1: The efficiency and integrity of the supply chain itself, including Prices and procurement
DAY 2: The quality of medicines and other supplies and The quality of patient care
DAY 3: Sustainability and capacity building

Key international speakers will introduce each theme, followed by a high level interactive panel and participant discussion. The discussion will be focused on specific questions which will be circulated in advance and others which arise in situ. For each session, the main points from the debate will be summarized and any recommendations formulated.

Target audience: In addition to the participation of major role-players as discussed above, the target audience for the symposium is at country level, including directors and managers who report to national, provincial and state government political structures, as well as other high level representatives of organisations involved in these activities.

For further details contact: Christoff Kruger on [email protected] or Annelize Jooste on [email protected]

Johns Hopkins University partnered with Stellenbosch University HIV Programme creating an ideal opportunity for health leaders to explore health communication on the African continent. This collaboration has led to the Leadership in Strategic Health Communication course in Africa.

The second Leadership in Strategic Health Communication course will be presented at the Erinvale Estate Hotel from 12 – 23 May 2008. This course aims to challenge individuals to critically evaluate and fundamentally change mindsets about health communication. As one 2007 participant said: “We do the same thing over and over again even if it doesn’t work. I knew it was inefficient but had no alternatives…now I do”.

The course was originally developed by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Communications Program (CCP). The presenter, health communication expert Dr Ben V Lozarre, is the Associate Director of the CCP and the Chief of the Training and Performance Improvement Division. Dr Lozarre will challenge participants to “unlearn” self-limiting thought processes and to start health communication interventions with shared visions.

The vision of this course is to enable South African and African leadership from government, communities and households to act, communicate and lead together so that Africans ultimately have the capacity to improve and maintain their sexual and reproductive health. Furthermore, it aims to develop strong Health Communication Leadership skills, provide and strengthen the opportunity for a network of professionals working in the field of HIV/Aids and Reproductive Health, and to improve upon existing communication practices through exposure to the latest technology, resources, and theory.

For more information and application forms, please e-mail: [email protected]

2nd Wits HIV/AIDS in the Workplace Research Symposium - Prevention and Next Steps in Responding to HIV/AIDS in the Workplace and Beyond - 29-30 May 2008
Within the context of a growing national health pandemic that targets primarily those most productive in the population, the private sector has a significant role to play in managing HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, and contributing to a comprehensive national response. South African-based research on HIV/AIDS in the workplace is at the cutting edge of the global response to the pandemic, and the need to document and replicate successful responses has been repeatedly stressed by all stakeholders. Indeed, the National HIV & AIDS and STI Strategic Plan for South Africa (2007-2011) prioritizes the dissemination of the growing body of experience and innovation in care, treatment and support strategies, in both public and private sectors, across the country. This involves not only transferring experience between formal sector companies but also between the private and public sector and, where appropriate, from the formal sector to informal and service workplaces. Thus, applied research in this area is important for South African companies, trade unions and other stakeholders.

Wits Business School (WBS) will be hosting the second HIV/AIDS in the Workplace Research Symposium in 2008. The aims of the two-day symposium are to strengthen the existing network of researchers, and to promote and disseminate high quality applied research on HIV/AIDS in the workplace in an accessible manner – among academics, business people and other interested stakeholders – with a view to informing and improving workplace practice.

Call for Abstracts

Papers are invited on any topic dealing with HIV/AIDS in the Workplace.

We are particularly keen to receive proposal for papers that address the following five areas. Authors submitting papers on these topics may apply for a research incentive (see below). The starred topics will be prioritized among the abstracts received. Please note that these are indicative not exhaustive.

1. Prevention: A critical element of responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic is the prevention of new infections. This goal is a key priority in the HIV& AIDS Strategic Plan for South Africa. Yet only limited success (if any) has been recorded to date in this regard, despite widespread and diverse attempts to bring about behaviour change, particularly around sexual behaviour. Research relevant to prevention of HIV infection among company workforces, their families and communities is needed. This could include:

• The workplace as a platform for behaviour change and HIV prevention
• Voluntary counselling and testing in the workplace

2. Treatment: The efficacy of highly active antiretroviral therapy to treat HIV/AIDS is a central success story in the response to HIV/AIDS. Many workplaces now run or support treatment programmes that complement the states provision of antiretroviral drugs. Nevertheless, there remain a number of challenges in the successful implementation of workplace-based treatment programmes. Papers that address these difficulties are needed. These could include:

• Workplace treatment programmes and barriers to treatment access and uptake
• Companies’ interaction with and response to the public provision of antiretroviral drugs
• Wellness programmes in low paid workforces

3. Community: The primary infection route of HIV – sex – means that any response to HIV/AIDS cannot be ring-fenced within company workforces. Yet, extending companies’ responses beyond employees presents huge financial and logistical challenges. Papers dealing with the role of companies in responding to HIV/AIDS in communities are critical. These could include:

• Role of companies in responding to HIV/AIDS in communities
• Workplace peer education
• Trade union responses to HIV/AIDS
• Public-private partnerships
• Traditional healers and workplace programmes

4. Risk: The calculation of the risk posed by HIV/AIDS to companies has been extensively modeled. There remains, however, considerable uncertainty as to the trajectory of the epidemic, especially with regard to occupational skill and prevalence. Papers dealing with prevalence patterns and trends in company workforces are called for.

5. Other/Emerging:

• Stigma and discrimination in the workplace
• Workplace priority interventions identified in the National HIV & AIDS and STI Strategic Plan 2007-2011
• Sexuality and reproductive health in the workplace and beyond
• HIV/AIDS programmes in SMMEs and the informal economy
• HIV/AIDS programmes for atypical workers

Publication and Dissemination in a Journal: All presented papers will be published as proceedings of the conference. Additionally, we have received a preliminary indication that selected and revised papers will be edited to form the content of a special edition of a South African accredited journal.

Invited Participants: We invite academics and students, managers, participants from NGOs, government, trade unions and others with management responsibility for HIV/AIDS programming to attend.

Research Incentives: In order to encourage original, high-quality research on HIV/AIDS in the workplace in areas of identified priority a limited number of research incentives, in varying amounts of R5,000 to R15,000 per completed paper, will be provided. Funding will be awarded on a competitive basis.

Who Should Apply for Research Funding: All authors proposing to submit papers in identified priority areas are invited to apply. We especially encourage younger HIV/AIDS researchers to submit proposals for funding.

Guidelines for Abstract Submissions: Please provide details of the research to be conducted and its relevance; describe the research methods that will be used; and, any preliminary lessons learned. The abstract template must be completed. This document can be downloaded from http://www.wbs.ac.za. Please use the form we have provided. Proposals not submitted in this format will not be considered. Indicate whether you are applying for research funding in your application. The body of the abstract should not exceed 500 words. Please also append a one-page curriculum vitae with full contact details to the abstract form. Please state your existing sources of funding and any application under consideration (note that existing funding does not mean your research would be excluded from consideration). Research must NOT have been previously published. Abstracts will be selected on the basis of a competitive review process. Funding decisions will be made by the Symposium Steering Committee, a body composed of individuals from NGOs, academia, and the private sector.

Selection Criteria for Abstracts: Relevance; originality of the research; methodology and design; strong contribution to the knowledge base; and practical (or policy) outcomes.

Selection Criteria for Funding: These will be the same as for abstracts. In addition, the proposed research should meet a priority need. We will also take into consideration whether access to alternative funding sources is available and whether the applicant is a young, black and/or female researcher. Please provide a one page motivation for funding.

Each application should include:

• Completed abstract form
• One page motivation for funding (if needed)
• Appendix – identify your existing sources of funding (if appropriate)
• One page CV

Deadline for All Proposal Submissions: 7 January 2008

Further details: Check the WBS website for further details. We will post these as they become available. http://www.wbs.ac.za

Contact Person: Ms. Judy Gierut - Programme Manager - Wits Business School.
Email: [email protected] Telephone: 083 324 0254

All HIVAN, HIV-911 and Partner events will be posted here.