Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 5/6/2003

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U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Integrated Regional Information Network

CONTENT:

1 - GREAT LAKES: New report on response to HIV/AIDS in conflict situations

2 - KENYA: UN envoy hails HIV/AIDS policy

1 - GREAT LAKES: New report on response to HIV/AIDS in conflict situations

NAIROBI, 6 May (PLUSNEWS) - A new report describing the response by

humanitarian organisations to HIV/AIDS in the Great Lakes Region calls for

greater coordination of efforts among different actors and accountability

of donors and implementing agencies towards the populations they serve.

The report, entitled " The response to HIV/AIDS in conflict situations: a

research study into Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern DRC " , was researched and

written by Dr Vera Bensmann for Save the Children UK, and commissioned by

the UN Children's Fund and UNAIDS.

The report's first objective was to identify the reasons for slow and

uncoordinated response to HIV/AIDS in emergency settings in the Great

Lakes region, while the second was to identify strategies for increasing

resources made available, as well as the effectiveness of their

application.

The report's four main recommendations call for standards for quality and

minimum requirements for the response to HIV/AIDS; mechanisms to

incorporate performance, quality and impact measurement into the planning

stages of projects; improved accountability towards beneficiaries; and

improved access to information for all stakeholders.

The full report, divided into three parts, explains why the risk of

HIV/AIDS transmission is high in conflict situations, what has been

written about HIV/AIDS in emergencies, and what the response ought to be

in terms of prevention, diagnosis, care and support. It details who is

doing what in Rwanda, Burundi, and Eastern DRC, and focuses on the roles

of various stakeholders and obstacles they face in obtaining an adequate

coordination and planning response to HIV/AIDS in emergency settings.

[For the full report, go to http://cerebellum.tiscaliweb.nl]

[ENDS]

2 - KENYA: UN envoy hails HIV/AIDS policy

NAIROBI, 6 May (PLUSNEWS) - The UN envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa has praised

the new Kenyan government's efforts to tackle the scourge.

Speaking after a recent trip to Kenya, said he had a greater

degree of hope and optimism about the ability of President Mwai Kibaki's

government to tackle the pandemic, given the " startlingly changed

atmosphere " it had so far created.

" It is hard to describe the sense of change from the previous

administration. Suffice to say, where HIV/AIDS is concerned, the change is

night and day, " said.

HIV/AIDS has been declared a national disaster in Kenya, where it kills an

estimated 700 people daily. The country has about 200,000 people with

AIDS, out of which only 7,000 have access to life saving anti-retroviral

drugs.

said the positive impact of the government's attitude had also been

felt in the new policy of providing free primary education. Previously,

many children orphaned by AIDS were often forced to drop out of school due

to lack of funding.

[ENDS]

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