Supraregional HIV/AIDS Control in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa

Project description

Title: Supraregional HIV/AIDS Control in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa
Lead executing agency: Brazilian Ministry of Health
Overall term: 2007 to 2012

Context

Brazil has a successful and internationally acclaimed AIDS programme. Brazil began to share its experience with other southern countries as early as 2002. There is high demand in many of the Latin American, Caribbean, Asian and African states for Brazilian know-how in fighting AIDS.

Germany has supported this South–South cooperation from the beginning and has been implementing trilateral and multilateral cooperation projects with Brazil and other countries for many years to fight HIV/AIDS and strengthen national health systems. All measures are developed jointly with the third countries and are demand driven. The partner countries benefit from the combination of Brazilian expertise in fighting HIV/AIDS and GIZ’s long-standing experience in international cooperation.

Objective

The national AIDS response has been strengthened in the partner countries of German-Brazilian triangular cooperation.

Approach

Together with its Brazilian partners, GIZ advises 21 Latin American and Caribbean states on their national AIDS control programmes. In 2009, this cooperation was extended to African countries within the framework of the Heiligendamm Process. In addition to trilateral projects (Brazil-Germany-partner country), multilateral projects and programmes are also being implemented.

Cooperation focuses on the following themes:

  • Sex education and HIV prevention
  • Strengthening national health systems and the horizontal integration of AIDS programmes in the general health care system
  • Gender and men’s health
  • Strengthening monitoring and evaluation systems

Measures include:

  • Supporting partner countries in the development and implementation of national strategies and public policies
  • Further training, development and implementation of training programmes
  • Promoting dialogue and cooperation processes between partner countries

A total of 15 projects have been implemented in 12 countries. The following projects are currently being implemented:

  • Sex education in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay
  • Men’s health in Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay
  • Introduction of an integrated health care system (Redes Integradas de Salud) in rural areas in Uruguay

The project works with multinational partners such as UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV-AIDS) as well as with regional organisations such as GCTH (Grupo de Cooperação Técnica Horizontal em HIV/AIDS), PANCAP (Pancaribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS) and UNASUR Health (Union of South American Nations).

Results achieved so far

As part of the project on sex education, the topic of AIDS prevention has been included in national school curriculums in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Paraguay and Uruguay. School children now have reliable access to information about HIV/AIDS. From 2007 to 2011, more than 80,000 teachers were given training and one and a half million school children were taught about AIDS. Following the success of this project, Bolivia, Guatemala and Colombia have joined the initiative. In addition, since 2011, the project has been implemented within a regional network (CoPSexEd), which will ensure the continuity of professional exchange between partner countries in the future.

Within the context of health reforms by the Uruguayan Government, strategic plans and monitoring systems have been developed in four regions of the country to facilitate and improve the rural population’s access to basic health services. In addition, training plans to improve the quality of health care centres have been developed, with particular attention being paid to HIV/AIDS. The reform plans are based on Brazil’s experiences with its public health system (Sistema Único de Saúde, SUS), focusing on prevention, decentralisation and health care networks.

In Latin America, men die earlier and also make less use of health services than women. Socio-cultural factors play a major role in shaping, for example, male aggression and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. Ecuador, Chile and Uruguay have defined priorities for cooperation on these issues. They receive support from GIZ in cooperation with the Brazilian Ministry of Health’s programme on men’s health. The aim of the collaboration is the development of both national strategies and the capacity of health services in order to cater for the specific needs of men and thus provide them with better access to health care.