Latest styles, smartest colours and trendiest cuts will be central to an AIDS initiative in Algeria designed to help people living with HIV get back into the workplace.

The Algerian association of people living with HIV, El Hayet, has launched a pilot project for people living with HIV where participants will be trained in the production of haute-couture and prêt-à-porter clothing.

The training is led and designed by a professional dressmaker and the course will allow participants to learn about the tools and techniques of the fashion industry, in particular designing, model making, styling and sewing. Candidates who successfully complete the course will be able to obtain official recognition of their new trade from the National Chamber of Trade and Handicraft.

 

“Algerian society can be unforgiving,” said Zohira Merah, president of El Hayet. “But people living with HIV have the right to work, to be creative and to support ourselves without having to rely on handouts or charity,” she added.

The 12-month programme, which began in September 2006, is supported by the UNAIDS Secretariat and UNAIDS Cosponsors ILO and UNDP. The project has been made possible through grants from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

The initiative provides innovative economic opportunities for the participants, who will be paid for their work during the 12-month period. In addition, all the garments created during the course of the year will be sold with funds raised going to support people living with or affected by HIV in Algeria. “The economic element of this project will both help to attract new candidates and ensure motivation is kept alive to build a longer term career plan,” Zohira Merah said.

“In this world we need to learn how to take care of ourselves, that’s why I enrolled in this programme,” said one of the participants. “It’s hard to find work in today’s society, particularly for a woman. I’ve been living with HIV for 12 years and this course given me the opportunity take control of my life and be independent. When I’ve finished I’ll be able to pass on what I’ve learnt to other people living with or affected by HIV which is a good feeling,” she added.

On completion, the course offers new opportunities for people living with HIV to access sustainable economic independence thanks to the agreement established between the National Agency for Administration of micro-credits and the El Hayet. Specialized trainers will help interested and successful participants to apply for micro-credits ranging from US$ 400 to US$ 5,500, reimbursable over a period of up to five years.

“This project is a clear example of how the principle of greater involvement of people living with HIV can be achieved,” said Andy Seale, Chief of Civil Society Partnerships at UNAIDS. “Longer term sustainable solutions such as this workshop in Algeria are an essential part of the response to AIDS,” he added.

“As life-saving anti retroviral therapy becomes more widely available we need more focus on ensuring people living with HIV have the opportunity to fulfil their potential as productive members of society and be economically independent. Often this entails reintegration into the workforce but due to the stigma and discrimination still associated with HIV infection this is not always an easy process. The project is an excellent example of how this can be facilitated in a thoughtful way,” said Kate Thomson, Partnership Adviser at UNAIDS.

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The number of people living with HIV in the Middle East and North Africa has risen to 460,000 and some 68,000 people were newly infected in 2006 alone. In a bid to curb the region’s growing epidemic, countries have been working with UNAIDS to secure additional funding to scale-up the AIDS response in the region.

Securing external funding is particularly challenging in the Middle East and North Africa due to limited support from external donors. One of the donors operating in the region is the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria which has now become one of the main sources of AIDS funding for the region. The fund was created in January 2002 to attract, manage and disburse additional financing to support locally-driven strategies in response to AIDS, TB and malaria.

To date, the Global Fund has approved a total of US$ 6.6 billion to over 450 grants in 136 countries. Of the US$ 6.6 billion approved, US$ 2.9 billion has been disbursed to public and private recipients in 129 countries.

The grant application process can be complex and many countries in the region have solicited UNAIDS to assist in processing their applications. UNAIDS has played a role in raising awareness and creating a climate which has enabled countries to establish a country coordination mechanism thus making it possible to develop their grant proposals. UNAIDS facilitates provision of technical expertise to these areas and helps countries not only to develop their grant applications but also to implement the grants once approved.

In the most recent round of grants (Round Six) UNAIDS Regional Support Team and Country Offices in the Middle East and North Africa worked with five countries in the region to help formulate their proposals. Grants were approved for four out of the five countries with funding amounting to some US$ 26 million.

“UNAIDS works with countries at every opportunity to help ‘make the money work’ so that funds reach the people that need them most,” said Michel Sidibe, Director of UNAIDS Country and Regional Support Department. “As countries move towards the goal of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, adequate funding from both external and domestic sources is absolutely vital.”

Currently, 13 out of the 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa meet the eligibility criteria for Global Fund support and 10 out of 11 countries who have applied for Global Fund funding for AIDS to date have succeeded in obtaining funds, amounting to a total of US$ 127 million.

The UNAIDS Secretariat has provided assistance in developing 73% of all the proposals on AIDS in the region that have been approved between Rounds One and Six, including support to proposals from Algeria, Djibouti, Jordan, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, and Tunisia.

As well as working with countries on grant proposals, UNAIDS also continues to support the implementation of grants and resolve major coordination and implementation difficulties or capacity-building challenges in all countries where grants were already in place from earlier rounds. Through the Global Implementation Support Team – GIST - UNAIDS, together with Cosponsors and the Global Fund headquarters, are providing a common action plan to support counties in solving bottlenecks, at the request of countries.

Typically the activities funded by the grants are wide-ranging and include development of second-generation surveillance and monitoring and evaluation; working with people most at risk of HIV infection such as young people, people who inject drugs and sex workers; reinforcing civil society––including non-governmental organisations, community-leaders and people living with HIV; increasing access to care, treatment, and psycho-social support of people living with HIV; and other specific interventions, such as coordination, blood safety, voluntary counselling and testing, and sexually transmitted infections.

“The availability of Global Fund resources in the region have created a new reality and represents a critical turning point in the national responses in the Middle East and North Africa,” said Oussama Tawil, Director of UNAIDS Regional Support Team for the Middle East and North Africa. “This is essential in particular in a context where the allocation of public resources remains relatively limited and primarily oriented to health care responses and other donor resources generally still represent limited support.”

The assistance UNAIDS provides to countries is coordinated with the World Health Organisation and other Cosponsors through an agreement which ensures complementary responses to countries and joint funding of regional training on the development of Global Fund proposals.

“Using the frameworks of the 'Three Ones' and 'Universal Access', UNAIDS will focus in 2007 on resolving bottlenecks, supporting the implementation process with scaled-up and diversified technical assistance ensuring that efforts in countries go beyond the 'project-mode' with regards to the Global Fund grants,” said Tawil.

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Photo Credit: UNAIDS/P.Virot

Increasing access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services for drug users and their partners is crucial to addressing the issue of growing HIV infections related to injecting drug use in the Middle East and North Africa region.

This was the overwhelming conclusion reached by regional representatives from law enforcement agencies, national AIDS programmes, NGOs, researchers, community representatives, people living with HIV and UN organizations who joined at a regional workshop on the issue of HIV and drug use in the region, held in Cairo, Egypt from 5 – 8 November.

Throughout the 3-day discussions, participants from the Arab countries, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan affirmed that drug use is an important risk factor in facilitating spread of HIV that calls for immediate action. Joint efforts of police, national AIDS actors, NGOs, drug users and of people living with HIV were recognized as fundamental elements in the prevention of HIV among drug users and their partners.

While significant efforts are being undertaken in a number of countries to reach out with HIV preventive services to drug users communities, limited capacities coupled with discrimination against drug users hamper implementation of wider-scale programmes.

“From my personal experience and my field work on reducing harm related to drug use, I suggest training more drug users and ex-drug users –to build their skills in order to promote and implement [HIV preventive] programs in the region,” an ex-drug user and outreach worker said in the workshop.

New initiatives for building capacities of civil society actors on implementing harm reduction measures and networking in the region were discussed and examined.

“Participation in this workshop has allowed an exchange of international experiences among NGOs and governments, and a discussion of the strategic approaches to planning at the national level to protect against the harms and risks of drugs and related HIV. It has created cooperation between [national stakeholders]…and encouraged civil society actors to assist and support alternative programs for drug users,” police participants from one of the Gulf countries said.

As part of the workshop, UNAIDS and UNODC launched the finalized Rapid Situation Assessment on Drug Use and HIV in Algeria and Morocco, as well as facilitate consensus on programmatic follow up for all participating countries. WHO and the International Harm Reduction Association launched a project on strengthening the role of civil society in harm reduction for injecting drug users in the Middle East and North Africa.

Although the main mode of HIV transmission in the Middle East and North Africa remains unprotected sexual contact, injecting drug use is an increasingly important factor in the region’s epidemics.

Although the main mode of HIV transmission in the Middle East and North Africa remains unprotected sexual contact, injecting drug use is an increasingly important factor in the region’s epidemics.

The spread of HIV among drug users appears to be closely related to evolving patterns of drug use in the region in recent decades. Evidence suggests increase in number of drug users, decrease in the age at first use of drugs and some indication of an increased percentage of women using drugs in several countries.

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates there are 400,000 injecting drug users in Arab countries and approximately 200,000 in Iran. These figures do not include a recent increase in numbers in Afghanistan which have been observed.

The sharing of contaminated injecting equipment among injecting drug users has become the predominant route of HIV infection in at least two countries since the mid to late 1990s – Iran and Libya –where a concentrated epidemic now appears to be well established.

“This is a real and growing issue for countries in the Middle East and North Africa. And although we are seeing increasing willingness to introduce HIV prevention and treatment programmes for drug users, focused efforts are needed urgently to ensure access to services for all drug users and their partners,” said Oussama Tawil, Director of UNAIDS’ Regional Support Team, Middle East and North Africa.

Over the last years, UNAIDS and UNODC have supported assessments on drug use and HIV-related risks in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, as well as in Oman and Syria, as part of efforts to better understand trends and dynamics of the epidemics in the region and to increase HIV prevention efforts.

Main findings ensued suggest that needle sharing, ranging from 40 to 60%, coupled with low knowledge on AIDS, limited access to health and HIV-related services, stigma and discrimination, and other associated risk factors, are among some of the challenges faced by the region to reduce HIV risks and vulnerability among injecting drug users.

Within the assessments, researchers spoke to drug users about their thoughts and fears: “If I enter [a treatment center] I'll be marked, and my future is over. I will not be able to do anything, neither work nor life," said one of the participant.

“Drug use and other risk behaviors remain stigmatized in the region, which is why we must forge strong partnerships with different sectors, such as the national AIDS programmes, non-governmental organizations, drug users, people living with HIV and law enforcement agencies, to be able to better understand the epidemic and implement concrete solutions,” said Mr Tawil.

Foundations for an increased response to address HIV risks and vulnerability among drug users have been established in some countries and are underway in others. In Iran – considered a global best practice model – HIV-related initiatives for injecting drug users inside and outside prisons are now being scaled up beyond the pilot levels.

In an example of a bold movement to better tackle the issue of HIV and drug use in the region, representatives from law enforcement agencies, national AIDS programmes, NGOs, researchers, community representatives, people living with HIV, UN organizations and other partners will join at a regional workshop to be held in Cairo, Egypt from 5 – 8 November.

The workshop— “Towards Implementation of a Comprehensive HIV response and AIDS Response Among Drug Users in the Middle East and North Africa”— convened by UNAIDS and its cosponsors UNODC and the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as the German Technical Coorperation (GTZ), will welcome participants from 16 countries and aims to build capacities on programming and implementing HIV prevention, treatment and care interventions among drug users.

As part of the workshop, UNAIDS and UNODC will launch the finalized Rapid Situation Assessment on Drug Use and HIV in Algeria and Morocco, as well as facilitate consensus on programmatic follow up for all participating countries. WHO and the International Harm Reduction Association will also launch the project on strengthening the role of civil society in harm reduction for injecting drug users in the Middle East and North Africa.

“This gathering bringing together wide diversity of partners is unique for the region and a turning point for action on drug use and HIV in the region” Mr. Tawil said.

Caravanning in Morocco has taken a whole new meaning with a special summer caravan travelling around the country in a quest to raise awareness about HIV prevention among young people.

Parking at some of Morocco’s most popular resorts from the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts to the remote Atlas Mountains sites, the caravan has visited 19 youth campsites where more than 7000 young men and women have stayed during their holidays.

The SIDAmobile initiative’s caravan is run by the Moroccan-based organization ‘Association de Lutte Contre le SIDA’ in Morocco (ALCS) and the Ministry of State for Youth.

“In Morocco, we are very sensitized to the importance of intensifying prevention efforts towards young people because they are particularly vulnerable to HIV infection and also because they represent the future,” said President of the ALCS, Hakima Himmich.

At each stopover, the facilitators –all doctors who have been specially trained to work with young people on the issue of HIV— initiated open and frank discussions about sex and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In less than a month, the caravan distributed some 35 000 flyers on HIV and 15 000 condoms were given to young people at their request. Also more than 700 people asked for, and received, a confidential HIV test with counselling.

“It’s the first time I have done an HIV test”, said a participant of the summer camp Assilah Corniche. “There is nothing wrong about it but it’s not very common in my neighborhood to be open about sex, especially for girls.”

“It’s good to learn about HIV and how it spreads,” added another young woman in the same campsite. “Now I know how people become infected with HIV and I learned how to protect myself,” she added.

In Morocco, only an estimated 12% of women aged 15 to 24 are able to identify ways to prevent HIV. “We are trying to create an environment that enables people, especially the younger ones, overcome some of the taboo associated with sex and give them an opportunity to talk about their concerns and ask questions,” said My Ahmed Douraidi from ALCS and coordinator of the SIDAmobile initiative. “This is the first step for any HIV prevention work,” he added.

Praising this grass root prevention initiative and recognizing the importance of high level leadership and commitment, Kamal Alami from UNAIDS office in Morocco said that “HIV prevention on the ground is far more effective when programmes are tailored to audiences”.

“In Morocco, the high level support we receive creates many opportunities, such as music festivals, popular celebrations etc. that we can seize to disseminate prevention messages among young people,” he added.

The summer caravan stems from a collaborative effort between ALCS, the State Secretary for Youth and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

Related links
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) 
Association de Lutte Contre le SIDA (ALCS)

 

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, 28 January 2012—UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé called today on African governments to take on a greater share of AIDS investments in their own countries and across the region. Addressing an audience of Heads of State and Government attending the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Mr Sidibé said that financing a sustainable response to the HIV epidemic in Africa will require home grown and innovative solutions that meet the needs of the African people.

An estimated two-thirds of AIDS expenditures in Africa come from international funding sources, according to a new UNAIDS issues brief titled “AIDS dependency crisis: sourcing African solutions.” The vast majority of life-saving antiretroviral medicines consumed in Africa are imported from generic manufacturers. While the costs of HIV drug regimens have declined significantly in recent years, they remain high and unsustainable, and prices must be further reduced to reach all people eligible for treatment.

“Africa is too dependent on external resources, especially for the AIDS response,” said Mr Sidibé. “This is a source of great risk and potential instability. The status quo cannot be sustained—it is time for a new development paradigm that is developed and owned by the leaders of Africa.”

The UNAIDS Executive Director outlined opportunities for strengthened ownership of development investments in Africa. A single African Medicines Regulatory Agency could expedite the roll-out of quality-assured HIV drugs, he said. The development of centers of excellence in Africa could catalyze the local production of high-quality HIV medicines and build Africa’s knowledge-based economy, he added.

Speaking alongside Mr Sidibé at a press conference on 28 January, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), said that reaching the 10 targets in the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS would only be possible through increased investment in the HIV response by African countries. “The current development model is not sustainable, particularly in this global economic downturn. African leaders must take greater ownership of AIDS investments across the region,” he said.

UNAIDS estimates that Africa will require between US$ 11-12 billion for its AIDS response by 2015—US$ 3-4 billion more than the current expenditure. African countries could help bridge the continent’s AIDS resource gap by mobilizing funding from a range of sources. Revenue could be obtained by taxing alcohol and tobacco consumption or the use of mobile telephones. Additional funding could be leveraged through public-private partnerships with Africa’s increasingly powerful companies. African leaders could also explore the wider use of “soft loans” from the African Development Bank.

The new UNAIDS brief also emphasized the continued importance of shared responsibility in the HIV response—of countries and donors. Significant and sustained international investments will be required for the AIDS response in Africa, even if African countries meet the 2001 Abuja Declaration target of a 15% allocation of government revenue for the health sector.

“Increased investments are needed from both African and high-income countries,” said Mr Sidibé. “External aid is not going to disappear and African governments must negotiate more predictable, sustainable HIV investments from international partners.”

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS urges all parties concerned, including the media, to understand that HIV infection is a condition that requires appropriate treatment and care.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) joined other UN agencies and the Secretary General in stating its shock at the tragic bombing of the UN offices in Algiers, and great sadness at the loss of life.

Geneva, 12 July 2007 - The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) expresses serious concern over the verdict delivered by the Libyan Supreme Court to uphold the death sentences imposed on six health care professionals.

UNAIDS is concerned that certain scientific evidence appears to have not been taken into consideration raising serious doubts regarding the conclusion reached by the court.

UNAIDS strongly urges Libya’s High Judiciary Council to review the Supreme Court’s decision when they meet on Monday, taking into consideration all relevant and available scientific evidence related to the case.

The six health care professionals (five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor), imprisoned since 1999, are accused of deliberately infecting 426 children with HIV whilst working at a hospital in Benghazi, Libya. Since 1999, 56 of the children found to be infected with the virus have died.

UNAIDS also expresses its deep concern and empathy for the children affected and for their families, and urges the Libyan Government and international partners to ensure that HIV treatment, care and support are provided to these children and that the human rights of all are respected.

UNAIDS reiterates its support to the Government of Libya for a comprehensive response to prevent the transmission of HIV; to provide for treatment, care and support for those living with HIV; and to protect the rights of those affected by HIV.

The Joint United Nations Programme