APN and GNP
HIV Living Policy Analyst, John Rule, brings readers up-to-date on the action of positive people's networks in the Asia Pacific region.
These networks of positive people have begun to talk about Capacity Development for GIPA.- Those initials stand for the Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS. It is a principle expressed in the Paris AIDS summit declaration and the international guidelines on HIV/AIDS and human rights. Australia's take on this is referred to as 'the centrality of positive people' and is found in the current National Strategy documents and many hiv sector organisational statements.
There is a low level of involvement of plwha in hiv/aids responses throughout, for example, South Asia. The reasons are not difficult to understand. Fear, stigma, discrimination, lack of care and support means that plwha do not disclose their status. In turn, this means there are weak or non-existent plwha organisations. This has implications for the development of national responses. It is a vicious circle. Those who are able to 'come out' in these countries are exceptional people. However, despite these exceptions, the consequence is that the epidemic continues to be invisible and responses are formulated with little input from those infected and affected by the epidemic.
The GIPA capacity model that has been developed includes three elements:
- organisational development
- learning, awareness building and sensitisation
- provision for basic care and support.
The Asia Pacific Network of positive people is one area of focus for implementing this model and there is currently a proposal for a three-year training program comprised of a series of regional training workshops and follow-up training in each country. Implementing the program depends on establishing a collation involving UNDP country offices, UNAIDS Country Teams, NGOs working with plwha and government. Judging from the meeting (or rather non-meeting) of APN+, getting the program up and running will be hard work. There is some hard work ahead for a number of plwha from Australia who are presently committed to seeing this happen in the Asia Pacific region.
The conclusion reached at the GNP+ Satellite meeting was that GNP+ continue to support the Global Access Alliance; that the regional organisational development initiative should be pursued as a key goal and that a series of indicators around stigma and discrimination be developed for application on a national basis.
As for how Australia contributes to all of this, everyone is aware of the effort it takes to maintain organisations on a national basis. For Australian plwha who have the energy, it is important to be part of these networks - at least at the level of being able to give some respectful witness to the experiences of plwha from other countries.
