United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganizationPolicy-makers, civil society organizations (CSOs) and research institutes in four countries were interviewed to gain a greater understanding of the priorities and needs required for the development of more comprehensive HIV and AIDS policies in the southern Africa region.
This regional survey was conducted within the framework of UNESCO’s project "Strengthening national policies and priorities among Ministries in sub-Saharan Africa". The overarching goal of this project is to strengthen the ability and resources of policy-makers in Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Zambia to formulate and evaluate policies addressing HIV and AIDS which adequately take culture into account. To this end, the project focuses on enabling effective inter-sectoral, inter-ministerial, and inter-country collaboration as well as opportunities for increased knowledge sharing.
Greater inter-ministerial cooperation enhances culturally appropriateness in that it recognizes how health is not simply a biomedical concern but rather something embedded within and heavily influenced by social, cultural and other structural factors. Strengthening mechanisms for exchange and feedback among local researchers, national Ministries, CSOs and the greater public is considered vital for building internal capacity to respond to the epidemic in a manner that is tailored to the national context.
In order to gain a greater understanding of the priorities and needs required for the development of comprehensive HIV and AIDS policies, UNESCO commissioned a multi-national survey to solicit the views of policy-makers, CSOs and research institutes in each country. Questions were structured around three topic areas that explored how inter-ministerial collaboration functions, how public dialogue plays a role in policy formation and how CSOs can play a greater role in building national HIV and AIDS research capacity.