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Seminar on the impact of HIV/AIDS on land reform in KwaZulu-Natal
Hosted by the Southern African Regional Poverty Network and the Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking University of Natal, Durban
Scott Drimie
and
Deborah Heustice
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[Briefing note]
[Seminar proceedings]
[Delegates]
[Annexures]
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Seminar proceedings
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3. Overview of existing land reform HIV/AIDS policy and integration into
programmes
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3.1. Overview of the DLA HIV/AIDS programme and the challenges of implementation
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- Ms Coletane Carey, Co-ordinator, National DLA HIV/AIDS Desk
Ms Carey was appointed in May 1999 to spearhead the HIV/AIDS response for the Department of Land Affairs (DLA) in all nine provinces of South Africa. This involved setting up an internal, external and outreach programme for HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS committees in each of the nine regions. She describes the role as “mission impossible”.
These programmes and the challenges they present are summarised briefly below.
Each of these programmes is outlined in detail in
Annexure Six, which
also includes a copy of the DLA HIV/AIDS policy. These programmes and
the challenges they present are summarized briefly below.
Internal HIV/AIDS Programme
The DLA has dedicated a budget of R800 000 and a full-time national co-ordinator to address their internal HIV/AIDS needs. As the co-ordinator, Ms Carey was tasked with developing a DLA staff programme around HIV/AIDS. She encountered considerable resistance from staff from the outset. An initial needs assessment, canvassing all 2 800 staff, which was circulated together with a draft policy, received a response from only 156 staff members. Nevertheless, she has managed to make considerable progress with the internal HIV/AIDS programme. The DLA finalised its HIV/AIDS policy and launched it in all nine provinces in August 1999; AIDS committees have been established in each province and are functioning well in most; and an HIV/AIDS business plan has been developed and some of its strategies are already being implemented. One of these strategies is a comprehensive educational programme with basic HIV/AIDS training being provided throughout the DLA offices countrywide to ensure that staff is sensitised to HIV/AIDS. Education has also been tailored to the needs of specific staff in the DLA (peer education, legal education) and monitoring and evaluation tools have been developed to assess the impact of the internal programme. HIV/AIDS also receives priority on the management agenda of the DLA, being a standing item on the Exco agenda. The DLA is furthermore, an active participant on the interdepartmental committee on HIV/AIDS, a forum for all national government AIDS programmes.
The DLA’s commitments for 2001 - 2002 are:
- To establish linkages between implementation of land reform
projects for beneficiaries and AIDS programmes
- To develop a support programme for infected and affect staff
- To sustain the involvement of a PWA in order to strengthen the
DLA HIV/AIDS programme. This was achieved in August 2001 when Ms
Tyku, a PWA, was seconded from the Department of Health.
- To establish community outreach programmes with national and
provincial AIDS service organisations
The External Programme of the DLA:
The DLA is committed to use its resources to reach all land reform
beneficiaries and to advocate for them to develop HIV/AIDS responses.
This commitment in embodied in the DLA HIV/AIDS policy. However,
extending the AIDS programme to land reform beneficiaries is still
in the planning phase and Ms Carey stated that she hoped that this
seminar will assist in thinking through the processes necessary to
implement the policy.
The plan consists of three main phases, the first is a situational
analysis of existing community structures, factors increasing risk
of infection and needs around HIV/AIDS; the second phase is to establish
HIV/AIDS committees and community links; and the third phase is the
implementation phase involving AIDS awareness talks, AIDS education,
care, support and impact monitoring. The plan is detailed in
Annexure Six.
Challenges:
Ms Carey noted a number of challenges that the HIV/AIDS programme has and is still facing with the DLA. A major challenge is that HIV/AIDS is not seen as a priority for planning at the DLA and there is a consequent lack of urgency, commitment and insight into the impact of the pandemic from some management and staff. There is a need for more training of management and the development of care programmes for staff and beneficiaries. HIV has also not been integrated into land reform programmes. To date there has been no co-ordination of land affairs and agriculture programmes on HIV/AIDS. However Ms Carey is now collaborating with her counterpart at the National Department of Agriculture. The DLA programme is also understaffed at present, making it difficult to extend existing efforts and effect implementation of the policy at a national level. Lack of support has also affected the operation of the HIV/AIDS committees at provincial level.
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