Executive Summary
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The impact of HIV/AIDS on community-level participants of COMPASS grants
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Income-generating projects
Four out of six groups of community-level participants of COMPASS grants were moderately impacted by HIV/AIDS, in that some income generating projects involved married men or women who were caring for orphans or a sick relative, but excluded those who had little or no free time due to more severe impacts of the disease. Only the Ndirande and recently collapsed Songani briquette-making groups involved women who were severely impacted by HIV/AIDS.
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Community-based natural resource management projects
All seven COMPASS CBNRM projects were in areas that contained large numbers of households that were severely and very severely impacted by HIV/AIDS. That is households that are headed by widows, grandmothers or children.
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NGOs
All four NGOs surveyed were moderately to severely impacted by HIV/AIDS.
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The impact of HIV/AIDS on the CBNRM project activities and outcomes
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Income-generating projects
Four out of six income-generating projects that were visited were not significantly constrained by the impacts of HIV/AIDS, as they were being implemented by people only moderately affected by the disease. The Ndirande briquette makers were using the emotional strength that they had gained from their group activities to provide support to members who were suffering from the impacts of HIV/AIDS.
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Community-based natural resource management projects
In five out of seven CBNRM projects, HIV/AIDS had not impacted on project activities or outcomes as households severely affected by this disease had been excluded. Only BERDO and Hope Humana had designed its activities to directly benefit vulnerable households.
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The impact of the CBNRM activity on households’ and communities’ ability to respond to HIV/AIDS economically, socially, and nutritionally.
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Income-generating projects
COMPASS-funded group IGAs were having little impact on the ability of participants to improve economically (raising an average income of US$3.25 per person per month) compared with two individual income generating activities being carried out by women who were severely impacted by HIV/AIDS and were each able to earn more than US$17.00 per month. Groups in which the majority of the participants are women have the potential of becoming support groups for members affected by the disease. None of the IGAs sampled were having any effect on mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS in the surrounding community in terms of economics, social support or improved nutrition.
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Community-based natural resource management projects
In five out of seven CBNRM projects, households severely impacted by HIV/AIDS were effectively excluded from the benefits that accrue from activities that demand extra labour and regular attendance at meetings. Only the Hope Humana herb garden project and the BERDO afforestation, guinea fowl rearing, bee-keeping and clay stove production project were directly benefiting severely impacted, HIV/AIDS-affected households. In particular, BERDO was able to strengthen households’ and communities’ ability to respond to HIV/AIDS, through linking improvements in food security with CBNRM activities.
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