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Community participation: a "must" for enabling HIV / AIDS prevention in Africa to "move beyond awareness raising".


 The International HIV/AIDS Alliance, an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) established in 1993 to support community action on AIDS in developing countries, seeks to move beyond awareness-raising to face the challenge of addressing the factors that affect individual and community behavior and vulnerability. A major strategy of the Alliance is to join national NGOs with an independent NGO support program through a "linking organization" that channels a full range of services to the local level and fosters collaboration in order to improve the strategic and technical quality of community action against HIV/AIDS. The Alliance and linking organizations relies on participatory methodology to explore how local factors increase vulnerability and impede behavior change. The Alliance strategy, built upon experience gained in 1995 in Bangladesh, is now being applied in Morocco, Burkina Faso, and Senegal. The Alliance framework calls for needs assessments that are participatory, not limited to HIV/AIDS, not "research projects," fairly quick and practical, and considered a first step. This approach has been used by more than 30 local African NGOs who are now beginning to implement innovative, needs-based programs that seek behavior changes. The next step involves participatory prevention methods adapted to meet local needs. The lessons shared by the NGOs in international workshops include the following: 1) small NGOs can be effective if they have systematic technical support; 2) community participation is a continuing process; 3) the methodologies are not ends in themselves; 4) community action also requires participatory attitudes and behaviors by facilitators and staff; 5) the balance of power between NGOs and their communities is changed by community participation; 6) use of local technical support increases program sustainability; and 7) experiences can be shared, but local strategies are required.
