Challenges to HIV/AIDS Program Implementation

Issues: Critical to sustaining development and ensuring continuity of international HIV/AIDS programs is developing the capacity of indigenous institutions in the public, private and the civil society sectors. However, local capacity to handle logistics of program implementation continues to be inadequate, depending on donor support for all levels of activities.

Description: This presentation aims to discuss the basic challenges faced in HIV/AIDS program implementation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and identify possible strategy for converting such challenges into opportunities for success. Though local organizations are provided support and partnership by international donor agencies and governments, basic infrastructure and human capacity remains wanting in its ability to deliver at expected standards. Local partners remain the most valuable conduits for facilitating collaboration between donors and strategic stakeholders in the community however, the varying degrees of levels of professionalism and human capacity of these partners prove a significant challenge to performance.

Lessons Learned: Capacity building can be strategically structured to ensure sustained human development relevant to region and socio cultural context and donor support ideally focused on system wide effects that speak to targeted development of infrastructure in a way that promotes continuity, aimed at reducing donor dependency.

Recommendations: Needs driven initiatives, encourage local ownership/buy-in of programs with realistic exit strategies are bound to lead to more effective and efficient implementation and project continuity.