The Drum Beat 156: SPECIAL - UPDATE on Exchanging Information for HIV/AIDS

The Panos Survey on HIV Communication

- an update from The Panos Institute...

Many thanks to those of you who filled in the Panos Survey on HIV Communication - either online or at the Panos stand at the Barcelona AIDS Conference. If you have not yet completed this survey, please do so online - closing date is August 5. In this short update, we will look at data from just one part of the questionnaire and make some tentative comments about where this data is leading. 

The questionnaire looks at how different organisations use communication in the response to HIV - and the information was based on employee's perceptions of their organisation's work, rather than any hard institutional facts and figures. The survey also has some random poll questions that look at people's perceptions of the overall response to HIV. 

So far 226 people have completed the interactive questionnaire, with over 150 others starting the process but failing to complete. A further 106 people filled in paper versions of the questionnaire - although these versions did not have an interactive element and therefore did not come up with the richness of information as the online versions. 

Of the people that filled in the online questionnaire, 17 were associated with community based organisations, 48 were associated with media organisations, 114 were associated with NGOs, 36 were associated to policy or donor making positions and 11 were in other types of organisations. 

One question looked at the kinds of activity that NGOs were involved in. For this question, people were encouraged to give more than one answer, as most organisations have more than one activity. The results for the online version of the questionnaire are below. 

57 said "information dissemination"
9 - "media training"
40 - "policy advocacy"
32 - health promotion
42 - "health education"
21 - "information for media"
33 - "information for policymakers"
24 - "information for healthworkers"
17 - "communication training"
3 - "medical care and treatment"
21 - "voluntary counselling and testing"
23 - "condom distribution"
28 - "community based care"
25 - "support groups"

Of the 114 NGOs who filled in the questionnaire, 102 selected at least one information, education or communication activity - and the majority selected a range of such activities. An emerging pattern is of a large number of organisations producing information for a small number of key audiences. More interestingly, when each of the NGOs involved in information, education or communication activities were asked "who determines what your organisation does?" (again, encouraging respondents to select more than one choice) of those 102 organisations running information, education and communication activities: 

47 said their work was influenced by the executive of the organisation
44 - by all staff
31 - by the Board of their organisation
28 - by donors
27 - by the communities affected by HIV/AIDS
16 - by the general population
12 - by the government
3 - by their shareholders.

What does this tell us? Certainly it suggests that information, education and communication activities are heavily influenced by donors, NGO staff, boards and executives, and are less influenced by local governments or general national populations. The organisations board and council also was an important factor in influencing the decisions taken. The general population and the government were far less often cited as playing a key role in decision making. The influence by the donors was in almost all cases equal or marginally less than that of the communities most affected by HIV/AIDS. 

The fact that 27 people said that communities affected by HIV/AIDS played a role in determining their organisational priorities is encouraging - yet what is slightly less encouraging is that of these 27 people - a quarter later said that in general, people most affected by the virus were poorly represented in general decisions relating to their work relating to HIV. The implications of this contradiction are debatable, but clearly even among those organisations that do listen to those most affected by the epidemic, there is a significant proportion that feel that the extent to which they are listening is still insufficient. 

We hope the above gives some sense of some preliminary findings. The final Panos report on HIV communication is due to be released and circulated in October. We will be putting regular updates on our website - click here - and we look forward to sharing more information with you nearer that time. 

***

twinning against AIDS

- an update from the coordinator...

The 'twinning against AIDS' process began June 10 2002 to seek input from around the world on how best to use ICTs to enhance the exchange of information, skills and experience on HIV/AIDS prevention, care, treatment and support. Since then an international Steering Committee has been formed, a web site has been established, an online and MS Word version survey has been circulated via e-mail lists and the Internet, and a face to face meeting of some Steering Committee members and stakeholders was held during the AIDS Conference in Barcelona to discuss preliminary findings and make suggestions for next steps.

Thanks to those of you who took the time to fill out the survey. And for those who haven't yet found time this is THE LAST CALL. You can still fill it out at the twinning site until August 9. 

What follows is a brief summary of some initial trends so far. 

Patterns:
These are preliminary and will require further analysis but some basic information and a few initial thoughts are offered below. 

Total number of surveys completed as of July 19 = 109. 

By region:
Africa - 40 (37%)
Latin America & the Caribbean - 10 (9%)
North America - 23 (21%)
Western & Eastern Europe - 9 (8%)
South & South East Asia - 24 (22%)
South Pacific - 3 (3%)

Half of the respondents described their organisations as Local/national CBO/NGO/PVO or community groups. Of the rest, there were 12 AIDS Service Organisations, 11 International NGOs, 5 Multilaterals, 4 Bilaterals, 3 Academic/training Institutions, 3 Government Departments, 2 from the Private Sector, and 2 International Foundations. 65 had less than 21 staff working for them, 70 said their staff had access to Internet at least several times a week (this includes 25 of the African respondents), and 84 had annual AIDS budgets of less than US $250,000. 

85% felt twinning partnerships with other organisations were very important for responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis. 93% felt that a web site dedicated to enhancing the exchange of information, skills and experience on HIV/AIDS prevention, care, treatment and support would be a cost effective, useful and widely used tool. 

Respondents felt that twinning could assist them in areas like developing new skills, learning from others' experiences, identifying support for expanding work to new constituencies like the private sector, finding partners connected to the grassroots, and sharing knowledge about prevention initiatives amongst different target groups such as agricultural, transportation or sex trade workers. They also felt twinning could help overcome existing limitations such as a lack of research capacity for small organisations, poor sharing of data and experiences resulting in a lot of 'reinventing the wheel', and limited ability to pool capacities to improve cost effectiveness and efficiency. 

Many felt the Internet provided significant new tools for enhancing the exchange of information, skills and experience and suggested mechanisms such as peer review of projects, plans, and evaluations, internet based mentorship, an on-line 'dating service' matching needs and resources, an events calendar, a discussion forum, and an electronic newsletter profiling twinning experiences, new resources, special calls for assistance etc. The ability and need to use the Internet in a way that enabled exchange from south to south as well as north to south and south to north was highlighted along with reminders that many southern organisations have no ICT access and this process must take into account how benefits can be shared across the digital divide. The importance of face to face meetings such as staff exchanges and secondments, workshops and conferences, and 'satellite' twinning meetings around regional or global events was also emphasised. 

The Meeting in Barcelona:
Discussants from Latin America and Asia felt there was a need to go beyond forums focused only on improving twinning relationships explaining for example, that there is presently no place in Latin America for ASOs to discuss UNGASS or the Global Fund. The Global AIDS Action Network reported on a complimentary US process called 'Connecting the Grassroots' which is considering creating a number of Internet hubs driven by southern organisations with a regional or language focus - this led to a discussion about complexity (how many language groups, how do you define a region?) and how to share information between the hubs. Overall, the discussants felt it was essential to ensure that twinning processes include mechanisms which combine ICTs, face to face exchanges, and resources to address technology gaps in poor countries in ways that put the needs and voices of those closest to the pandemic first. 

Next Steps:
The survey closes August 9 and a preliminary discussion document and plan will be prepared by August 16. It will be circulated to the Steering Committee which will identify follow-up questions for further indepth interviews with key respondents. A final draft version of the business plan will be placed on the 'twinning against AIDS' web site - by mid to late Sept. It will be reviewed by the Steering Committee and a final plan will be ready by mid-Oct. 

For more information, contact Chris Morry cmorry@comminit.com

***

The Pulse Poll

- from The Communication Initiative...

We are continuing our present poll, focusing on communication and/or condoms in programming, through the month of August. Below we give results so far as well as some selected comments and initial thoughts of analysis. 



Please note: These polls are not scientific. They are a way of informally seeking your ideas and opinions on issues and potential trends. We find that the comments generated are often intriguing, unexpected, and from varying perspectives. 

---

Programmes that foster open discussion and debate on HIV/AIDS are as important as programmes that distribute condoms.

Poll Results as of July 30, 2002:
Total number of participants = 93

88.17 % Agree
10.75 % Disagree
1.08 % Unsure

AGREE
Respondents have overwhelmingly agreed with this statement. Most of the comments suggest that discussion and debate need to be combined with condom distribution in order for programming to be effective. Some suggest that discussion and debate are actually more important than condom distribution.

"Distributing condoms won't guarantee that they will be used for safe sex (like so many kids in Majority World countries who use them to make footballs). Programmes that foster discussion and reflection combined with distribution of condoms are the most efficient way to bring about change and sustain it." [Australia]

"Absolutely. Condom distribution is just a band aid. It is open discussion and debate that is likely to foster behavior change and reduce high risk behavior."

"They are obviously more important. Condoms are the "too-late" type of response and we know that many people will not even use them because they are not yet well aware about the real risks of contractic HIV-AIDS. Curative measures or preventive measures that do not involve awareness creation through a participatory approach, are useless. They only help while funds for it are available. They do not create any sustainable response. They do not take into consideration cultural specificity: just one standard response for the whole world. No wonder that things are getting worst in spite of all the money invested in the last 20 years. Much more than for any other disease." [Guatemala]

"I definitely think they are at least as important if not more so, as I am aware of several situations where it is the social and community attitudes that have been the most vicious reaction that people living with aids and their families have had to deal with." [Sri Lanka] 

DISAGREE
Like many of those who agreed, most people who have disagreed and commented thus far feel that programmes that foster open discussion and debate are MORE important than those that distribute condoms. And these respondents felt that they could not agree with a statement that posited condom distribution and discussion and debate as equal. 

"I believe that programs that foster open discussion and debate are more important: it is through such action that we succeed in convincing people to use a condom, to abstain, to limit partners -- breaking down barriers to perception of risk."

"For condoms to be used effectively amongst partners there must be open discussion." [Malawi]

***

The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see our policy.

To subscribe, click here.