Portal No1 to Africa : Minister Whelan announces ...

The funding announced today will be disbursed in the following manner:

$31.5 million over five years through the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) to improve the ability of partner organizations to encourage behaviour changes that will reduce HIV transmission and help communities care for people living with and affected by AIDS in Southern Africa. This is the third phase of the CIDA-funded Southern Africa AIDS Training (SAT) project. SAT covers 5 countries – Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Activities supported by SAT are delivered mainly through three mechanisms: a capacity development fund that provides financial support for initiatives led by community-based organizations; a training and mentoring program; and, SAT staff provide assistance to partners with project design, planning, sustainability analyses, developing financial systems, and monitoring and evaluating their activities.
$7.8 million over five years through the University of Manitoba with its partner, the University of Nairobi, to continue their work – begun in 1995 – to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS in Kenya. This partnership will mobilize resources from the Kenyan government, donors, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to promote peer-led community HIV prevention and care programming. Activities will include: providing female sex workers with loans to develop their own commercial ventures in the fields of hair dressing and goods marketing; continued development of new medical models for the treatment of HIV infections in various government health facilities; developing in-house HIV training programs for the private sector, NGO and local community organizations to strengthen AIDS awareness and prevention; and, helping the University of Nairobi establish a Centre for HIV Prevention to train Kenyan stakeholders and make improvements to existing health training programs and develop new ones.
$5 million over five years for HIV/AIDS programming in Pakistan. The consortium of Agriteam Canada Ltd., the University of Manitoba, and ProAction: Partners for Community Health, Inc. has been invited to develop a detailed design to improve the capacity of the National and Provincial AIDS Control Programs in Pakistan to monitor the HIV/AIDS epidemic, identify its likely future directions and develop effective policies and programs to control and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Staff and researchers at government, non-governmental and community-based organizations will be trained to manage HIV/AIDS second generation sero-surveillance and behavioural studies among vulnerable high-risk groups. A management information system and a National HIV/AIDS Resource Centre will be established to make information available to decision makers, researchers and other stakeholders.
$5 million over five years through the University of Manitoba to transform the Regional AIDS Training Network (RATN), situated at the University of Nairobi, into a fully functional and legal network of institutions in Africa capable of delivering training and/or managing quality, gender-sensitive STI/HIV/AIDS prevention, care, support, and mitigation programs. CIDA first supported the RATN in 1997. The extension of this initiative will allow a core group of African training institutions – from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, and Uganda – to continue to share their expertise and provide short-term, practical courses for managers, supervisors and trainers from national health-care systems and other health-care organizations. The first phase of this partnership delivered over 60 training sessions to more than 800 individuals from 21 countries, of whom 58% were women.
$2.2 million over two years through UNAIDS to strengthen China's response to HIV/AIDS prevention and the care of people living with HIV/AIDS. This initiative will increase the awareness of Chinese policy makers and civil servants on the need for legislative changes in HIV/AIDS prevention and care; support the creation of a Web site on the legal aspects of HIV/AIDS prevention and care; strengthen the capacity for strategic planning in six provinces; establish a National Resource Centre on HIV/AIDS; strengthen the capacity of NGOs working on HIV/AIDS issues; enhance the awareness of condom use and adopt innovative locally-based social marketing approaches for HIV/AIDS prevention and care; and, strengthen the capacity of medical schools for HIV/AIDS health education, prevention, and care.
$1.8 million over four years through the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to integrate nutrition into HIV/AIDS prevention and control – a sustainable and low-cost approach to improving the length and quality of life of persons living with HIV/AIDS, as well as reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. CFNI and PAHO will work in 18 Caribbean countries and dependent territories where they will develop educational material on nutrition and healthy-eating for the prevention and management of HIV/AIDS for persons living with HIV/AIDS – including infants and children – and those caring for them, as well as for health-care professionals, including nutritionists and other health-care workers. This initiative will be funded through a $20 million CIDA regional programme designed to support the implementation of the Caribbean Regional Strategic Plan of Action for HIV/AIDS.