Proposal Development

Proposal Development

Note that this session began on the afternoon of December 4 and continued for the first part of the morning on December 5, the third and final day of the workshop. Participants broke out into groups according to university affiliation and began to work on generating proposals for the competitive assessment that represents the follow-up activity plan for the workshop. IWISE and AAC&U representatives worked with the groups and provided advice on what the evaluators would be looking for in a successful proposal.

Each group reported back at the end of this process on the direction in which their proposals were headed. Most of the universities had some curriculum reform in process already, and proposed to continue and expand these efforts, either by incorporating an explicit HIV focus into existing courses or by establishing new required courses, e.g., on virology, microbiology, and socioeconomic aspects of AIDS. In addition, most of the universities proposed community engagement activities and special awareness-raising events, as well as short courses and workshops designed to assist faculty members in adapting their curricula to reflect HIV/AIDS issues. Those universities without peer education programs indicated a desire to establish such capacities. Other proposal elements included AIDS awareness days, weeks, festivals, and so forth, and mechanisms such as science congresses, to focus on HIV and highlight science education at the same time.

In short an impressive variety of creative approaches was generated. In acknowledgement of the difficulty of the task of selecting only four universities from among the eight anticipated proposals, project leaders agreed that, in the case that all proposals are deemed highly worthy, additional funding could be sought to sponsor more universities. Unfortunately it was not possible to make any guarantees with regard to additional funding, but the group did agree in any case to stay in close communication as an East African consortium and to share information and experience in the months and years ahead, and voted AWSE to serve as the coordinating body. Finally, in order to allow sufficient time for additional fundraising before SENCER 2002, the group agreed to move up the deadline for proposals, from an initial target date of April 15 to the new deadline of March 1, 2001. Proposals are to be submitted to AWSE by that date. Electronic submissions will be accepted but hard copies must also be forwarded as well.

The workshop closed with words of appreciation from all the organizers for everybody's hard work and dedication, and for the wonderful hospitality of the local organizers, the exceptionally capable women of AWSE.