Ensuring that attention to HIV and AIDS is comprehensively

Ma i n s t r e a m i n g i n
p r a c t i c e
The specifi c organizational responses in terms of
mainstreaming may include a combination of the
following areas of focus:
Ensuring that attention to HIV and AIDS is comprehensively
included in the overall education policy
and in mechanisms for reviewing the implementation
of this policy.
Including HIV prevention and SRHR for learners in
the curriculum at all levels, including in pre-service
and in-service teacher training.
Introducing practices that improve access to education
and reduce vulnerability to HIV infection, for
example, by abolishing school fees and by ensuring
that both girls and boys attend and complete
school.
Putting in place policies and practices that promote
a safe and inclusive work environment for education
sector staff, for example, through prevention
education and by adopting a workplace policy that
supports all staff, including those who are living
with HIV and AIDS, and addresses issues of stigma
and discrimination.
Putting in place policies and systems that ensure
access to treatment, services and referral for learners
and employees who are affected and infected.
Ensuring policy and implementation with respect
to training and recruitment which takes into consideration
future staff depletion rates, and possible
disruption caused by increased absenteeism and
attrition to other sectors, and in later stages by
morbidity and mortality.
Refocusing the work of the organization to ensure
those infected and affected by the epidemic are
meaningfully included in the analysis, planning, implementation
and evaluation of programmes and
are able to benefi t from their activities.
Ensuring that sector activities do not increase the
vulnerability of the communities they work with to
HIV and to other sexually transmitted infections
(STIs), or undermine their options for coping with
the effects of the pandemic15.
Mainstreaming HIV and AIDS involves a combination
of these different areas of attention – tailored to local
contexts and to the specifi cities of the epidemic.14
Often, however, only one very specifi c area is
addressed, without comprehensive consideration of
other critical dimensions. This is precisely where the
distinction lies between mainstreaming and engaging
only in HIV- and AIDS-specifi c work.
S e c t o r- s p e c i f i c
examples
These examples illustrate that mainstreaming is
intersectoral by nature and will need to involve
interactions with other key areas of attention, such
as gender and SRHR, as well as with other sectors
including health, youth affairs and the private sector,
among others. While this may be evident in principle,
in practice the multisectoral dimension is often one of
the most challenging areas of mainstreaming