experience in mainstreaming HIV and AIDS

C r i t i c a l e l e m e n t s
Lessons learned from successful programme
experience in mainstreaming HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS,
the World Bank and UNDP, 2005b) suggest that there
are critical elements of success including:
Leadership and commitment from a visionary
champion – one or more persons with political clout
and visibility.
Personalisation – HIV & AIDS and SRHR are best
addressed when understood at a personal level.
A clearly defi ned mandate and policy directive, such
as a formal/policy requirement to mainstream HIV
and AIDS provide legitimacy and a broad framework
for action.
Capacity-building at different levels – to generate
understanding of the nature of the change envisioned,
to put people through a capacity awareness process
(from self-awareness to activism) and ultimately to
garner commitment for action.
Advocacy skills – to generate greater awareness and
to get other critical people on board.
Partnerships – identifying those people and institutions
that must be on board, contacting them and enlisting
their support. Partnerships will often be new and less
traditional in nature, including the business community,
religious leaders or people in entertainment.
P urpose
In order for mainstreaming to be effective, it is important to understand the critical
elements of successful mainstreaming. In this tool, lessons from the practice of mainstreaming
in a variety of sectors and contexts are used to identify critical elements for successful
mainstreaming. You will then be asked to make an assessment of those elements that are
most important in your context.
In conceptual terms this means:
Understanding that mainstreaming is a process
– not an event or a series of events.
Working from the basis that this is a complex
issue – HIV and AIDS can only be addressed
through a range of complementary actions.
A need for broad contextualisation so that HIV
and AIDS are placed and addressed in the broader
context of development, poverty reduction and
gender equity.
Building on existing institutional structures, policies
and plans and integrating HIV and AIDS in all core
functions of an organization – again to ensure
that HIV and AIDS are not stand-alone issues or
relegated to the status of a specifi c project.
MAINSTREAMING LESSONS
A review by UNAIDS, the World Bank and UNDP (2005b) highlights the following
lessons:
Mainstreaming efforts are still plagued by considerable misconceptions about the
nature of the change that is envisaged. The idea that cross-sectoral issues (such
as gender, environmental sustainability and HIV & AIDS) are the responsibility of a
single ministry, person, focal point or unit continues to prevail. In other words, the
core business of many of these institutions has remained unchanged.
e Mainstreaming requires a process of personal and institutional change.
Because of this it will need to be put in place as a process with long-term
commitment to institutional change that affects norms, values and systems.
e Mainstreaming needs to take place at different levels so that processes
can feed into each other. In other words, mainstreaming HIV and AIDS into
development processes such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs),
and doing so across sectors, is mutually reinforcing.
e Mainstreaming requires strong leadership, coordination and the tracking
of outcomes of multiple sectors by a central authority in order to avoid
fragmentation.
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