Creating an Enabling Environment for HIV Prevention
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The General Assembly resolution
56/201 calls on the United Nations system to explicitly
articulate and implement capacity-building as a goal
of the technical assistance provided.
Capacity-building is one of the
four strategies under the MYFF employed by UNFPA to
assist countries in reaching their population and development
objectives.
Presently, the Fund spends more
than two-thirds of its programme funds on essential
activities to develop capacity both within the organization
and more importantly in the countries that it supports.
These include different types of
training activities for national counterparts at various
levels; improving technical and organizational processes
and functions; improving the functioning of systems
and mechanisms made up of network of partners and stakeholders;
and addressing the needs of clients and communities
for information through advocacy and awareness-raising
activities.
For this strategic guidance to become
optimally operational – the capacity among UNFPA staff
at all levels needs to be continually enhanced.
UNFPA staff particularly at the
country level should been given the opportunity to acquire
adequate knowledge on issues related to the HIV/AIDS
epidemic, and to be well equipped with the necessary
skills and tools to effectively analyze, programme,
implement and monitor interventions for the prevention
of HIV infections.
UNFPA should work in collaboration
with other UN partners at all levels to intensify efforts
to build national and regional capacity to analyze,
strategically plan, implement and manage HIV preventive
interventions. Capacity-building of national counterparts
would be an important strategy in support for HIV prevention,
including sub-regional and regional level training and
country-level technical backstopping.
Towards this end, UNFPA at a regional
and global level will intensify its support to country
offices, through the expertise of specialized HIV/AIDS
Advisers in the regional CSTs and through its HIV/AIDS
Team at UNFPA Headquarters.
In collaboration with regional training
and resource institutions and CSTs, UNFPA will develop
and implement a staff training programme on HIV prevention
programming to complement the already developed distant-learning
course on HIV/AIDS.
A series of sub-regional training
workshops are being planned for UNFPA field staff and
national counterparts over the course of the next two
years with the aim of ensuring that field staff are
knowledgeable about the UNFPA strategic focus in the
area of HIV prevention, and are able to effectively
programme HIV prevention activities within the context
of the country programme process.
On capacity-building the United Nations General Assembly resolution
56/201: “Stresses that capacity-building and its sustainability should be
explicitly articulated as a goal of technical assistance provided by
operational activities of the United Nations system, with the aim of
strengthening national capacities…..” “Also stresses the importance of disseminating, to the fullest
extent possible, the expertise acquired through the technical
assistance provided by operational activities for development of the
United Nations system in the programme countries” “Reiterates that the United Nations system should use, to the
fullest extent possible and practicable, available national
expertise and indigenous technologies in the implementation of
operational activities…” "Requests the United Nations system to enhance the capacity of
national Governments to coordinate the external assistance received
from the international community, including from the United Nations
system” (Source: Triennial policy review of operational activities for
development of the United Nations system, A/RES/56/201, March 2002) The key actions for the further implementation of the Programme of
Action - ICPD+5 calls on the United Nations system and donors to
support governments in building of national capacity to plan,
manage, implement, monitor and evaluate reproductive and sexual
health services including services for the management of STIs and
HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, it recommends that governments and international
organizations create and support mechanisms to build and sustain
partnerships with community-based organizations and non-governmental
organizations, as well as other relevant organizations, the research
community and professional organizations and together focus on human
resources development and on building and strengthening national
capacity to implement sustainable population and reproductive health
programmes. UNFPA along with all cosponsors in UNAIDS is committed
to keeping abreast of all new technical and research developments in
the field of HIV prevention. Moreover, UNFPA should also play an
advocacy role in support of the research underlying the development
of such potentially useful preventive products as vaccines and
microbicides. It is primarily for the purpose of updating UNFPA
staff on these few new technologies and approaches that they have
been included in this strategic guidance document.
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POPULATION ISSUES:
PREVENTING HIV INFECTION: Strategic
Guidance on HIV/AIDS Prevention