Collaborative expansion

In 2006, Alliance Nationale Contre le SIDA (ANCS) in Senegal was appointed co-Principal Recipient for the second phase of a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that was experiencing disbursement problems. This funding has allowed ANCS to expand its work in Senegal in line with the country’s National AIDS Strategy.

“ANCS has contributed substantially to scaling up the community response.”

Joint donor evaluation of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance’s organisational performance, 2006

ANCS is now operating in all 11 geographical regions, and over 65 civil society organisations have been financially and technically supported to implement HIV prevention, care and support activities. Work has started with orphans and vulnerable children, and ANCS has expanded its focused prevention work with sex workers and men who have sex with men.

Collaboration has been a major factor in these achievements. The involvement of key community members (such as imams) and village and neighbourhood leaders has led to HIV prevention activities being better received in the community. ANCS has also been working with the health sector, for example, by providing doctors in five regions with specialist training in care and support for men who have sex with men.

Innovation has also been key to this success. Mobile clinics in the Thiès and Mbour regions have reached over 400 sex workers with free STI testing and treatment. ANCS has also collaborated with 11 community radio stations, supporting journalists and presenters to give HIV-related information to their listeners. Issues around sexuality, which were previously considered taboo, are now being discussed. The acceptance of condoms has increased, health workers report a decline in clients seeking treatment for STIs, and more pregnant women are accepting treatment to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission.

Learning has been shared through the Alliance’s Africa regional programme, with successful interventions with men who have sex with men being adapted for North Africa and lessons learned on stigma and discrimination feeding into the development of the Africa regional stigma training project’s toolkit.

ANCS has also provided input to the country’s national HIV strategic plan, participating in a Ministry of Economy and Finance workshop on how to integrate HIV into Senegal’s poverty reduction strategy.

A letter to ANCS from Global Fund Board President Dr Carol Jacobs singled out this partnership between government and civil society for praise: “Senegal today can also be considered as a best practice to be promoted elsewhere.”