 Progress in fighting Central Asia’s HIV/AIDS epidemic is being realized through a four-country project that is already allowing non governmental organizations compete for grants to work on prevention, treatment, outreach to vulnerable groups and awareness raising. The $27 million Regional AIDS Control Project, launched in May 2005, covers Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. This initiative is the first-ever multi country AIDS project for the Europe and Central Asia Region.
The Central Asia AIDS Project, known by its acronym CAAP, aims to minimize the human and economic impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the four Central Asian countries. Day-to-day operation of the project is handled by the Regional Project Management Unit, or RPMU, which is based in Almaty. The RPMU is in turn overseen by a Regional Project Steering Committee (RPSC), which has representation from all four governments as well as UNAIDS and other donors, and which meets regularly to weigh in on major project decisions. The Eurasia Economic Cooperation Council, or EurAsEc, is the pan-regional entity that is expected to assume broad oversight of the CAAP within the next calendar year, when EurAsEC will take over the Central Asia Cooperation Organization, or CACO. Two grants are covering most of the costs of the project – a $25 million International Development Association grant from the World Bank’s concessional lending arm; and a £1 million grant from the UK Fund for International Development (DFID). As of early October 2006 about $5 million or 19% of the total grant for the CA AIDS Project had been disbursed and committed under signed contracts. The CAAP has two main components – one is focused on regional coordination, policy development, and capacity strengthening; the other focuses on the establishment of a Central Asia AIDS Fund that will last beyond the five-year life of the project. Details appear below. COMPONENT ONE Regional Coordination, Capacity Strengthening, and Policy Development ($7.5 million): Under the oversight of the RPMU, this component will be partly carried out in partnership with the USAID-funded CAPACITY Project as well as by the Centers for Disease Control’s Central Asia Region (CDC/CAR). Details on steps to date are as follows: Regional coordination is vital, since CAPACITY is managing a separate but related regional project to tackle HIV/AIDS, as is DFID through a Central Asia Region HIV/AIDS Project, known as CARHAP. CAAP and CAPACITY signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) earlier this year outlining the overall programmatic relationship and technical linkages between CAAP and the CAPACITY project. Also, the MOU aims to develop and test approaches and models for scaling-up and increasing coverage of vulnerable populations and helping reduce HIV transmission, and of increasing accessibility of quality HIV/AIDS services.
To build up epidemiological surveillance systems and to better test for HIV/AIDS the CAAP forged a Memorandum of Understanding with the CDC/CAR for scaling up HIV/AIDS surveillance activities in the four countries. CDC/CAR has begun monitoring population trends and case management at the level of local AIDS centers and health facilities, with the ultimate aim of having a more coherent set of systems across all countries.
On the policy development front, the RPMU and the RPSC are working closely with UNAIDS, DFID’s CARHAP, the Global Fund, UNODC, UNDP, networks of harm reduction NGOs, line ministries, and parliamentarians to assess current legislation and policies as they impact People Living With AIDS, including injecting drug users. As part of this, members of the RPMU have visited Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada and Russia to glean lessons from other programs to fight AIDS. A September 25, 2006 meeting of parliamentarians on HIV/AIDS was design to spur further dialogue at the national political level to ensure that governments work quickly to scale up their efforts in preventing and treating the epidemic.
COMPONENT TWO Central Asia AIDS Fund ($16.7 million): A demand-driven Central Asia AIDS Fund has been set up so that non-governmental organizations and other public and international agencies can apply for both small and large grants that will allow them to finance targeted programs that will cover mobile populations, young people at risk, people living with HIV/AIDS, and other vulnerable groups. The Fund also aims to will provide incentives for greater regional cooperation, as well as cooperation between public and private sector, and between different public services, such as the AIDS centers and prisons. Following are details on progress to date: The first round of grant proposals under the project were launched in May of this year, using the CAAP website as well as advertising via word of mouth, radio, print and TV stations. Applicants’ proposals will be considered this autumn by the RPSC (for big grants) and technical evaluation committees (for small grants), after which winners will be announced in the late September-November period. Contracts will then be signed with the grantees soon thereafter.
Staff from the RPMU and CAPACITY trained an initial group of non-governmental organizations and community groups from the four Central Asian countries on how to apply for grants, how to scale up AIDS prevention and harm reduction projects, and how to apply sustainable budgeting and management practices to ensure funds are well spent. Additional NGOs will have a chance to receive the training, and partners have agreed to simplify and harmonize the grant application forms among CAAP, CAPACITY, the Global Fund and CARHAP.
An IDF grant of $289,000 is also being used by the Kazakh AIDS Center to help build up capacity for grant preparation and program management among NGOs. The other aspect of the CAAP involves Project Management, Monitoring and Evaluation, including the operation of project executive bodies such as the RPMU and National Coordinators, who have now been appointed in each of the four participating countries. Additional efforts are underway to develop integrated M&E frameworks at the national level to be adopted by all donors in order to minimize duplication and multiple reporting demands on the local teams. To visit the CAAP website go to: http://www.caap.info. Contact Information Regional Project Management Unit
Central Asia AIDS Project (CAAP) 86Kunaev Street, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Phone: +7 (3272) 447317 Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
+996 (312) 662-798 Dushanbe, Tajikistan
+992 (917) 746-131 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
+998 (71) 336-2608 |
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