DUSHANBE, September 16, 2009, Asia-Plus – The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its partners held a regional close-out conference for the USAID-funded 5-year HIV/AIDS program “CAPACITY” in Almaty, Kazakhstan on September 14.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe, representatives of the governmental, nongovernmental, and international organizations from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan participated in the conference that discussed the results of the USAID-funded 2004-2009 program “CAPACITY”. The program built local technical capacity to launch large-scale responses to HIV/AIDS and develop indigenous institutions and networks to manage comprehensive HIV/AIDS control programs.
By many accounts, the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is the fastest growing HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world. Annual numbers of newly reported HIV diagnoses are rising in all Central Asian countries with the exception of Turkmenistan, which reports zero HIV/AIDS prevalence. Driven primarily by injecting drug use, which by expert estimates exceed 300,000, high rates of HIV infection can be observed among most-at-risk populations (drug users, sex workers, prisoners, migrants, and men who have sex with men) along the drug trafficking routes that run from Afghanistan through Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan.
One of the key CAPACITY’s achievements is the strengthened local capability to organize and implement HIV/AIDS prevention activities throughout Central Asia. The program helped develop and introduce national guidelines, monitoring and assessment plans, and data collection systems on HIV/AIDS. It helped improve coordination between nongovernmental sector and local communities and include HIV/AIDS prevention among the most vulnerable populations as one of the key components in the National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plans.
CAPACITY trained staff of 318 AIDS-service organizations in the region. As a result, these organizations developed 39 comprehensive HIV prevention projects and leveraged over US$1.8 million of funding for their activities. Over 300,000 youth have benefited from the work of 4 Youth Centers that CAPACITY opened in the region for HIV prevention among youth. Additionally, the project helped establish a regional network of the people living with HIV.
Much of CAPACITY’s work was concentrated on the improvement of HIV/AIDS services. The program developed and introduced the models for integration of TB and HIV/AIDS services in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. 450 medical specialists were trained in management of dual HIV/TB infection, 191 managers of medical institutions improved their knowledge in TB/HIV coordination and monitoring, and 7,500 patients received services in pilot sites. TB/HIV management issues were included in graduate medical education.
Representatives of governmental, civil society, and international organizations from all five countries reviewed these and other achievements of CAPACITY and discussed how these achievement will be included in future activities on HIV prevention in the region.
USAID-funded CAPACITY Program was implemented by John Snow Institute.
