Namibia
Capacity Building
Activity Dates
2004-2007
Activity Summary
Building capacity of local Namibians to perform effective research and BCC interventions was one of HCP’s initial goals. Capacity was built within the HCP field office and HCP communities as well as with the ministries of Health and Information and Broadcasting and two local organizations, Research Facilitation Services and !Nara Training Center.
HCP staff and Community Action Forums
HCP/Baltimore’s long term vision for HCP Namibia was to establish a local NGO that would continue providing strategic information and BCC support to the PEPFAR initiative after HCP ended. After four years of in-country technical assistance, the HCP field office was established as a local NGO, Nawa Life Trust (NLT). Program staff have been trained in all the relevant technical areas and curriculum and support materials developed. Management, financial and administrative staff have also received the necessary training and support to ensure that NLT can secure its own funding, manage the finances and establish the necessary administrative systems to support an ever-growing country program.
NLT staff provide a number of trainings as well as ongoing supervision to build the capacity of the Community Action Forums to ensure that they continue to perform quality community initiatives. When a CAF is first formed, NLT provides training in the community action cycle, which includes assisting the CAF members to use the participatory learning assessments to identify key HIV/AIDS issues and audiences to address, developing an action plan, implementing the plan and monitoring their interventions. CAFs also receive a monthly stipend to cover transport and meals for the days they perform outreach activities and, when necessary, receive budgeting and expense report writing training from HCP staff. CAFs are expected to provide the HCP office with a monthly report stating progress to date, plans for the coming month and requesting funds to cover the upcoming activities as well as any HIV/AIDS materials they need to hand out during their activities.
Each CAF also receives ongoing HIV/AIDS training--both in the field as well as during the annual CAF conference. This is critical as HIV/AIDS testing and treatment policies change, or new ones are introduced, and as CAF members are continually dealing with new myths and misconceptions. HCP staff have also trained interested CAFs in basic journalist skills, encouraging them to research and write HIV/AIDS-related stories for the quarterly NLT newsletter, Nawa Info.
Ministry capacity building
HCP has assisted the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting with its annual HIV/AIDS mass media campaign, Take Control. Assistance has included strategically designed campaigns, message development, and media production and dissemination. HCP played a critical role in maintaining Take Control as a consortium effort (partners include organizations such as the Social Marketing Association, Catholic AIDS Action, UNICEF and UNAIDS). As a result the Take Control campaign has succeeded in providing a solid backdrop against which all the partners in-country can implement their programs.
HCP provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health in a number of ways. One way was through the development of an ART, PMTCT and VCT communication strategy, out of which a set of treatment literacy materials and job aides emerged, the other was through the training of nurses in IPC skills (see section on IPC).
Local organizations
Since the beginning of the Namibia program, HCP has worked closely with a local research firm, Research Facilitation Services (RFS). RFS has been responsible for the data collection of all the household and network surveys, cleaning the data and then assisting HCP with the annual research dissemination workshops. Through HCP’s support, not only has RFS expanded as an organization, but the quality and scope of their work has increased substantially.
!Nara Training Center is a Namibian training institution, which HCP sub-contracted to roll out the IPC trainings for nurses in the treatment hospitals and at testing sites. Three master trainers from !Nara were trained in HCP’s ICP curriculum as well as participatory and adult learning methodologies. Although the IPC program was discontinued in 2006, there is the possibility that the Ministry of Health will have funds to continue the program, and !Nara is well placed to do this.
Audience
Ministries, PEPFAR partners and local NGOs
Back to Namibia
Note about materials: Some of the materials and resources listed on each page are available in their full form, others are represented by image or citation only. For more information and resources, go to www.jhuccp.org
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