National Aids Council

National AIDS Council (NAC) is an organization enacted through the Act of Parliament of 1999 to coordinate and facilitate the national multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS. It is also mandated to administer the National AIDS Trust Fund (NATF) collected through the AIDS Levy i.e. the 3% collected from every worker's taxable income (PAYE) and corporate tax.

Vision

No HIV transmission, universal access to HIV and AIDS services.

Mission

To lead and coordinate, with a motivated team, the national strategy in response to HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe.

Goal

To empower communities to reduce HIV transmission and minimize the impact of the AIDS epidemic on families and society.

Mandate

To provide for measures to combat the spread of Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV) and management, coordination and implementation of programmes that reduce the impact of HIV and AIDS. (The National AIDS Council Act Chapter 15:14 of 2000)

Although the Act gives NAC the power to implement programmes, it is now generally agreed that its role and comparative advantage is to lead, coordinate, monitor and evaluate the national response to HIV and AIDS. The Act gives NAC the following functions and powers:

Ensure the development of strategies and policies to respond to HIV and AIDS, mitigate the effects of the HIV and AIDS epidemic and promote and coordinate the application of such strategies and policies;
Mobilize and manage resources in support of a national response to HIV and AIDS;
Enhance the capacity of the various sectors of the community to respond to the HIV and AIDS epidemic and to coordinate their responses;
Encourage the provision of facilities to treat and care for persons living with HIV and their dependents;
Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies and policies and the national response to HIV and AIDS;
Promote and coordinate research into HIV and AIDS and ensure the effective dissemination of and application of the results of such research; and disseminate and encourage dissemination of information on all aspects of HIV and AIDS to all stakeholders, among other things.

Core Values

Integrity – NAC is committed to the highest standards of integrity by dealing in a fair and transparent manner with our staff, partners, communities and other stakeholders.
Accountability – NAC is accountable to all our stakeholders for the resources entrusted to us and for results towards meeting our mandate to lead and coordinate the multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS.
Professionalism – NAC upholds the highest professional standards among our staff and in our dealings with our development partners, communities, and all other stakeholders.
Pro-action – NAC endeavors to be proactive rather than respond to circumstances and are always looking for new approaches to benefit the national response to HIV and AIDS.
Inclusiveness – NAC is committed to a multi-sectoral response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic and take measures to involve all stakeholders in addressing gender and other vulnerable groups.
Teamwork – NAC believes that as teams we accomplish much more than the sum of our parts.

NAC structures

Provincial AIDS Action Commmittee

The Provincial AIDS Action Committee ( PAAC) operates as a subcommittee of the Provincial Development Committee (PDC) which is chaired by the provincial administrator or his /her representative and is answerable we to the provincial council.

PAAC Mandate

The PAAC is a multi-sectoral committee mandated to mobilize, coordinate and monitor the multi-sectoral and community response initiatives on HIV/AIDS in the province.

Responsibilities of the PAAC

The PAAC shall in collaboration with District AIDS Coordinators and stakeholders with the province be responsible for the following;

Enlisting, coordinating, monitoring and evaluation of the provincial multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS.Coordinate and monitor the provincial planning process on HIV and AIDS.Faciliating capacity strengthening for HIV and AIDS prevention,
care and mitigation in the district.
Promoting and support the intensification of community based HIV and AIDS interventions.
Appraising and endorse project proposals for funding.
Encouraging mainstreaming of HIV and AIDS issues into all social and development programmes in the district.
Promoting resource mobilisation in support of district initiatives on HIV and AIDS as well as ensure transparency and accountability in the disbursement and utilization of funds earmarked for HIV andAIDS activities.
Facilitating sharing of experiences and lessons learnt among stakeholders within and outside the district.
Undertaking any function(s) that fall(s) within its mandate.

Programmes

Advocacy

Zimbabwe has been experiencing significant declines in both prevalence and incidence of HIV over the years. From a high of over 29% in 1999 the HIV prevalence rate has fallen to 14.5% in 2016 (Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey 2015/2016). The fall has been related to a number of factors such as increased promotion and uptake of HIV prevention, treatment and management services.

National AIDS Council is using ADVOCACY to sustain the achievements in the national response and significantly change the course of the pandemicby engaging policy makers to spearhead the creation of an enabling environment for the implementation of HIV and AIDS programmes and services, conducting campaigns and commemorations and exhibition to inform the public on the state of the national response.

Behaviour Change

The Behaviour Change Communication programme started in 2006 after a Comprehensive Review of Behaviour Change as a Means of Preventing Sexual HIV Transmission in Zimbabwe was conducted in 2006 to provide an evidence base for the development of a comprehensive, effective national HIV behavioural strategy focusing on sexual transmission of HIV. A National Behaviour Change Strtaegy was developed after this review upon which the BCC programme is based on. The strategy seeks to guide systematic and strategic programming in the area of promoting behavior change as a means of preventing HIV transmission. The key focus areas for the programme are to reduce the number of new HIV infections through,

Creating an enabling environment for behaviour change.
Increased adoption of safer sexual behaviour and reduction in risk behavior.
Increased utilization of HIV prevention services (T&C including post test support, PMTCT, PEP and MC).
Improved national and sub national institutional frameworks to address behavioural change.

After its inception in 2006 with support from Expanded Support Programme (ESP) and European Union the programme covered twenty six districts up to 2009 after which the programme was scaled up to cover all the districts in the country including Bulawayo and Harare urban districts with support from Global Fund Round 8.

Gender and Workplace

Nearly 30 years into the HIV epidemic, there is a growing recognition that unequal relationships between men and women and societal norms of femininity and masculinity are important influences on HIV epidemics. Gender inequality and harmful gender norms are not only associated with the spread of HIV but also with its consequences. The Zimbabwe National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan ( ZNASP 11, 2011-2015) acknowledges that gender inequalities and gender norms continue to be determining factors in women and girlsâ€™ risk of contracting HIV but have not been fully integrated in the HIV and AIDS response. Gender norms and expectations also make men vulnerable to HIVâ€” including by influencing male sexuality and risk-taking, and making men and boys less likely to seek medical care when ill.

While many organisations and communities are aware of the need to mainstream gender and human rights in their interventions, they often lack the skills, methodologies and training tools to facilitate the process. The National AIDS Council with support of the National Gender and HIV and AIDS Technical Woking Group has embarked on a gender mainstreaming initiative to build capacities of institutions and communities. A training guide has been developed whose purpose is to promote increased and improved action on the intersecting issues of HIV and gender inequality. The guidance complements existing gender guidelines and tools by emphasizing the process of strengthening action to address gender equality in HIV and AIDS responses and describing how to intervene in specific thematic areas.

Global Fund

Global Fund is a public-private multi-billion-dollar international financing partnership established in 2002 with the objective of providing performance-based grant funding to assist countries in the fight against HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria by dramatically increasing the availability of funding. These diseases kill over 6 million people each year, and the numbers are growing. It is thus a financial instrument, not an implementing entity. It relies on local stakeholders at the country-level to implement programmes and manage grants. In Zimbabwe the Global Fund activities are coordinated by the Country Coordinating Mechanism through,

Local Fund Agent
Principal Recipient
Sub Recipient
Sub Sub-Recipient

MEANINGFUL INVOLVEMENT OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV ( MIPA)

The principle of Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV and AIDS (MIPA) in all aspects of HIV and AIDS programming, seeks to promote the integration of People Living With HIV (PLWHIV) in the planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of interventions addressing HIV and AIDS. Such an approach is critical to the ethical, efficient and effective response to HIV and AIDS.

It is essentially a policy position which rationalises and secures the position of PLWHIV as legitimate participants in policy and decision making.

The MIPA concept was originally expressed through the acronym â€œGIPAâ€ which referred to a stated intention to greater/ increased involvement of PLWHIV. The GIPA concept was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV and AIDS (UNGASS DoC) in 2001. In 2003, PLWHIV lobbied for a new GIPA initiative, one that shifted the focus from increased involvement to a more expansive vision for meaningful involvement of PLWHIV, focussing more on the overall empowerment of PLWHIV.

Zimbabwe has committed itself to integrating the principles of GIPA and MIPA, though the operationalisation of this commitment has tended to be on an ad hoc basis. In the National HIV and AIDS Strategy (ZNASP 2006- 2010) one of the strategic issues is the full adherence to the principles of greater and meaningful involvement of PLWHIV. NAC has since appointed a MIPA coordinator to ensure the implementation the MIPA principles.MIPA MEANINGFUL INVOLVEMENT OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV ( MIPA)