Synergising HIV/AIDS and Sexual & Reproductive Health rights--a manual for NGOs.

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Aidsnet, a Danish non-governmental network on AIDS and development, working with the World Health Organization (WHO), has developed a package to assist in improving HIV/AIDS interventions.

The worldwide epidemic of AIDS has created extraordinary challenges for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) around the world. This manual is for all who acknowledge that, although HIV/AIDS is a unique challenge, NGOs can act effectively by drawing heavily on the wealth of already existing experiences accumulated by groups promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), public health and other related issues

The manual is for NGO practitioners who wish to go one step further in the fight against HIV/AIDS by drawing on the wealth of experiences accumulated in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and other public health related issues.

It provides practical guidance to NGOs working in low-income countries by addressing issues such as 'Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS, SRHR and gender', 'The rights-based approach', 'Sexual Minorities and same-sex sexual activities', and 'District Health Planning'. All of the 28 short chapters emphasise important 'entry points' for NGOs and include annotated resources.

As a whole, the manual is structured to be user-friendly by relying on explanatory boxes, concrete examples and cases of good practice or common approaches as well as links to more information and tools. This is therefore a practical, easy-to-use reference piece to be consulted when you need answers to specific questions or inspiration on how to deal with them in practice.

The Team

The manual and CD-Rom were originally developed by the following team members:

* Jerker Liljestrand, Lund University (team leader);

* Jacqueline Bryld, UNAIDS;

* Jeffrey Victor Lazarus, WHO;

* Lise Rosendal Ostergaard, Aidsnet;

* Catrine Christiansen, Nordic Africa Institute

* Ole Norgaard, Aidsnet.

The final production is the result of a joint effort by a writing team supported by a 'South Panel' of NGO partners from Uganda, Egypt, Malawi, Botswana and Tanzania and 24 peer reviewers based in various UN organisations, Danida and Nordic universities. It therefore represents Nordic as well as South viewpoints, anchored in a solid base of evidence.

The South Panel

Aidsnet wished to involve their South partners in a meaningful way in the development of the manual. The panel has been established by Danish Aidsnet members who recommended colleagues who could...