NACS hosts workshop in Lae

THE National AIDS Council Secretariat (NACS) is hosting a three-day workshop in Lae, Morobe province, to discuss operational guidelines to better manage and coordinate the provincial and district HIV responses in each province.
These guidelines will be derived from a 125-page booklet which will be launched later during the workshop.
Acting director for NACS Romanus Pakure said coordination was a serious issue if services were to be delivered effectively and stated that NACS was facing a serious problem of delivering HIV response services because there was a lack of coordination within the multi-sector groups involved in the campaign against the dreaded disease.
He said the response to HIV at present was overwhelming.
Stakeholders made up of NGOs, churches, community-based organisations, the private sector and provincial government organisations are now carrying out the bulk of HIV awareness and service delivery activities in the 20 provinces.
Mr Pakure said this was a major achievement that did not exist10 years ago.
He stated that if the provincial AIDS committees (PACs) and their stakeholders applied the “three one principal” of having one plan, one monitoring and evaluation unit, and one coordinating body, then HIV service delivery would be more effective.
The booklet will provide direction to PAC’s on how they would be able to manage and coordinate HIV activities in each province.
It will be divided into two parts.
Part one will focus on the roles and responsibilities of the key stakeholders, while part two will discuss coordination activities that will form informative and practical tools, to guide the PACs in carrying out their coordination activities.
The booklet will also cover funding issues, which were also pointed out as causes for the lack of HIV education and service delivery not reaching the remotest parts of each province.
NACS, in conjunction with the 20 provinces,,has now given priority to districts and hopes to establish district AIDS councils in each district, so that the rural population could have a clear understanding of HIV/AIDS.