NACS urges more formal deals with companies

THE National AIDS Council Secretariat (NACS) wants a formalised private partnership arrangement between project developers and the government in combating HIV/AIDS similar to what Oil Search Ltd (OSL) and other companies are doing in areas they are operating in.
NACS director Wep Kanawi said his office was working on a proposal to make that a long-term project where donor funds could be channelled through and managed by developers as programme managers in association with the Health Department and provincial AIDS committees.
Kanawi said the OSL  was doing a fantastic job in Hides and Kutubu in Southern Highlands and Kikori, Gulf, and wanted a similar programme to begin in other parts of the country.
He said this when commenting on the recent visit by the vice-president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Dr Ursilla Schaefer-Preuss to OSL’s operational and community health project areas.
The ADB is the major sponsor of a K68 million development enclave’s project which was set up at the request of the Health Department for major developers to partner with health authorities to prevent and control the spread of HIV in rural settings like petroleum and mining project areas and plantations.
OSL agreed to become a partner under the five-year programme to manage the improvement of health services in their area, particularly those for HIV management.
This involved the renovation of health facilities and health workers’ houses, establishing HIV counselling and testing services and managing people living with HIV on anti-retroviral treatment.
OSL also conducted and facilitated behavioural change education on HIV prevention in communities around its project areas.
The company’s medical staff work in partnership with the provincial and district health workers to implement the project which expires next June.
Kanawi heaped praises on OSL for taking on the responsibility which had become a success story upon which a more formalised arrangement could be organised between NACS, Health Department and resource developers and companies across PNG in the future.