Community response to HIVMany biomedical and behavioural HIV/AIDS programmes aimed at prevention, care and treatment have disappointing outcomes because of a lack of effective community mobilization. Reviews of programmes with successful outcomes increasingly point to the presence of some kind of community involvement as a key aspect of their work. Growing resources have been focused on community based organisations and it is clear that a more detailed understanding is now needed to deconstruct the elements of community provision that are helpful and to understand the nature and mechanism of optimum community mobilisation, reaction and facilitation to enhance the AIDS response.
Our understandings of precisely which forms of community mobilisation are most likely to facilitate programme success, and how best to implement them, are still in their infancy. It is against this background that we explored: 1. Links between community mobilization and HIV avoidance and between community mobilization and access to AIDS care and treatment 2. Long-term evidence for the pathways between community mobilization and health; 3. Community-level determinants of intervention outcomes 4. Implications for policy and practice to create ‘AIDS competent communities’ The evaluation was conducted through a collaborative study between the LSE and Imperial College London. The Imperial College component provided quantitative data from Manicaland on the first three of these questions. The LSE component drew from an extensive qualitative data set collected in the same study areas to provide context and guidance for the analysis and interpretation of the quantitative data on each of these questions. Selected publications Campbell, C., Nhamo, M., Scott, K., Madanhire, C., Nyamukapa, C., Skovdal, M., Gregson, S.: The role of community conversations in facilitating local HIV competence: Case study from rural Zimbabwe. BMC Public Health, 2013: 13:354 | free access Campbell, C., Scott, K., Nhamo, M., Nyamukapa, C., Madanhire, C., Skovdal, M., Sherr, L., Gregson, S.: Social capital and HIV Competent Communities: the role of community groups in managing HIV/AIDS in rural Zimbabwe. AIDS Care, 2013: 25(S1): 114-122 | free access Gregson, S., Nyamukapa, C., Schumacher, C., Magutshwa-Zitha, S., Skovdal, M., Yekeye, R., Sherr, L., Campell, C.: Evidence for a contribution of the Community Response to HIV decline in eastern Zimbabwe AIDS Care, 2013: 25(S1):88-96 | free access Gregson S, Nyamukapa CA, Sherr L, Mugurungi O, Campbell C. Grassroots Community Organisations’ Contribution to the Scale-Up of HIV Testing and Counselling Services in Zimbabwe. AIDS. 2013. 27(10): 1657-1666 | free access Skovdal, M., Magutshwa-Zitha, S., Campbell, C., Nyamukapa, C., Gregson, S.: Children’s role in the community response to HIV in Zimbabwe. Journal of the International AIDS Society. 2013: 16:18468 | free access Skovdal, M., Magutshwa-Zitha, S., Campbell, C., Nyamukapa, C., Gregson, S.: Community groups as ‘critical enablers’ of the HIV response in Zimbabwe. BMC Health Services Research, 2013: 13:195 | free access |
- Simon Gregson
- Catherine Campbell - Kerry Scott - Mercy Nhamo - Morten Skovdal - Constance Nyamakupa - Lorraine Sherr Funding agency The World Bank |