Zimbabwe HIV prevention and accountability report launched

The National Coalition on HIV Prevention recently launched an HIV Prevention and Accountability Report for 2023.

The report, launched in Harare, captures the perspectives of communities and civil society organisations (CSOs) on the implementation of the 2025 Global HIV Prevention Road map.

The Road map has ten priority action points for which governments across the world committed to fulfil in strengthening HIV prevention.

The Coalition, led by SAfAIDS with funding support from Frontline AIDS, brings together CSOs and community groups and networks in mainstream HIV programming in Zimbabwe.

Its mandate is around holding the Government of Zimbabwe, and the donor community to account on the domestication of the 2025 Global HIV Prevention Road map. The Coalition is further involved in advocacy on strengthening the HIV response with special focus on HIV prevention.

The report made key findings and recommendations among others which include; the need for meaningful engagement and participation of civil society in all HIV prevention strategy and operational processes, strengthen the country's investments needs for the HIV response, transparency and accountability on the health budget allocations and spending, and expand programming to reach more adolescent girls and young women, including adolescent boys and young men as well as other vulnerable populations.

Participation at the launch was drawn from civil society organisations and community groups, the National AIDS Council, UNAIDS, UNESCO-ROSA, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Ministry of Health and Child Care, and the Zimbabwe Gender Commission among others.

Speaking at the launch ceremony, the Director of Programmes at the National AIDS Council, Raymond Yekeye welcomed the accountability report and expressed the need to continue amplifying the role of CSOs in the HIV response.

In his closing remarks, Yekeye noted that: "We have started to use the global Road Map in our strategies and interventions; as we finalise on Zimbabwe's own Road Map with the involvement of civil society."

The chair of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care, Daniel Molokele put emphasis on the need for accountability in the HIV response.

"Accountability is key for HIV prevention, yet many, including governments in Africa are not comfortable with the narrative on accountability. It is only through accountability that the country can have sustainable funding for health," Molokele said.

The Country Representative for SAfAIDS in Zimbabwe. Musa Hove emphasised that "whilst the country has made tremendous strides within its HIV response owing to NAC and MoHCC leadership, more remains to be done to ensure that we End Aids by 2030"

In a bid to strengthen the implementation of the Roadmap, the coalition submitted four key advocacy asks  to government, which are: The finalisation and launch of the Zimbabwe HIV Prevention Roadmap; identifying  and including clear milestones for the implementation of the Roadmap priority action points in collaboration with civil society and community networks;  expansion of social contracting as per the Policy Guideline, and implementation of harm reduction interventions for people who use and inject drugs targeting all primary healthcare centres, starting with centres in urban settings.