Policy

FANTA Site – Focus Area: HIV

  • Source:
  • FANTA (Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance)

  • Summary:
  • HIV compromises the nutritional status of infected individuals and malnutrition worsens the effects of the disease. Nutrition interventions can help break this cycle by helping PLHIV manage symptoms, reduce susceptibility to opportunistic infections, improve nutritional status, promote response to medical treatment, and improve overall quality of life. Specifically,with support from USAID and PEPFAR, FANTA-2: a) provides technical assistance to strengthen nutrition assessment, counseling, and support for PLHIV; b) improves food assistance security programming in the context of HIV; c) produces and disseminates program guidance on nutritional care and support interventions; d) helps countries in east and southern Africa adapt HIV-nutrition guidance to their specific contexts through national guidelines, training curricula and programs, counseling materials, monitoring and evaluation support, and capacity-building activities; e) provides in-country support to integrate and scale up nutrition interventions in HIV services in Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia; f) strengthens the evidence base about the impacts of food supplementation on malnourished PLHIV; g) supports randomized controlled evaluations in Malawi and Kenya; and h) supports improved program design and monitoring and evaluation of food-assisted programs addressing HIV and its impacts through technical assistance to USAID.

  • Keywords:
  • Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Nutrition People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) PEPFAR Policy Programming Guidance Training Resources Websites
  • How to Integrate Water, Sanitation and Hygiene into HIV Programmes

    • Source:
    • Bery R, Rosenbaum J. 2010. USAID. WHO.

    • Summary:
    • This document is the first comprehensive guide to integrating WASH practices into HIV care. It was written in response to requests from countries and programs for clear instruction on how to develop care programs at the national level. It contains guidance on implementing priority WASH practices, including WASH in global and national HIV/AIDS policy and guidance, and integrating WASH-HIV programs.

  • Keywords:
  • Best Practices and Lessons Learned Handwashing (Hand Washing) Household Water Treatment & Storage Policy Programming Guidance Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • HIV/AIDS: Making the Links with WASH

    • Source:
    • IRC. 2007. Delft, IRC International.Water and Sanitation Centre.

    • Summary:
    • Strategies to care for people infected with HIV/AIDS and the correlation with water, sanitation and hygiene should be explored by asking questions such as: How does the family get water? Will there be any changes in the family’s water needs? If so, what might these be? What can be done to prolong the progression from HIV to AIDS? Exploring these questions, water, sanitation and hygiene needs of households affected by HIV/AIDS; links with home-based care and clinics for treatment, care and support; and the implications for policy makers, planners and health promoters, can be discussed together constructively.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Handwashing (Hand Washing) Healthcare Facilities Home-Based Care People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) Policy Programming Guidance Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • Water and Sanitation Assessment of Home-Based Care Clients in Zambia

    • Source:
    • Kangamba M et al. 2006. Baltimore, MD. Catholic Relief Services

    • Summary:
    • In Zambia, HIV/AIDS is still approached primarily as a health issue, and therefore, interventions focus mainly on prevention and treatment. The provision of affordable, accessible and reliable public services is essential in supporting health maintenance and reducing stress for people infected and affected with HIV/AIDS. Reliable delivery of good-quality water and sound basic sanitation are critical in reducing exposure to pathogens to which HIV-positive people are particularly vulnerable. Where water services are inadequate or inaccessible, time and monetary costs of access to good quality water in sufficient quantities are high, particularly for HIV-infected people and their caregivers. An assessment was commissioned by the WHO with the goal of producing evidence-based guidance on water and sanitation needs in home-based care strategies, particularly in resource-poor situations and to develop practical and strategic recommendations to be made at the programme and policy levels, while identifying the most critical measures to be taken by the health sector and the water and sanitation sector to provide short- and medium-term solutions in the area of water, sanitation and hygiene support to home-based care.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Evidence Base Home-Based Care Policy Programming Guidance Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • The Millennium Development Goal on Poverty and the Links with Water Supply, Sanitation, Hygiene and HIV/AIDS: A Case Study from Kenya

    • Source:
    • Kiongo JM. 2005. Delft, IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre.

    • Summary:
    • A case study on water supply and sanitation conditions and policies in Kenya in the context of the Millennium Development Goals and HIV/AIDS . The study aims to facilitate learning on how HIV/AIDS affects the water and sanitation sector, and how administrators and policy makers may respond to, and cope with the effects of the disease. It provides an overview of water sector conditions and policies in Kenya in the light of Millennium Development Goals; insights into the relationship of these goals and their realization with the broader context of poverty, water resources conditions and management, and HIV/AIDS; illustrations of the influence of the epidemics on attitudes and coping strategies with examples of community and agency/project experiences; and lessons and recommendations on how administrators, policy makers, and donors can better cope with the disease and its implications for the water sectors.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Best Practices and Lessons Learned Evidence Base Handwashing (Hand Washing) Policy Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • HIV/AIDS Millennium Development Goal: HIV/AIDS and Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene in Southern Africa

    • Source:
    • WELL Project. 2004. London, UK

    • Summary:
    • The socio-economic impacts of HIV and AIDS are not often highlighted, even though their effects are not limited to those diagnosed: water and sanitation sectors often pay little attention to the impact of HIV/AIDS on the social and economic feasibility and sustainability of water supply in rural areas; increasing HIV/AIDS cases in rural areas make already inadequate water and sanitation situations for domestic and agricultural use dire; and home-based care for the terminally ill requires not only clean water and safe solid waste disposal for patients, but access to a convenient, reliable, safe, and sufficient water supply, as well as basic sanitation, to ease the burden on caregivers. Strategies to integrate water and sanitation with HIV/AIDS are necessary and must meet the challenge to ensure all development sectors incorporate, in a strategic way, issues such as prevention, care, and mitigation of HIV/AIDS, and policymakers and sector programs give high priority to water supply, sanitation, and hygiene promotion in areas with a high incidence of the disease.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Handwashing (Hand Washing) Home-Based Care Household Water Treatment & Storage Policy Programming Guidance Sanitation/Feces Disposal
  • Zimbabwe Water and Sanitation Sector HIV/AIDS Response: Programme, Strategies and Guidelines

    • Source:
    • Zimbabwe. 2004. National Action Committee. Government of Zimbabwe. United Nations Children’s Fund

    • Summary:
    • The Water and Sanitation sector, Zimbabwe, acknowledges the need for a multi-sectoral approach towards addressing HIV/AIDS, the direct impact it has in the fight against the disease, and its potential to improve the lives of millions. Access to safe drinking water and a sanitary means of human excreta disposal are basic human rights essential to human development and poverty alleviation. Accordingly, the Government of Zimbabwe and its partners have expended substantial effort towards improving sanitation conditions over the past 20 years. The HIV/AIDS pandemic threatens these gains and the fabric of society. Mechanisms need to be implemented to address water and sanitation directly; as more people fall below the poverty line, more environments conducive to the spread of HIV/AIDS will emerge, increasing the urgency for new strategies to help fight the disease.

  • Keywords:
  • Accessing Water Policy Sanitation/Feces Disposal