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Social scientists have the power to dramatically halt the spread of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the sub-Saharan region by tracking and replicating best practice interventions. Speaking at the closing of the second African conference on ‘Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research’ which was held from May 9 to 12 in Cape Town, Dr Mbulawa Mugabe, UNAIDS co-ordinator, provided a broad overview of the challenges facing social scientists. Hosted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), the four day event was an initiative of a network of African scientists known as the Social Aspects of AIDS Research Alliance (SAHARA). ‘The AIDS epidemic is becoming a complex global crisis which continues to worsen. Eastern and Southern Africa is home to 32 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and North Africa has an emerging epidemic with Djibouti and the Sudan as epicentre. ‘At the same time, the world is responding more effectively than ever before. There is growing confidence in proven interventions and prices of antiretrovirals have reduced dramatically with international organisations helping to subsidise generic medicines. ‘National responses are stronger with increased political commitment, greater allocations of domestic resources, and growing access to international donor funds. Nonetheless the level of coverage of effective interventions remains low. ‘Social scientist can play a key role with regard to two key challenges. Clinical science has provided effective interventions such as the prevention of mother to child transmission and anti-retroviral treatment. The challenge for social scientists and public health researchers is to help deliver and scale up these interventions. ‘Social scientists can contribute significantly by monitoring best practices and documenting bad practices. Despite Uganda's success story in curbing AIDS, it has been difficult to replicate this model throughout the rest of Africa, because interventions were not properly recorded. ‘The second challenge concerns the lack of capacity in implementing and monitoring programmes. Despite increased resources, there are fears that we are drifting into an implementation crisis. Social scientists need to help assess the constraints that prevent big money from working and to guide countries on programme expenditure. SAHARA is already helping to assess institutional capacity to implement programmes,’ says Dr Mugabe. According to him, SAHARA will need to stay focused and strategic, concentrating on those areas that are key priorities for informing policies and programmes. It should adopt the chameleon strategy. The chameleon is uncompromisingly focused on its course. As it sticks to its course it scans its environment for opportunities. When necessary, it changes its colour. When it moves, it takes one step at a time,’ he said. About 400 delegates from all over Africa attended the conference, with the theme, ‘Social Aspects of Access to Care and Treatment’. Conference papers will be available soon on www.sahara.org.za
RELEASED BY AFRIKOM ON BEHALF OF HSRC
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