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"Government needs a more accurate picture of where people infected with HIV/AIDS are geographically located to be able to bring about an integrated approach towards planning the provision of welfare and health services in South Africa" says Mr Craig Schwabe, Director of the Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) GIS Centre. According to Mr Schwabe only an integrated and developmental approach, based on comprehensive information, will place the government in the position to truly cater for the South African population infected by HIV/AIDS. He acknowledged that a great deal of work was being done by government departments and other institutions in trying to grasp the extent of HIV/AIDS at a national and provincial level. However, more consideration had to be given to understanding where the highest concentrations of people infected with HIV or AIDS were located. "Without this information South Africa will be unable to put together effective plans for meeting the demand for welfare and health facilities or, for that matter, planning the provision of basic services and infrastructure. What essentially is required, is an understanding of how many people within an area serviced by a social worker of the Department of Welfare or within the area serviced by a clinic or hospital have HIV/AIDS", he added. Mr Schwabe believes that the government needs to commit itself to the development of an integrated Management Information System that will provide accurate and reliable information on the geographic location of health and welfare facilities and services, the ability of the facilities to cater for the population infected by HIV/AIDS, the location of NGOs/CBOs that can assist government to meet the demand for facilities and services and have a thorough understanding of social conditions within communities. The HSRC is currently conducting with a study in the Midlands welfare region of KwaZulu-Natal to investigate the development of an integrated welfare information system for the region. The project, which was commissioned by the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands Welfare, Social Services and Development Forum and which is co-funded by Umgeni Water, entails the defining of those geographic areas where welfare facilities and services are available, as well as the integration of information from the provincial Department of Welfare and information on the welfare society being serviced by NGOs and CBOs. An HSRC survey is being planned to gather information on the welfare society within each of the geographically defined welfare areas that will include information on the population with HIV/AIDS. One of the important components of the study is to develop a methodology that can be used to gather information on the welfare society throughout the country. "Information emanating from such a study should place the government in a position to plan for the AIDS pandemic. Unfortunately, one of the major stumbling blocks faced by the study is that of inadequate funding. While government departments support this important work in principle, they have yet to make funds available for the study. Progress is, therefore, severely hampered in what is becoming an increasingly desperate situation", Mr Schwabe said.
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