Recently, around the world, AIDS organisations launched partnerships with varying degrees of pomp and ceremony, but usually with short life spans – not because of a lack of commitment but rather because of a lack of clear direction and support. The cries of "what should we do, how should we proceed, and who can help us" are all too familiar to National AIDS Control Programmes. And, when they find themselves unable to respond adequately to the multitude of requests, they are frequently criticised by their own bosses and by those whose needs they were unable to fulfil.
Clearly, vast amounts of support and capacity building are needed to equip willing new partners with the skills and resources they need to understand the epidemic. This is particularly necessary to develop appropriate responses that will be sustainable and supported. As a first step towards this goal, various tools have been developed to assist in this task.

AIDS Briefs

The first of these tools are two sets of AIDS Briefs to assist key sectors and professions to manage the impact of HIV/AIDS. Developed by the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) of the University of Natal, South Africa, and primarily funded by USAID, the Briefs were commissioned from authors who are  authorities in their specific fields.
Each Brief conforms to a standardised format and, within the context of the sector or profession, offers practical guidance for informed interventions, including impact and action checklists. These checklists recognise the comparative advantages of each sector to respond within their respective fields. Collectively the actions proposed in the Briefs represent a broad, integrated, multi-sectoral response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The 17 sectoral Briefs are for the civil service, commercial agriculture, construction, education, finance, health, the informal sector, manufacturing, the media, military, mining, the NGO sector, the social sector, sport, subsistence agriculture, tourism and transport. The 11 Briefs for professions are for architects, development personnel, health care workers, insurance personnel, media personnel, legal personnel, local government personnel, planners, politicians, religious personnel and social workers.

AIDS Toolkits

The next tool is in fact a set of 11 tools for use by developing country ministries. Four generic tools set the scene, describe a planning process and use a simple framework that divides the response into internal and external activities. They also detail the impact of the epidemic on employees and list a number of possible indicators.
The other tools are for selected ministries - agriculture, education, finance, health, housing and public works, labour, and welfare. Each follows a four-step process to arrive at a ministry-specific impact assessment and response to HIV/AIDS.

The AIDS Toolkits were developed following extensive consultations with ministry officials and refined at a consultative workshop with officials from southern and east African countries.

A diagrammatic chart of the steps described in each toolkit:

Step 1: Understanding HIV/AIDS impacts in wider society, and the role of Government Ministries

Step 2: Identify internal impacts within the Ministry or Department

Step 3: Identify external impacts that influence Ministry functions

Step 4: Identify appropriate action responses

Combined result:

A sector-specific impact assessment and response to HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS Toolkit for Local Government

The final tool is yet another set of tools, this time for local government. The rationale behind its development is that local government has, of all levels of government, the most significant role to play in responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This is because it has continuous contact with communities as well as social and economic development functions that offer unique opportunities to address the factors that underpin the epidemic.
The research that informed the development of the toolkit identified the core functions of local government that offer immediate opportunities to integrate HIV/AIDS and provides examples in each instance. A model workplace policy, a model strategy for a city, guidelines for establishing a local networking structure, and guidelines for multisectoral planning are contained in the toolkit.
All the tools are intended to be used during planning, when developing profiles of the epidemic in individual sectors, when researching the impact of the epidemic on sectors and professions and when considering projects and interventions. They are also a useful resource for training and for supporting emerging partnerships between sectors. They are most effective when made available within a training context. This was clear when the local government toolkit was piloted in workshops with local government officials and councillors in KwaZulu-Natal.