AFCN Africa Facilitators for Change Network “Every community matters, and every community can and should be accompanied” World Bank ACTafrica Local Response Workshop December 5, 2002, Washington, D.C.

Key Questions How would we think and act if we truly believed in the capacity of individuals and communities to be AIDS competent? How do we support and learn from local community responses? How do we take the learning back to the organisations that we belong to, so that change is not only within communities, but within US?

Key Issues How we can strengthen community responses, building on the capacity within individuals, families and communities? How community to community transfer can be stimulated to contribute to a scaled up and scaled out response to HIV/AIDS? How we can work together as organizations to facilitate human capacity development and organizational change through a facilitation team approach for Support and Learning?

Methodological framework Relationship Building Concern Identification Reflection and Review Community Counseling Methodology Capacity Exploration Action Decision- Making

Key Outcomes Key Outcomes of the AFCN Process have included the following: Capacity development of 300+ facilitators in the community capacity enhancement approach in 7 countries (Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, Swaziland, Ethiopia, South Africa)

Key Outcomes Key Outcomes… Human Capacity Development and National Faciliation Team formation in Zambia and Rwanda Documentation of Facilitators Notes for the community capacity enhancement process, from the experience of The Salvation Army and Enda Sante Agreed and documented shared vision and ways of working

Key Outcomes Key Outcomes… Two regional resource facilitators meetings for strengthening shared vision and capacity development among team members (Dakar, Senegal – June 2002, Durban, South Africa – January 2003) Partnership development with UNAIDS, UNDP, ActionAid SIPAA, World Bank, RATN, UNICEF and other regional networks

Key Outcomes Key Outcomes… CDC training of facilitators in the community capacity enhancement process in the Cote d’Ivoire Response to First Lady’s office of the Cote d’Ivoire for training of NGO’s in the community capacity enhancement process

Community to community transfer Community to community transfer can refer to the sharing of meanings across boundaries, which include knowledge, experience and concepts, or ideas such as care, community, change, leadership and hope.

Community to community transfer "There are already paths between communities. We may help to build roads, but they must follow the existing paths. If not, the roads will be ours to drive on, but they will not be the community's to walk on." (Zambia, October 2001)

Going to scale through: 1 Going to scale through: 1. local community and organizational capacity development approach Local responses showing ‘AIDS competence’ Facilitation by organizations of a ‘concept transfer’ approach Community to community transfer Mutual Learning and Advocacy Policy formation informed by local experience

Going to scale through: 2. National Facilitation Teams (NFT)… "The more we do things together as a Support and Learning Team (SALT), the better we get at it." (Rwanda NFT) "You have come to listen, understand and not to judge. It encourages and energizes us. You came, shared with us and participated." (Assoc. of PLWHA during a Rwanda NFT visit) "We are no longer acting as visitors, we are people inside the house." (Rwanda NFT)

Lessons Learned Communities have capacity to reflect on their concerns related to HIV/AIDS, to make decisions/changes in the areas of care and prevention, to name indicators of these changes and document their response, and to transfer experience and skills to others A facilitation team that works by invitation, and in participatory ways is a critical factor in stimulating local, national and regional capacity development to respond to HIV/AIDS

Lessons Learned… The approach is regenerative, in that it multiples itself in terms of community capacity, teams, facilitators, etc Partnerships that have their basis in supporting local action strengthen and change the individuals participating as well as the organizations which they represent The approach of strengthening human and community capacity yields many outcomes, for comparatively minimal financial input

Lessons Learned… The development of a regional resource pool of facilitators with experience and skill in this approach is another outcome of the process In addition to HIV/AIDS, this approach can be used with wider and inter-related issues, such as migration, orphans and vulnerable children, sanitation, and other development concerns.

Goal and Vision The GOAL or VISION is that: Every community matters, and every community can and should be accompanied. Every country in Africa can learn from and support local initiatives, develop strategies for working together as organizations at a national level, and share lessons learned with others across the region.