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It is almost 10 years since HIV/AIDS was declared a national disaster in Kenya. The adult HIV/AIDS prevalence has since dropped from 13 percent at that time to 6.7 percent in 2003.
The national response in Kenya has accelerated over the past year with the substantial expansion of external funding. The National AIDS Control Council (NACC) was established in 1999 to spearhead the national response, and to serve as the Government of Kenya's coordinating body. The NACC's location in the Office of the President is viewed as an expression of the government’s commitment to the multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS.
This commitment can also be perceived in the establishment of the Cabinet Committee on HIV/AIDS, and in the recent decentralization of the NACC to the constituency level through its Constituency AIDS Control Councils (CACCs) in each of the country’s 210 constituencies.
Kisumu city was chosen as one of UN-HABITAT’s Urban Management Programme sites because the Nyanza district has a high prevalence rate of 15 percent compared to the national average of 6.7 percent, down from 13 percent, according the 2003 Kenya Demographic Health Survey (KDHS). A rapid assessment was conducted within the Kisumu City Council (KCC) and local communities.
The KCC and stakeholders formed a City Consultative Committee after it was found that the KCC loses about 38 to 40 of the 1,200 workers each year at a rate of three to four AIDS–related deaths a month. Some of the factors cited as contributing to the HIV/AIDS problems include poverty, adaptation of western life styles, socio-cultural practices including wife inheritance, often for material or monetary gain, stigma and discrimination. Others were lack of policy, inadequacy of coordination of activities, a poor information, monitoring and evaluation system, poor capacities, and governance failures.
The Kisumu communities have now created four task forces to tackle HIV/AIDS policy development, coordination of HIV/AIDS interventions, prevention and advocacy, and treatment and social support. The Kisumu intervention seeks to work within the framework of the Kenya National Strategic Plan 2005-2010 (KNASP 2005/2010)(2). The KNASP proposes work within the framework of “three ones” – one strategic plan, one coordinating mechanism, and one monitoring and evaluation mechanism. |