Addressing HIV and Poverty in Ethiopia
An estimated 1.2 million Ethiopians live with HIV/AIDS—a cause of vulnerability for many children and their families, and not just because of the health impact. As breadwinners become sick, a family may lose its income and ability to feed and shelter itself. As part of the USAID AIDSTAR Strengthening Community Responses to HIV/AIDS (SCRHA) project, IRD is building the capacity of six national implementing partners and 230 civil society organizations to implement development programs that reduce HIV transmission and barriers to HIV care for 90,000 households in 269 towns. The project targets delivery of services by civil society organizations in urban and peri-urban areas where antiretroviral services are available, including in SNNPR, Oromiya, Amhara, Tigray, Afar, Benishangul Gumuz, Dire Dawa, and Gambella regions.
An estimated 1.2 million Ethiopians live with HIV/AIDS—a cause of vulnerability for many children and their families, and not just because of the health impact. As breadwinners become sick, a family may lose its income and ability to feed and shelter itself. As part of the USAID AIDSTAR Strengthening Community Responses to HIV/AIDS (SCRHA) project, IRD is building the capacity of six national implementing partners and 230 civil society organizations to implement development programs that reduce HIV transmission and barriers to HIV care for 90,000 households in 269 towns. The project targets delivery of services by civil society organizations in urban and peri-urban areas where antiretroviral services are available, including in SNNPR, Oromiya, Amhara, Tigray, Afar, Benishangul Gumuz, Dire Dawa, and Gambella regions.
In 2009, IRD experts guided the civil society organizations through training in entrepreneurship, business development services, household economic and training needs assessment, linkage and referral methods, and basic grant-reporting. Today, IRD continues this work, while also providing technical support on economic strengthening to the national implementing partners and civil society organizations, as well as to 270 generalists and over 3,000 care and support providers. In 2010, IRD finalized the SCRHA Economic Strengthening Operational Guide and Economic Strengthening Technical Reference Manual, and efforts are underway to ensure it is adopted as a national reference by the federal HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
Economic strengthening can help families affected by HIV/AIDS meet expanding responsibilities such as caregiving for ill family members or supporting orphans and other vulnerable children who may join the household. IRD has already reached over 35,000 households (64 percent women-headed) with economic strengthening programs. The economic development tools and documents IRD has developed are designed to promote employment creation and income growth, protect household assets, and increase social participation, with the overall aim of generating positive effects on nutrition, education, and health.
Subjects include:
- skills training in entrepreneurship and vocational and urban agriculture
- group-based savings
- in-kind grants for purchase of tools, livestock, and inputs
- business development services, including market access, input supply, technology and product development, training and technical assistance, infrastructure and information services, and finance
- job creation through public-private partnership forums
- market chain development
Most recently IRD, with assistance from business development specialists, provided supportive supervision and economic strengthening training to more than 30 civil society organizations, and assisted individuals with grants-in-kind to bolster their businesses.
