Southern Africa has been affected by the HIV and AIDS pandemic like few other regions in the world. Yet policies and programmes designed to combat the spread of HIV and AIDS and assist those living with it have largely been driven by outside donors and policymakers. PSAf seeks to use the media and civil society to shift that paradigm. In conjunction with the Panos Global AIDS Programme (GAP), PSAf seeks to provide information and stimulate debate on HIV and AIDS to ensure that the response to the pandemic is shared and driven by those most affected by it.
Rural households are generally most vulnerable to the epidemic's effects, mainly due to low access to medical services – including antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) – and information, low nutrition and food security and lower incomes for drugs and other mitigation interventions. However, recent years have seen an increase in access to ARVs thanks to partnerships between some regional governments, donor countries, some pharmaceutical firms, private sector and local non governmental organizations.
PSAf seeks to build the media’s capacity to compel greater accountability and transparency in HIV, AIDS and other health policies. We conduct research on critical issues surrounding HIV and AIDS, and are in the process of producing regional training manuals for media personnel aimed at improving the coverage of HIV and AIDS issues both qualitatively and quantitatively. We conduct training seminars and workshops that educate and inform journalists on some of the issues least understood or covered in the regional media, such as ART, male circumcision and microbicides. We enhance their understanding of the key drivers of the epidemic, such as the role of men. PSAf also uses networking programmes, radio programmes, debates and fellowships to pursue its goals.
PSAf collects, produces and disseminates information on HIV and AIDS issues such as treatment and stigma, and other topics that normally receive little attention. For instance, we have studied the impact of HIV and AIDS radio campaigns, with the goal of finding how appealing these messages are to various groups and whether they influence the audience’s understanding of the pandemic, contribute to behavior change, and promote or stimulate debate on poorly understood aspects of the pandemic.
PSAf works with local journalists to publish and broadcast investigative reports on a variety of issues including access to treatment, T.B., and international health commitments and agreements. Journalists are made aware of the existence, interpretation and application of international and regional initiatives, declarations and protocol that influence and affect the response to the pandemic in the southern African region, such as the U.N. General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement (TRIPS). This is done through the production of publications such as “Anti-Retroviral Drugs for all? Towards universal treatment for HIV/AIDS in Zambia.” The goal is to raise awareness, inform policymakers and donors, and monitor national and international agreements.
In keeping with PSAf's focus on enabling communication, PSAF has worked to capture how rural people in Zambia, Malawi and Namibia perceive and react to the HIV and AIDS pandemic in their own languages – and also enables them to reach policymakers – through radio listening clubs and other communication channels. In 2003, for instance, after women in Chipata district in the Eastern Province of Zambia used their HIV/AIDS radio listening club to appeal for greater access to anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, Zambia’s then-Minister of Health made their local hospital a regional ARV distributor.
