Programme description

Title: Subregional South-South Cooperation HIV/AIDS
Commissioned by: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)
Country: Latin America and the Caribbean
Lead executing agency: Brazilian Ministry of Health
Overall term: 2007 to 2011

Context

Since the mid-1990s Brazil has been able to stabilise its AIDS prevalence rates through a successful programme to combat the disease. The programme is based on prevention, access to free treatment and human rights campaigns; it supports a decentralised nationwide network of counselling and treatment centres.

For several years, Brazil has counted as one of the donor countries in the fight against AIDS. In many Latin American, African and Asian countries, there is growing demand for cooperation with Brazil. Germany is supporting Brazil and contributing to this South-South cooperation with its many years of experience.

Objective

After strengthening its own capacities, Brazil is collaborating successfully with other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. National solutions for the global HIV/AIDS pandemic have been improved.

Approach

Since 2002, German Development Cooperation has been supporting Brazil’s efforts to establish and improve national AIDS programmes in five countries: Paraguay, Colombia, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.

The activities in each country were developed jointly. They include further training for medical staff, training for non-governmental organisations (NGOs), training and equipment for laboratories, establishing patient registers and a control system for the logistics of medical supplies. The training courses were conducted mainly in scientific institutions, hospitals and laboratories in Brazil and, to a lesser extent, in the respective countries.

The areas of operation include:       

• training
• project cycle management
• management capacity building for the partners
• establishing networks between the countries, governments and the NGOs
• strengthening implementing institutions for the South-South cooperation.

Since the beginning of 2007, eleven countries have been working together. Due to the high demand, a transnational successor programme has been launched, which is based in Brasilia, alongside the national AIDS programme of the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The programme works directly with the International Centre for Technical Cooperation (Centro Internacional de Cooperação Técnica – CICT). Founded in 2004 by the Brazilian Government and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), CICT receives support from German Development Cooperation to meet the growing demand for assistance in the fight against AIDS.

The British Government’s Department for International Development (DFID) contributes funding for the programme, and the Budget Committee of the German parliament, the Bundestag, has released special funding for it in 2007. Cooperation with KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW development bank) is also planned.