United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Pakistan Regional Office

Prevention of transmission of HIV among drug users in SAARC countries- Pakistan Component

Brief Description

The overriding imperative in the response to AIDS is to move beyond small-scale programs and pilot projects to ensure delivery of services to people (especially vulnerable populations such as injecting drug users) on the scale required to advance towards universal access.

Building on the achievements of Phase I, Phase II of this project will be larger in scope and funding. It will support the planning of national responses on the scale required to prevent HIV among drug users. The rationale is three-fold: that responses to HIV prevention among drug users need to be comprehensive in nature; that such responses need to be at sufficient scale to contribute to HIV prevention and reduction in HIV prevalence among drug users; and that a skilled workforce drawn from both government and civil society is required. In Phase II, the key components include increased advocacy with policy-makers in order to promote policy reform and strengthening of procurement systems; the demonstration of effective risk reduction approaches; and to assist the development of national, costed plans in priority countries of sufficient scale to ensure the prevention of HIV transmission among IDUs.

Objective:             To assist governments and communities to scale up comprehensive HIV prevention and care programs for  drug users especially among IDUs and their regular sex partners.

Output 1:

Advocacy to support change in policy and practice

Output 2:

Effective Risk Reduction Approaches to reduce HIV transmission among drug users especially IDU and their regular sex partners.

Output 3:

Scaled-Up Risk Reduction Interventions to reduce HIV transmission among drug users especially IDU and their regular sex partners

Output 4:

Project Management

Services:

The project is currently being implemented at four intervention sites located at Quetta, Karachi, Larkana and Gujranwala.  Drop-in-Centers were established under the project, with services targeting Drug Users, specifically Injecting Drug Users as well as their regular sex partners. The following NGOs are implementing project activities:

• Marie Adelaide House of Hope- Karachi
• Aagosh -Quetta
• Ghazi Social Welfare Association-Larkana
• Mian Afzal Memorial Hospital- Gujranwala

Activities:

1. Training on Rapid Situation Response Assessment and Outreach (28-30 May 2008) and Positive Living and Services for Female Injecting Drug Users and Female Regular Sex Partners of Male Drug Users (1-3 June 2008)

Two trainings were organized for the Partner NGOs working under Project H13. Experts from the UNODC Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA) conducted the training sessions. The participants were a mix of medical doctors, psychologists and outreach workers. There was also notable participation from the ANF Model Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre (MATRC) and UNAIDS. The trainings were divided into two sessions; the first three days concerned RSRA and outreach while the last three days were focused on positive living among IDUs. The training was conducted using a combination of multiple techniques ranging from brainstorming and mind mapping to role plays and group work/ group presentations as well as field visits. The primary aims of the trainings were to capacity build on conducting an RSRA effectively and strengthening outreach as well to sensitize on 'positive living' with a specific focus on service provision to female IDUs and female RSPs

2.  Study Tours

Several study tours were organized at various points during the year for policymakers and professionals. All tours were undertaken to familiarize and brief the delegations on Oral Substitution Treatment. The first tour was to Tashkent's Opioid Substitution Treatment Centres in May 2008. Following this, an advocacy and sensitization tour was organized between 22-24 July 2008 for a high level delegation including the Secretary, Ministry of Narcotics Control, representatives from Anti Narcotics Force, National AIDS Control Programme, Civil Society Partners, WHO and UNAIDS. The study tour not only involved extensive discussion on the procurement and implementation of OSB with UNODC ROSA and AIIMS during a one-day workshop, it also included field visits to OSB sites in the community. In November, key stakeholders also visited the Iranian National Centre for Substance Abuse in Tehran.

3.  Projects Steering Committee (PSC) and Projects Coordination Meetings

A National Steering Committee was held in January 2008 to review the status of the project and discuss future implementation of activities.

A project coordination meeting was organized on 24 ^th November 2008 with the aim to review the current status of the project as well discuss future implementation of activities. Programme managers from all four partner agencies were to give two short presentations; one highlighting the achievements so far and the second concerning potential future activities. The meeting concluded with recommendations to strengthen management on site and stress more on family involvement.

4.  RSRA

The RSRA was successfully conducted on all project sites. All partner agencies complied with instructions given by the UNODC Country Office Pakistan. Data cleaning and analysis is complete. The first draft of the report has been compiled and is in the finalization stage just prior to dissemination.

In order to facilitate Project H13 staff to analyze the RSRA data, a training workshop on 'Data Analysis, management and Database Design' using EPI Info software (8-26 September 2008) was organized.