The delivery of essential services to people affected by HIV is being hampered by a lack of cooperation between, in particular, civil society and Government. The state and local government have developed several programmes to address the specific needs of HIV affected people and communities, but generally the benefits of these programmes are not reaching their intended target group.

Civil society organisations find themselves in competition with both the state and other non profit organisations delivering HIV and AIDS related services to communities. The proliferation of AIDS service organisations, often operating within the same geographical region and competing for the same scarce resources, has resulted in competition and sometimes antagonism between them. Organisations tend to compete for the same limited pool of resources and often duplicate services. On the occasions where links have been forged though, organisations have been able to improve delivery and make positive impact.

The relationship between Government structures and civil society organisations is typically antagonistic, with the parties often accusing each other of incompetence, poor delivery and a lack of professionalism. The politicisation of HIV and AIDS has further eroded the relationship and hampered delivery, with the delivery of essential services often being held up by political grandstanding and unnecessary debate about peoples motivation to act.

The process aims to bring Government and community representatives together in a discussion group to address local health and health related issues. Because of the historical antagonism and the consequent mistrust that exists it is necessary that the process not only addresses the technical and structural issues of cooperation, but that it also deals with the relationships that underpin such cooperation.

The intention of the process is to allow community to represent and negotiate improvements in the provision of healthcare in the area. Important to the process is that the community representatives engage on an equal footing with the Department of Health  and other Government representatives.

During these processes Project Empower will:

1. Establish and facilitated the following interest group discussions:
• Community dialogues groups around the provision of health services in their community/area
• Bilateral discussion group with Government departmental representatives
2. Manage ongoing dialogue  groups at a local facility level
3. Develop mechanisms to respond to discussion recommendations

It is hoped that through these processes that participants will:

• Create a safe, trusting forum for discussion between government and community
• build a common vision for tackling the health issues they regard as critical
• build cooperation - to plan and act together
  • Streamlining resource allocation
  • Reducing duplication
  • Ensuring equitable distribution of responsibility and resources
• ensure the sustainability of the process