Francophone Africa AIDS Program/ AIDS 1
(1991-1995)

The Francophone Africa AIDS Program/ AIDS 1 was the first major concrete participation by Canada in the fight against this epidemic in Africa. In 1990, the situation had only been apparent for approximately five years. This was the serological phase in which the worst manifestations of the disease were not yet visible. In fact, at the time the parameters linked to understanding the epidemic had just been discovered and previous experience in dealing with classical epidemics was soon revealed to lack relevance. A variety of international actions under the auspices of the Global Program on AIDS (GPA), of the World Health Organization (WHO) were instituted. The Canadian program was also oriented towards support for national programs in the fight against AIDS in thirteen francophone countries in Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Senegal and Zaire) within the framework of fifteen projects lasting an average of two years.

The objective of this program was to limit propagation of AIDS within countries in francophone Africa and minimize the negative social and economic consequences. The main objectives can be summarized as:

• putting into action information, education and communication activities dealing with the disease
• promoting attitudes aimed at prevention
• building the management capacity of national programs in the fight
  against AIDS
• better understanding of factors influencing or aggravating the effects of AIDS

Due to the goal of responding to the priorities expressed by individual countries, the fifteen projects differed highly in terms of objectives and expected results. The main activities completed included:

• strengthening educational and community programs involving information, education and communication for the preselected target groups (most often through a microproject-based approach)
• installation of functional units aimed at prevention, detection and treatment of STIs (including the production of testing strips for detecting HIV)
• support for the introduction of epidemiological surveillance systems at all levels of the health care pyramid
• building capacity for local non governmental organizations (NGOs)
• the consolidation and institutional development of technical documentation centres on AIDS

This initial program provided better understanding of the epidemic and the context for its growth. It provided an opportunity to verify the feasibility and sustainability of this type of complex and multidisciplinary intervention in the field. As the range of causes for the epidemic and its expansion became more clearly understood, it was possible through the program to outline a potentially effective intervention.

For this group of activities an institutional Canadian partnership was formed with NGOs, Québec universities, research establishments and private organizations. While this situation provoked a certain slowdown in the supervision of activities, many partners nevertheless experienced an improvement in their capacity to take action.

Finally, the skills and knowledge acquired in the program enabled CCISD to define the general strategies for intervention for the second phase of the project (AIDS 2, 1996-2001) along with guidelines for the syndromic control of STIs among groups at risk, within a perspective of sustainability and community empowerment through the health structures used by these groups.