twinning against AIDS Final Report: The Process

The process was called twinning against AIDS and was designed to solicit a range of views from a cross section of organisations working on various aspects of the pandemic in different parts of the world. The use of ICTs was built in from the beginning with the establishment of a simple web site twinning against AIDS that contained information on the process, a discussion forum for Steering Committee members, and an on-line survey and analysis tool. ICAD and CI brought together a Steering Committee to help guide the process, develop the survey, analyse the results and provide critical input and insight.

Steering Committee

Name	Organisation
Christopher Armstrong	CIDA
Paul Boneburg	Global AIDS Action Network and Connecting the Grassroots
Susan Chong	Asia Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organizations (APCASO)
Libbie Driscoll	Policy Research International
Rosemary Forbes	ICAD
Tim France	Health & Development Networks (HDN)
Renate Koch	ACCSI - Acción Ciudadana Contra el SIDA. LACCASO - Consejo Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Organizaciones No Gubernamentales con Servicio en VIH/SIDA
Chris Morry	CI
Michael O Connor	ICAD
Catherine Phiri	OneWorld Africa AIDS Channel
Jonathan Schlackl	CI
Diana Senghor	Panos West Africa
Graham Todd	International Research Development Centre (IDRC)
Dolar Vasani	Regional Adviser VSO Regional AIDS Initiative of Southern Africa

An on-line survey was prepared and promoted through a variety of list serves, electronic mailing lists and organisations. The survey was available on-line in English, French and Spanish and could also be filled out in MS Word and returned by e-mail. Response to the survey was tabulated by CI and a preliminary findings report was presented to a meeting at the Barcelona World AIDS conference which included 8 members of the Steering Committee and several others with an interest in twinning. Comments from this meeting were incorporated into a report on the findings. This report was circulated to the Steering Committee members who were interviewed by phone for further comment and insight. This process has culminated in the preparation of the final report and proposal now before you. The Charts and other data presented below were collected from the survey and then tested against the experience and expertise of the Steering Committee members.

Representation in the survey response:

Below are a series of charts providing a snap shop of the survey response in terms of where respondents came from, the kind and size of organisation they represented, and the focus of their AIDS work.

The response to the survey was fairly well balanced by region with the strongest representation coming from Africa. Most respondents described themselves as a 'local/national CBO/NGO/PVO or community group', the majority had 20 or fewer staff and most had budgets below US$50,000. Most worked on education followed by advocacy, counselling, and research.

While it is important to be aware of the make up of the respondents and the potential for gaps in information of perspective, the process incorporates an experienced Steering Committee, follow-up interviews and face to face meetings. The survey generated input from different types and sizes of organisations working across a range of HIV/AIDS issues, in multiple cultural, economic and social settings, and at different levels from international to national to local. The Steering Committee and the meeting in Barcelona provided a check on the survey data and analysis and combined, this provides a useful baseline on which to develop plans for improving the use of ICTs in twinning.