Did you know that more than 40 million people in this world are living with HIV and AIDS?  Statistics shows that last year around 5 million people have been infected by HIV and half of them are those aged 15-24 or young people. In Indonesia, approximately 12-19 million people are vulnerable to HIV while 80% of the HIV cases affected the productive ages or those between 19 to 29 years old. This obviously means that the future generation becomes more vulnerable to HIV. Having known the reality, how could everyone deal with the phenomenon? How could we, wherever and whatever we are doing, contribute to mitigate the impact of the epidemic?

The Issue of HIV/AIDS is everyone business. Meaning that not only those working with HIV/AIDS activities such as condom distribution project or HIV testing project can address the causes and consequences of HIV along with the factors that influence vulnerability to HIV, but wherever and whatever we are doing we can adapt our area and works with the realities of HIV.

Australia Nusa Tenggara Assistance for Regional Autonomy (ANTARA) is working to reduce poverty in Nusa Tenggara by, for example, improving men and women incomes. The ANTARA activities need to address and understand how the issue of HIV might reduce the output of the program and at the same time how the program might also reduce the vulnerability of women and men, as program beneficiaries, to HIV. By adapting the realities of HIV in its activities, ANTARA is already on the track to mainstream HIV.

Along with ANTARA, a number of programs supported by AusAID such as ACCESS, YCAP, SADI, AIPRD LOGICA met in Denpasar 12-14 January 2009 to discuss how their work can effectively and sustainably address the causes and consequences of HIV/AIDS through adapting and improving both their work and their workplace practices.

There is no standard approach or universal recipe to mainstream HIV.  Approaches need to be designed according to the specific context; however a common approach is needed to guide the process and to measure the outcome at the end. For that reason, in the three-day productive meeting the AusAID programs developed a common approach to HIV mainstreaming in their activities. A document has been drafted providing an outline for an agreed approach to incorporate HIV concerns into AusAID-supported programs, which can also be tailored to the needs and opportunity evident across the wide variety of programs.

Syalomi Natalia, Communication Officer, Australia-Nusa Tenggara Assistance for Regional Autonomy (ANTARA)