GUYANA
Establishing the Joint Team
Process of establishing the Joint Team
The UN System in Guyana established the Joint United Nations Team on AIDS in June 2006. The UNAIDS Country Coordinator sent letters to all UN Heads of Agencies operational in Guyana requesting that the Agencies formally designate one staff member and one alternate to participate as a member of the Joint UN Team on AIDS in Guyana. The letter also requested that Agencies include in their performance appraisal system clear roles, responsibilities, and performance indicators against which the staff members and alternates would be assessed. The letters were jointly signed by the Resident Coordinator and the UCC.
The 10 members include the UNAIDS Country Coordinator for Guyana & Suriname (Chair), PAHO, UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, ILO and the World Bank; alternates include 5 additional people from the above agencies and UNV.
The Division of Labour was not significantly changed from the recommendations included in the Proposed Working Mechanisms for Joint UN Teams on AIDS at Country Level – Guidance Paper. The Joint Team decided not to include Drugs and HIV as part of Joint Programme of Support. Currently there is no agency dealing with Nutrition and HIV/AIDS either; however FAO will soon be operational in Guyana. Additionally, UNICEF deals Education and HIV/AIDS through the Health and Family Life Education Programme.
With regards to building the capacity of the Joint Team to function, Guyana has adopted an ad-hoc approach to assisting its team members in understanding the capacity of the team to function. The functioning of the Joint Team is the result of informal orientation and learning by doing. The Joint Team plans to conduct a Belbin Team exercise.
One of the major challenges encountered by the Joint Team was the lack of full participation by all of the members. Many of the members have other roles within their agencies. HIV is only one issue among many other issues that each member must address according to their responsibilities within their respective agencies. The decision to have the meetings bi-monthly will hopefully ameliorate the lack of full participation.
Management structure of the Joint Team
The Joint Team members mostly engage in HIV-related work as part of their agency’s own mandate and as agreed under the division of labour by the UN Country Team. They report on progress at the Joint Team’s meetings and take back recommendations to their agency. At the outset of the establishment of the Joint Team, members met once a month. It has since been decided that members will instead meet bi-monthly.
Currently, there is only one sub-team led by UNFPA; the sub-team oversees the implementation of the project “Ensuring provision of condoms for UN personnel.”
The financial arrangements to establish the Joint Team were derived from the funds available in the UNAIDS Programme Acceleration Funds.
The Joint Team provides guidance and recommendations to the UN Theme Group on HIV/AIDS under a Joint UN Programme of Support to the national HIV response. The meetings of the Joint Team are reported to the Theme Group.
The Joint UN Team on AIDS in Guyana stresses that accountability is the key difference between past and present efforts to jointly programme UN action on HIV. Individual Team members have their responsibilities as members of the Joint Team added to their performance review within their agencies. The review considers the time and technical contribution to the Joint Team, and reflects achievement of the annual key deliverables. The performance evaluations are conducted once a year.
One challenge that the Joint Team has encountered with regards to management structure is that some of the members do not honour their commitments. Despite the accountability mechanisms and performance evaluations, some members continue to renege on their promises.
Developing the Joint Programme of Support
Before the Joint Team was established, the then Technical Working Group (TWG) undertook the preparation of a joint UN framework on AIDS in 2006. The TWG looked at the National Strategy and the HIV elements of the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), and created a plan in a draft form. The draft was created in a one day session by members of the TWG. The UCC facilitated the session with programme staff from the agencies.
The UNAIDS Secretariat received funds from the PAF in late 2007 for the development of a Joint UN Programme of Support 2008/2009. The fund were for: the review of the laws and policies of Guyana so that recommendations could be made, where appropriate; the full support of the activities of the UN Theme Group on HIV, the Joint UN Team on AIDS and establishing the Joint UN Programme of Support for HIV for 2008/09 and for joint UN activities for World AIDS Day 2007.
Some initial work began last year that will be incorporated into the 2008/2009 Programme. The plan will focus on the four priority areas of the Guyana National HIV/AIDS Strategy 2007-2011.The first priority area is to strengthen the national capacity to implement a coordinated, multi-sectoral response; this includes strengthening regional, institutional, and human capacity to coordinate, manage, and implement the multi-sectoral response. The second priority area is reducing risk vulnerability to HIV; this includes increased knowledge and access to prevention services as well as decreased misconception and discriminatory behaviors. The third priority area is to increase and strengthen clinical and diagnostic management and access to care, treatment, and support; this also includes strengthening the service delivery system. The fourth priority area is to strengthen strategic information; this includes the strengthening of the capacity of local, regional, and national levels for the collection and use of data.
The Joint Team is waiting for the completion of the Guyana National Plan on HIV, and itsTechnical Needs Support Plan, which will be finalized in March 2008. Once the Plan is finalized and funding is received, the Joint Team will be able to move forward with the Joint Programme of Support, as a detailed plan of action will enable the Joint Team to fill in the gaps, and assess where and how the UN is best positioned to offer its support, most strategically and effectively.
With regards to lessons learned, it is important to bear in mind that the UN presence is small in Guyana to address an HIV prevalence of < 2%; moreover, HIV/AIDS remains elusive and disregarded in the population. For those reasons, mobilization of resources and human activities has been exceptionally difficult. Additionally, the capacity of the UN with regards to financial contribution to address AIDS in Guyana is relatively small, and thus results in the diminished capacity of the Joint Team to function.