NGINGUBABE NGIYISUKUMELE IMPHILO YAMI CAMPAIGN KICKS OFF

The Public sector led by PSHACC began their men dialogues yesterday at the Ministry of Agriculture, joined by the Deputy Prime Minister’s office, gender unit, and partners in the HIV response.

WHY MEN

UNAIDS, in their December 2015 report, states that there is lack of services for men who are at higher risk of HIV infection. Major focus of response programs has been directed to the affected, mainly Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW), forgetting the cause of the effect. In Eswatini, programme data indicate that male targeted interventions are performing very poorly, for example, the country is at 46% Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) coverage. In addition, according to the Eswatini HIV Recent Infections Survey (EHRIS) data, new HIV infections among men peak from age 29 and is the highest in the 30-39 age band.  Male retention and continuation in PrEP declines by more than 50% after initiation in PrEP programmes.

Given men’s greater access to economic resources and decision-making power, and the gender norms supportive of transactional sex, it follows then that unless we confront these dynamics directly, high levels of HIV vulnerability are likely to persist. Engaging men for their own health and changing harmful gender norms improve both men’s and women’s health. Gender inequalities and harmful gender norms are important drivers of the HIV epidemic, and they are major hindrances to an effective HIV response.  There is therefore an urgent need to reach men and adolescent boys with evidence-informed HIV prevention, voluntary testing and counselling, and treatment and care services that are informed by age and geographically disaggregated data (the know your epidemic, know your response approach).

To achieve the National Strategic Framework NSF (2018-2023) target of reduction of HIV incidence among persons aged 15 -49 years by 85% from the 2017 levels by 2023, there is need for targeted, tailored and integrated messages and services for men. There is a need to engage men to create demand and uptake of services particularly for HIV prevention i.e VMMC, PEP, condoms, PrEP, etc. 

1. Campaign target audience 

The campaign will target males across the following age bands.

• Adolescent boys aged 15-19 years
• Young men aged 20-29 years
• Middle aged men aged 30-39 years 
• Older men aged above 40 

2. Objectives of the campaign

The campaign seeks to achieve the following classified objectives:

2. 1. Behavioral Change Objective
      1. Promote positive social norms to advance gender equality and improve the health of men.
      2. Identify and correct negative social norms conducted by men that contribute to HIV infections for AGYW.
   2. Service uptake
      1. Improve access to HIV prevention services like HTS, PrEP, VMMC and Condoms. 
      2. Promote ART adherence to enhance treatment as prevention
   3. Strategy
      1. Generate insight on how to best target men with HIV services
      2. To produce the Eswatini Men and HIV and AIDS Strategy
3. Campaign Focus

The campaign will focus on the following key drivers of the epidemic including;

1. Unprotected sexual intercourse with multiple concurrent partners
2. Transactional sex
3. Intergenerational sex
4. Gender-based violence
5. Delay in treatment initiation including failure to adhere to treatment. 

As already alluded to, NERCHA has established strategic partnerships and collaboration with the private and public sectors namely, PSHACC and Eswatini Business Health (EBH), formerSWABCHA, to implement the campaign as follows;

PSHACC

Public sector has about 23000 male employees. A total of 25-30 dialogue will be conducted in each ministry targeting 50 men per dialogue. The campaign is targeting a number of ministries with most men such as the Ministry of Training and Education, Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, Ministry of Tinkhundla Administration and Development, Home Affairs, Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and Ministry of  Justice. The dialogues will be facilitated by different implementing partners. A one-day training in each region has been conducted to capacitate the facilitators and to standardize the dialogue messages. PSHACC has further engage development broadcasters who will flight key campaign messages in their programmes (radio and print). They have received orientation on the key messages to be flighted. An additional orientation will be conducted for all government communication officers so that they can promote the campaign within their ministries.

EBH

Private sector has about 28 000 male employees. A total of 60 dialogues will be conducted across the private sector, targeting 30 men per dialogue. The campaign is targeting 39 EBH Members such as; CONCO, Standard Bank, EEC, Ned Bank, Montigny, RES Corp, RENAC, Inyatsi, EWSC, FNB, Business Eswatini, EPTC, Stefanutti Stocks, Ubombo Sugar, SRA, MTN, Eswatini Mobile, FINCORP, Maloma Colliery, Eswatini Bank, Exams Council, EIDC, Matsapha Town Council, Municipal Council of Manzini, Municipal Council of Mbabane, PSPF, Eswatini Beverages, Eswatini Railway, FSRA, ESA, ESRIC, KOBWA, MVA, Dups / United Holdings, ESWACAA, Swaziland Building Society, Central Bank of Eswatini, UNESWA & ECGA. A one-day training in each company will be conducted to capacitate the facilitators and to standardize the dialogue messages. In the private sector, the campaign will be launched through a CEO event. The idea of this event is to sensitize the leaders of these private companies and further request their support in implementing the campaign. 

 Community dialogue targeting men and adolescent boys - NERCHA

A total of 30 community dialogue will be conducted in each region based on “kudliwa inhloko” concept. 50 men will be targeted in each community. Communities will be selected based on the HIV services coverage report. Priority will be given to “under-performing” chiefdoms (low HIV service).  NERCHA will engage regional HIV implementing partners who work closely with men as facilitators of the dialogues. NERCHA will conduct a one-day training in each region to standardize dialogue messages and allocate specific roles to specific regional HIV prevention partners. Standard messages will be drawn from the national HIV risk reduction module. The same module will be used to train the regional facilitators. In each dialogue, regional partners will provide the following services: HTS, PrEP, VMMC registration, GBV, Cancer screening, Diabetes testing, COVID vaccination, condom and lubricant distribution. Edutainment will also be provided in each region.

Male government employees are invited to attend the dialogues as per the schedule below, although fresh information will be made available in each ministry from time to time in case there are any changes to this schedule.

Public Sector Men Engage Dialogue Schedule