Detailed Mechanism Funding and Narrative

Years of mechanism: 2012 2013

Details for Mechanism ID: 14335
Country/Region: Zambia
Year: 2012
Main Partner: Zambia AIDS Law Research and Advocacy Network
Main Partner Program: NA
Organizational Type: NGO
Funding Agency: enumerations.State/African Affairs
Total Funding: $50,000

Civil Society Organizations involved in HIV and AIDS are integral to Zambias multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS. They lobby the government and multi-lateral institutions to mobilize resources and improve governance of the national response to HIV and AIDS. They also promote the rights of people living with HIV and AIDS to access treatment. They participate in, and promote HIV and AIDS information in communities. Civil Society Organisations are facing challenges in financing their activities following partial withdrawal to fund HIV and AIDS by some cooperating partners. This withdrawal has affected the operations of CSOs. PEPFAR seeks to contribute to the continued operations of three CSOs namely; Network of Zambian People Living with HIV (NZP+), Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign (TALC), and Zambia AIDS Law Research & Advocacy Network (ZARAN).

Funding for Health Systems Strengthening (OHSS): $50,000

The Zambia AIDS Law Research & Advocacy Network (ZARAN) is a local non-governmental organisation (NGO) that promotes the rights of people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS (PLHIV). ZARAN seeks to influence change in the policy and legal environment in Zambia so that the rights of people living with and affected by HIV are adequately enshrined and protected, and to empower those people with the skills and mechanisms to demand the rights to which they are entitled. It does so by advocating the rights-based solutions to the legal, policy and ethical challenges posed by HIV and AIDS using the tools of legal support, research, training and communication.

Zambia is a signatory to a number of global and regional agreements and declarations concerning HIV and AIDS including the Political Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS (2001), the Abuja Declaration of 2001 and the 2005 Paris Declaration on AID Effectiveness to health. These recognise the need for a multi-sectoral response to prevent new HIV infections, expand access to health care and mitigate the effects of the epidemic. In 2005 Zambia signed up to the World Summit Outcome (Resolution 60/1) to upscale HIV prevention, treatment and care with the aim of Universal Access for all by 2010. Within Zambia, among the relevant legal and policy frameworks are the Sixth National Development Plan, the Gender Policy, the 1996 Constitution Amendment, Gender Based Violence Amendment Act of 2011 and the Penal Code CAP 87. However the key policy that lays out the Government of Zambias response to HIV is the National HIV and AIDS/STD/TB Act (2002), which established the National HIV/AIDS/STI/TB Council (NAC) to coordinate the response. The National HIV and AIDS/STI/TB Policy was published in 2005 and most recently the National HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework (2011-2015) has been produced, which lays out how Zambia will implement the four pillars of the HIV response. This is the successor document to the 2006-2010 document of the same name.

ZARAN and its partners have identified six key human rights challenges concerning HIV and AIDS in Zambia. These issues will form the focus of ZARANs work in the period 2011-2015. They are: 1. Continuing Human Rights violations for individual PLHIV e.g. dismissal from employment, breaches of confidentiality, deprivation of services, property grabbing. 2. Insufficient, inadequate or inaccessible information provision on prevention, treatment, care and support especially to key populations at higher risk. 3. Inadequate implementation of existing obligations e.g. concerning policies such as access to prevention, treatment care and support; discrimination and stigma in the workplace. 4. Inadequate accountability, and demand for accountability, concerning human rights and HIV related issues. 5. Legislative and policy framework inadequately enshrines human rights for all Zambians but has more severe consequences for PLHIV. 6. Inadequate understanding of human rights and HIV and AIDS on the part of Parliamentarians, Government Agents, law and policy makers, Duty Bearers and the public.

Cross Cutting Budget Categories and Known Amounts Total: $50,000
Gender: Reducing Violence and Coercion $50,000
Key Issues Identified in Mechanism
Increasing women's legal rights and protection