Uganda Report 2012 FINAL PO:Layout 1 - ACORD

6.2.2 Medium -Term
2. Link treatment programs to food security and
nutrition
Government, development partners and civil
society actors in most food insecure communities
of post-conflict north should undertake efforts for
enhancing integrated and comprehensive
programmes which link treatment programmes
such as ART more strongly to food security and
nutrition for PLHA. The case off ACDI/VOCA
partnership with TASO and World Vision offers
lessons and promising practices for this to happen
on a larger scale for equitably to serve all PLHA in
the region.
3. Hold government accountable
A concerted advocacy agenda is required to hold
Government accountable and responsive towards
global Commitments and Declarations to which it
is signatory (Abuja, UNGASS, UA, Maputo). In
particular, Government commitment and allocation
of sufficient resources for integrated programmes
on food and nutrition security for PLHA should be
emphasized.
4. Formation of strategic partnerships
Government and civil society actors in the area of
health and food sovereignty have a clear window
of opportunity to realize better results through the
formation of strategic partnerships for greater
synergies to enhance sustainable livelihoods.
Opportunities exist through partnerships with
Microfinance institutions for technical and financial
support for PLHA, private sector, FAO and other
players; with research and development
institutions in the public and private sector, NARO,
NAADS, and others.
6.2.3 Long-Term
1. Mainstreaming HIV&AIDS
For any sustainable agricultural production and
food security in the context of HIV&AIDS in the
general community, there is need to have an
integrated package that also focuses on HIV
prevention and provision of psycho-social support
to infected individuals and affected households.
As long as HIV continues to spread, communities
run the risks of frequent food insecurity and
declined agricultural production, which also in turn
has the potential of fuelling the epidemic-bidirectional
relationship. This therefore calls for the
need to intensify advocacy activities in order to
raise awareness among policy-makers,
programme-planners and practitioners both at
national and local levels to mainstream HIV&AIDS
issues in agricultural related programmes.
Other long-term recommendations include
the following:
• As the region is in the recovery and development
phase, the need to address longer-term needs,
such as sustainable access to adequate social
services and livelihoods becomes critical. As much
as the families including those affected by
HIV&AIDS are facilitated to resettle and possibly
start on agricultural production, government need
to deliberately improve on the livelihoods of the
community through sustained establishment and
maintenance of infrastructure e.g., road networks
that can link the farmers to market, provision of
extension services and provision of vocational
skills especially to young boys and girls in the
communities and particularly those from HIV&ADS
affected households.
• In the past when people were still in camps,
livestock interventions did not fair well, but there
are a lot of prospects for having such an
intervention succeed especially as peace returns
to the north. Linking the households to veterinary
services and with big chunks of land, the livestock
project can greatly help communities and
HIV&AIDS affected households as a source of
income and even nutritious food. Thus, follow-up
of farmers especially with regard to animal health
is very important to make the intervention
successful.
• Government interventions such as PRDP need to
go beyond infrastructural development to
incorporate food security
• Strengthen mechanisms for integrating food
security in the HIV&AIDS response
• There is need for initiatives to pass on indigenous
farming knowledge to children in PLHA affected
households
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