Zimbabwean stories of "Best Practice" - SAfAIDS

Cost -effectivenessThe SEVACA programme has an effective and flexible distribution plan for the resources it receives fromits donors. Depending on the donors' requirements, SEVACA sometimes uses a higher administration toprogramming ratio, with 40% of resources going towards administration costs and 60% going towardsprogramme implementation. The norm among donor agencies is to allocate 20% of funds for administrationand 80% for programming. A higher proportion of funds being targeted towards the administration of theSEVACA programme minimises the costs (in terms of transport, communication, and other services) involvedin running the programme.The project also makes effective use of its staff to implement the programme. Prior to increasing its staffcapacity, the SEVACA Executive Director and Administrator used to conduct most of the field work for theprogramme, spending as much as two weeks out of the office at a time. Today, the programme employsone Project Officer and one Field Officer each, in Malipati and Chikombedzi. This has ensured equitabledivision of labour and greater outreach of the programme in both communities. This enables the Chiredzitown based personnel to focus on activities that need to be co-ordinated from the urban office. It has alsosaved on costs involved in travelling to and from sites - costs which had been exacerbated by the fact thataccess to fuel for motor vehicles poses a great challenge in Chiredzi town, with most accessing fuel fromMasvingo, a town, which is a distance of about 200km away.RelevanceAll HIV interventions need to take cognisance of the specific context in which they are taking place, notingcultural, religious and other norms, as well as political systems and the socio-economic environment, insofaras they affect vulnerability, risk behaviour, or the successful implementation of a response.The SEVACA SHC programme was relevant to the community it was serving. As a demonstration of itsrelevance, community leaders such as the chiefs, counsellors and traditional healers participated in theactivities of the programme right from inception. More importantly, in recognition of the relevance of thegoal of the programme to the community, local chiefs also serve as caregivers.It should also be noted that this project was originally conceived by a group of Hlengwe women in responseto a community need, thus ensuring relevance from the start. Below, in Figure 28, are some of the malecaregivers in the programme.Figure 28: Some of the men who are involved ascare-givers in the communityBefore the SHC programme, the local healthcentres were not involved in the initiationceremonies or rites of passage practised by theShangaan and Hlengwe people. Nevertheless,since the launch of this advocacy work, theChikombedzi district hospital started taking aninterest in the quality of service offered ininitiation, especially in the circumcision of men.SEVACA and the community leaders approachedthe hospital to take over the circumcision rolein the initiation, a role which the hospitalaccepted. This helped to prevent the spread ofHIV which is caused through infection with bloodfrom sharing razor blades.66