Zimbabwean stories of "Best Practice" - SAfAIDS

SADC's HIV and AIDS Strategic Framework (2007-2011) and the Business Plans for HIV and AIDS bothadvocate the sharing of Best Practices between and within member states (SADC, 2008). A call for thescaling up of Best Practices in southern Africa was officially made in the Maseru Declaration on CombatingHIV and AIDS (2003) where it was recognised that:"...within the SADC Region there have been successes and Best Practices in changing behaviour,reducing new infections and mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS, and that these successesneed to be rapidly scaled up and emulated across the SADC region."In response to these calls and the growing evidence that organisations need to learn from each other'sexperiences, UNAIDS and SADC began documenting Best Practices in 1997 with their 'Best PracticeCollection'. The Best Practices reported in this publication are modelled on the original SADC HIV andAIDS 'Best Practice Framework'.1.3 SAfAIDS approach to documenting Best PracticesAs the leading HIV and AIDS information and communication organisation in the southern African region,SAfAIDS has developed a strategic approach to documenting best practices. This approach has beendeveloped through research and experience in documenting best practices on HIV and AIDS in southernAfrica. SAfAIDS promotes a Participatory Documentation Process approach which means that all effortsare made to maximize the participation of the key stakeholders (partner organisations, beneficiaries,communities, etc.) throughout the six step process (see Figure 1). This includes ensuring that people livingwith HIV and AIDS, women and children are represented.The SAfAIDS methodology for documenting Best Practices, drawn from the SADC Framework for documentingBest Practices, was used to document these case studies. SAfAIDS believes that documenting bestpractice is not the same as an evaluation of a project. An evaluation assesses or verifies while a bestpractice document validates the project.The approach involves three key steps:• Capacity building on Pest Practice documentation and communication skills that makes available apool of basic Documentalists at national/community levels. A training package comprising: a 'Handbookon Building Skills in HIV and AIDS Best Practice Documentation' and a 'Reference Manual onDocumentation and Communication' are the core reference materials for this capacity buildingprogramme. Each workshop has an in-built monitoring and evaluation mechanism which primarilyutilises two tools, the pre- and post-test questionnaires, to measure immediate learning amongstparticipants.• Documentation of Best Practices and their dissemination (as a tool of programme improvement aswell as advocacy) amongst programmers, policy makers and other relevant community stakeholders.The documentation process is guided by a set of tools, including: Selection Criteria Guides, InformationCollection Tools and an HIV Best Practice Score Card. Together these tools enable systematic andobjective identification, documentation and sharing of Best Practices. Skills transfer to national andlocal partners and peer review are an integral part of the process of documentation8