One UN Joint Programme: Support to the National HIV and AIDS Response
 
National context

HIV and AIDS is perhaps the most serious development challenge the United Republic of Tanzania faces today.

In 2006 – more than 20 years after the first cases of AIDS occurred on the Mainland (1983) and in Zanzibar (1986) – over 2.5 million Tanzanians were estimated to be living with HIV. To date, over one million Tanzanians have died of AIDS-related illnesses, meaning that AIDS is the leading cause of death of young adults.  A 2004 nationwide household survey found a prevalence rate for HIV of 7% (7.7% for females and 6.3% for males). On Zanzibar, the HIV infection remains quite low at under 1% of those aged 15-49.  Some two million Tanzanian children have been orphaned or otherwise made vulnerable due to the epidemic. A first generation of young Tanzanians orphaned by AIDS has now reached adulthood.

The epidemic is also a serious threat to the country’s social and economic development, causing loss of skills and experience, a reduced supply of labour, rising labour costs, falling productivity and reduced profit and investment. Development gains realized by this young and enterprising country are being threatened by the relentless AIDS epidemic.

As AIDS cuts across all sectors of Tanzania society, so too does it cut across the mandates of all UN agencies working on the issue in Tanzania. The One UN Joint Programme on HIV and AIDS brings together the extensive technical expertise and experience of all UN agencies into a single, streamlined and coordinated programme of support, capitalizing on the comparative advantages of each.

The Joint Programme aims to support the strong political commitment and leadership shown at the highest levels of Government and civil society by putting AIDS as a top priority on the development agenda for both the mainland and Zanzibar and to assist all stakeholders to address the many challenges to an effective national AIDS response.

The vision of the Joint Programme on HIV and AIDS is to “build partnerships to provide an effective and sustained national response to HIV and AIDS as ONE UN in line with MKUKUTA and MKUZA to support universal access to prevention, care, treatment and support in Tanzania”. 

Objectives and outcomes

The One UN Joint Programme of Support on HIV and AIDS 2007-2008 is fully consistent with the Government priorities as expressed through MKUKUTA and MKUZA and with the UN Development Assistance Framework developed to support those priorities, as well as with the mainland’s National Multi-Sectoral Strategic Framework on HIV and AIDS (2003-2007) and Zanzibar’s National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan (2004/5-2008/9).  It focuses joint UN support to the national response on HIV and AIDS in four strategic areas: prevention; care, treatment and support; impact mitigation; and enabling environment.

     •    Prevention: Preventing and decreasing the number of new infections remains the most feasible approach to reversing the epidemic; the Joint Programme works with the Government to ensure universal access to comprehensive and effective HIV prevention services.
     •    Care, treatment and support: Care, treatment and support of people living with HIV (PLHIV) is a key component of effective comprehensive AIDS programmes; the Joint Programme assists the Government to provide quality care, treatment and support to PLHIV, including the scaling up of sustainable access to anti-retroviral therapy.
     •    Impact mitigation: The pandemic has caused severe socioeconomic difficulties for individuals, families, communities and the nation as a whole; the Joint Programme supports Government efforts to mitigate the effects of HIV by strengthening coping mechanisms at all levels.
     •    Enabling environment: An enabling environment encompasses essential elements that allow for timely and targeted interventions by all stakeholders; the Joint Programme helps the Government to put in place the policies and processes required to create this environment conducive for effective action.