South Asia Regional HIV Prevention among Injecting Drug Users in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries
Description: In view of the heterogeneity that exists in the region in the pattern of drug use as well as HIV prevalence among drug users, the project has emphasised the need for developing capacity in the region for scaling up of HIV intervention among IDUs and other opiate users. The mechanisms comprise training, exchanging of ideas, establishment of centres of excellence as resource institutions and visits to the effective intervention projects. It has also made a firm commitment towards learning from the effective outreach approaches that seem to be pivotal for scaling up and offers start-up money for the NGOs willing to reach out to drug users “yet to be reached”. Critical to this project was quality assurance through technical assistance and developing capacity for rigorous programme implementation, technical assistance of program indicators, surveillance methods and developing and promoting program evaluation.
Country/Region: India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan
Funding Agencies: UNODC Regional Office for South Asia /AusAI
Project duration: December 2003-December 2006
Key Nossal Staff: Peter Deutschmann