IIM Ahmedabad

Managerial Challenges in HIV/AIDS Prevention & Control Programmes
Program Directors: Tejas Desai & K.V.Ramani
December 26-30, 2005
Fees: Rs. 35,000 (US$ 1000 for participants from other countries)

Objectives: The spread of HIV/AIDS is not merely a problem of public health; it is also an economic, political, and social challenge that threatens to hinder decades of progress in different parts of the world. Indicators of human development like life expectancy at birth, child mortality, literacy, and food production are slipping as AIDS ravages families, communities, economies, and health systems in the countries that are most heavily affected by this epidemic. Although global spending on AIDS prevention and control programmes has increased from US$ 300 million in 1996 to US $5 billion in 2003, it is less than the amount currently needed (2005) to combat the illness in the developing world.

India has the largest number of people living with HIV outside South Africa. Out of the 6.5 million HIV/AIDS victims in South and South East Asia, as many as 5.1 million live in India.

There is an urgent need to significantly scale-up public health interventions that work (both in terms of coverage and quality) to make a meaningful impact. While NGOs and community-based organizations have a critical role to play in implementing these interventions amongst the various population groups, the government must shoulder the overall responsibility for planning, coordinating, mobilizing, and facilitating the various HIV/AIDS prevention, care, and treatment services in the country.

The entire programme has to adopt a more holistic approach; HIV/AIDS must be considered as a developmental problem and not merely as an issue of public health. Above all, adequate commitment on the administrative, political, and social fronts is crucial for HIV/AIDS prevention and control programmes. Capacity building should therefore be aimed at supporting the HIV/AIDS programme administrators and managers in policy, planning, implementation, and monitoring activities on a regular and sustai-nable basis.

For: Overall planning and evaluation of HIV programmes will need considerable management skills. Generally, the departments of public health in India are dominated by doctor-managers who lack training in management. Thus, in order to make HIV programming and implementation effective, it is necessary to upgrade the management skills and capacities of not only the various state and district level managers belonging to the departments of health, but also the workers of the NGOs involved in HIV programmes. The target audience for this MDP includes the following: -