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How does a society respond when its most productive members suddenly become too ill to work? Can information and communication technology (ICT) help fill the resulting gaps in human capacity? The Southern Africa Capacity Initiative (SACI) is trying to find answers to these questions.

With only two percent of the world’s population, the Southern Africa region has over 12 of the 40 million HIV positive people in the world. The impact is devastating. Parents cannot care for their children, farmers are unable to produce food, doctors and nurses become patients rather than carers, educators are unable to teach, while those left in the classroom face the extra burden of offering emotional support to increasing numbers of orphans. Other social services face crisis as the public servants who administer them are unable to function effectively.

Initiated by the United Nations Development Programme, SACI has recently started to place hundreds of national and international UN Volunteers to work in areas where there are pressing shortages in skilled personnel. UN Volunteers provide temporary support, train their counterparts and support the uptake of information and communication technologies.
UNAIDS, The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, in collaboration with Government and donor partners, plays a pivotal role in coordinating the national fight against AIDS. Coordination needs effective information management, and I have suddenly found myself at the Zimbabwe office of UNAIDS in this role.

To meet one of our immediate information needs we are establishing an online distribution point for HIV and AIDS information. We want a place where Zimbabwe-relevant information, such as conference papers, media reports about HIV and AIDS and project documents can be quickly found.

We also want to provide a model for online collaboration and information sharing.
In Zimbabwe in 2001 there were only 22 phone lines, 29 cell phones and 8.7 Internet users for every 1,000 people. Services are even more limited in many rural areas. As all telecommunications go through one national carrier, and most users access the net via landline modems, we are avoiding using formats which could slow up access.

In order to bolster download time we will use a dynamic HTML menu. We will also break up large documents into chapters. To capture varying levels of information literacy we will include a search function as well as a directory structure.

Assistance in terms of development software, server hosting and time has been provided by the Southern Africa Humanitarian Information Service (SAHIMS) in South Africa.
Mentoring like that provided by SAHIMS plays an important role in rebuilding capacity. To facilitate such support, the UN’s Online Volunteering portal connects community based organisations with a diverse, flexible and geographically dispersed pool of skilled people. A design student, for example, may respond to a request for help in designing a logo or laying out a publication. The requesting organisation gains technical assistance while the volunteer gains experience and the satisfaction of having made a difference.

Online data collection is being supported by UNAIDS through two new projects, the Donor Inventory System and a National HIV and AIDS Indicator Database.

The Donor Inventory System database has created an overview of where HIV and AIDS money has been spent. This will help project coordination to achieve the best use of scarce resources. Preliminary results show that Zimbabwe’s HIV and AIDS response is under funded, particularly in the area of treatment.

The Indicator Database is being developed by the National Aids Council of Zimbabwe and the Centre for Disease Control. Data will be collected at district level then submitted electronically via ten provincial medical centres. Once collated, it will provide an online monitor of the incidence of the virus.

This information, in addition to data from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, will assist in plans to make Anti retroviral drugs more widely available and enable HIV+ people to live longer and more productively.

The rollout of an Anti retroviral drug programme is itself a challenge. Even if the drugs can be made available, how can the medical support be delivered and treatment literacy be created?
In South Africa pilot projects are underway. Patients on the drugs are monitored and life-threatening problems are identified by means of data management systems running over mobile phones. Mobile clinics connected with wireless, radio and ISDN link a nurse travelling in remote areas with an online doctor at the base.

Tentative steps towards e-service delivery are underway in Zimbabwe. The United Nations Development Programme is developing an e-readiness survey, planning activities to raise awareness of the knowledge economy and developing a national ICT strategy.

Zimbabwe has a higher rate of literacy than many African countries thanks to significant investment in education in the past. An ICT strategy will build on this advantage. While the main national languages are Shona and Ndbele, most people understand English. Part of our wish list for the site is to eventually allow for all national languages.

Statistics show that teenage girls are becoming HIV infected at a rate five or six times greater than boys. The education system is clearly failing girls. In response, a UNICEF study on gender, sexuality and HIV and AIDS, recommends the introduction of a variety of flexible learning options for girls. These include double-shift school sessions, multi-grade teaching, distance education and minimum learning packages.

Zimbabwe’s Girl Child Network has over 20,000 members, organised in 150 girls’ clubs to encourage education. The longer a girl stays at school the lower her risk of HIV infection. In order to achieve this the Chitsotso Girls’ Empowerment Village offers counseling, medical services, a refuge, information, self-help training and positive role models. It has encouraged over 2,000 girls to return to school and shielded hundreds more from the dangers of commercial sex work.

If current trends continue a child born today in Zimbabwe will die before their 35th birthday, drastic responses are needed.

The Southern Africa Capacity Initiative, along with others, creates a framework for sharing regional experiences and developing networks of experience, knowledge and best-practice of ways to restore hope and build capacity.

As Rumbidzai Grace Mushangi, 15 years old says:

“I don’t want to die before I turn 25. I refuse to sit down and watch my generation fall to pieces. I am going to make a difference”
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Stephen O’Brien, is an Information Management Officer in Zimbabwe with UNAIDS in support of the United Nations Development Programme’s Southern African Capacity Initiative. Stephen, a UN Volunteer, is on leave from the Hunter Institute of TAFE NSW where he works as a librarian. He has participated in several LearnScope projects and was a 2002 VALA travel scholar.

 www.unaids.org.zw (forthcoming website)