Why HIV/AIDS Development NGOs Should Invest in ICTs

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is arguably the greatest challenge facing South Africa. Over 5.5 million people in SA are HIV+, with millions more affected by the disease.  Around 1,000 people die every day from AIDS, and about 1,500 are newly infected daily. 

The good news is that finally there is a coherent National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS & STI 2007-2011 (the NSP). In the NSP there are ambitious targets: by 2011 new infections will be halved, and 80% of people who need Anti-RetroViral  drugs (ARVs) will receive them.

The budget for the NSP is huge – R45 billion over the next five years, with around R24 billion for huge quantities of ARVs.  The NSP is about much more than HIV.  It makes commitments on welfare, workplace issues, access to justice, community mobilisation, women’s empowerment, and public sector accountability as well as wider health issues. Mark Heywood, now the deputy chairperson of the SA National AIDS Council, calls the NSP the third most important document of democratic South Africa after the RDP and our Constitution.  Civil Society should read it, organise to support it, and hold government accountable for its implementation.

New Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are a powerful tool that can support the implementation the NSP.  ICTs can assist in the fight against HIV in various ways:

Improving the efficiency of the ‘back-office’ of HIV/AIDS organisations, especially at community level;

• Strengthening mass communication of prevention, treatment, anti-stigma and other HIV messages;
• Supporting informatics in the health system, especially comprehensive record keeping and the capacity to provide care and treatment to HIV+ people, particularly in supplying ARVs;
• Monitoring & evaluating all aspects of the NSP;
• Supporting the self-organisation of people living with HIV as well as allowing the voice of the millions infected and affected by HIV to be heard;
• Providing a medium for research, advocacy and other forms of information sharing.

If not properly managed, ICT systems can also be inappropriate, a great waste of money and a distraction from the real work.  Millions of rand have been lost on ICT systems in the health sector that were not appropriate to South African conditions.

There is a particular opportunity for using cellphones as a communication channel to millions infected or affected by HIV.  There are around 30 million active cellphone users in the country, almost two-thirds of our population of 47 million. This can be a great tool for communication and self-organisation of people living positively.  MXIT has shown how millions can use cellphone data systems.  Can cellphones become a mass channel for information & services for the HIV community?

Currently the national health system does not have the capacity to get the drugs, medical professionals and patients all together at the right place and the right time.  The ICT systems well may be a determining factor on who will receive life-saving medication.  However currently the NSP makes little reference to ICTs.  An informal group has formed to plan ICT strategies to support the NSP – for more information please email peter@cell-life.org.za.

– Peter Benjamin, General Manager, Cell-Life.