Regions

Features

Health and Development Networks (HDN) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for Southern Africa will be hosting a structured discussion to share experiences and raise awareness about the issues of mobile populations and HIV/AIDS, particularly in the Southern African region.

This discussion will take place on the AF-AIDS eForum between February and June 2005.

The forum will explore the specific factors that increase HIV/AIDS vulnerability in mobile populations and examine how HIV/AIDS affects migration patterns. It will also focus on the particular challenges raised by dwindling human resources in the healthcare sector and the links to HIV/AIDS.

HDN and IOM are calling for contributions and comments on the following themes:

Topic 1: Migration and HIV/AIDS - How does migration and population mobility lead to increased HIV/AIDS vulnerabilities in Southern Africa?
Topic 2: Migration and HIV/AIDS - How does HIV/AIDS affect migration and population mobility patterns?
Topic 3: The brain drain of healthcare professionals from Southern Africa

If you are already a member of the AF-AIDS eForum, further information will be sent to you in the next few days. To join the eForum, send an email to:

Contributions to the discussion can also be made available through the IOM website www.iom.org.za

Following the discussion, a summary capturing the highlights of all contributions will be prepared, with all contributors duly acknowledged and cited. The summary will be published by IOM/HDN in hard copy as well as CD-Rom versions.

For more information:
HDN eForum Resource Team
Email:
www.hdnet.org

The Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance (SAHARA) will be holding the third African SAHARA Conference, entitled "Bridging the gap between policy, research and intervention", from 10 to 14 October 2005 in Dakar, Senegal.

SAHARA is an alliance of partners established to conduct, support and use social sciences research to prevent the further spread of HIV and mitigate the impact of its devastation on sub-Saharan Africa. The conference should be of specific interest to researchers and policymakers who are interested in the following themes:

• The cultural and socioeconomic environment of vulnerability and access to treatment
• Social, economic and psychological impact of HIV/AIDS on African women, communities and countries
• Gender inequalities and access to prevention, treatment and care
• Stigma and social aspects of prevention, voluntary testing, treatment and care
• The burden of HIV/AIDS on the healthcare systems and the involvement of the private sector in the fight against AIDS
• Policies and responses to international/national and local plans
• The nutrition and feeding of people living with HIV/AIDS and social aspects of parent-to-child transmission of the disease
• Behavioural changes and structural changes of the interventions and assessment
• Sociobehavioural surveillance and sociocultural aspects of epidemiological surveillance
• Street children, sexual abuse, children in war and conflict situations; ethnic and legal issues regarding the rights of women and children

Click here for more information about the Conference:
www.sahara.org.za

Guidelines on how to submit abstracts can be found on the Conference website
www.sahara.org.za

The deadline for abstract submission is 15 May 2005.

The global youth reproductive health programme, YouthNet, has launched an online discussion, "Youth Forum on Pregnancy Prevention in a Time of AIDS," to be held 15 March to 15 April 2005.

The forum is meant for those working in the youth reproductive health and HIV prevention fields and hopes to have youth, technical experts from the United Nations and other international agencies, programme managers and providers participating. Each week the discussion will focus on a specific topic, such as dual protection, abstinence, medical barriers to contraceptives for youth, and the role of media.

To sign up, send an email to with "Youth Forum" in the subject line, and include your name and the country in which you work. You will receive an e-mail response explaining how the forum works.

For more information, go to www.fhi.org

The Synergy HIV/AIDS Resource Centre currently contains more than 3,600 documents on HIV/AIDS project management, research, and reproductive health issues, most of which are available for download. Users can refer to "What's New in the Synergy Resource Centre", which provides links to new publications, or search the entire online database at www.synergyaids.com