BCC Network for HIV/AIDS: First Regional Meeting for East, Central and Southern Africa

This publication reports on the first regional meeting of the Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) Network for HIV/AIDS which was held in Kampala, Uganda, on November 3-6 2003. Nearly 140 delegates from 19 countries convened to actively discuss, explore, and address BCC issues relevant to HIV/AIDS in the region. The participants included BCC practitioners representing government bodies, regional and national non-governmental organisations, community- and faith-based organisations, academic institutions, and international health agencies.

The main themes of the meeting agenda highlighted the emerging issues in planning and programming for BCC; developing BCC for care and treatment; addressing stigma; reaching youth; and strengthening research, monitoring, and evaluation of BCC interventions.

The objectives of the meeting were to:

• Share lessons learned and interventions in BCC in the ECSA [East, Central and Southern Africa] region
• Discuss key current issues and BCC tools for HIV/AIDS
• Discuss the expansion and operationalisation of the BCC Network for HIV/AIDS
• Foster linkages among BCC practitioners and those in allied professions in ECSA

This report is an overview of the proceedings of the meeting and is intended to serve as a resource and learning document for meeting participants as well as for other BCC practitioners in the region. The structure of the report follows that of the meeting agenda and includes a summary of all plenary and concurrent session presentations and all group work discussions. Key questions and discussion points raised by participants during both the plenary and concurrent sessions are highlighted in Discussion Points text boxes.

The meeting sessions covered a broad spectrum of topics, including the current status and future direction of BCC for HIV/AIDS, BCC strategies for different target groups, prevention and the ABC [Abstinence, Be faithful, Condoms] approach, opportunities for BCC in the care setting, the challenges of measuring behaviour change, and practical BCC tools.