THIS was revealed in a regional dissemination workshop attended by over 50 participants from 3 countries, held in Nairobi on 18 and 19 March 2010 at the Nairobi Safari Club.

The workshop was organized by the ARCAN project to share lessons learned, achievements, challenges encountered, and propose the way forward when the project comes to a close on April 30, 2010. The project was jointly executed in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania with funding from the World Bank through the Government of Tanzania.

Data shared in the workshop showed that the project contributed significantly to enhance knowledge and skills of health care practitioners in HIV/AIDS prevention care and treatment in the three countries. Over 500 trainers have been trained by the project in each participating country. These trainers were from various thematic areas, including physicians, nurses, counselor supervisors, laboratory technicians, HIV and AIDS program managers, procurement and supply chain managers and experts on TB-HIV. The meeting reiterated the need for ARCAN II.

Based on individual country data of the three countries, there has been a scale up of care and treatment and of the number of people on ARVs in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania between 2004 and 2008. In Ethiopia, the increase has been from 900 to 78,000 people while in Kenya the increase has been from 10,000 to 250,000 people. In Tanzania Mainland the increase has been from 2,000 to 210,000 people while in Zanzibar the increase has been from none to 1,322 people.

In all 3 countries, the HIV and AIDS National Strategic Plans have identified capacity building as a priority area. The development objective of the project has been to expand access to comprehensive and evidence-based HIV and AIDS prevention, care and treatment programs by supporting a network of sub-regional ‘learning’ sites to expand training of health care practitioners.

Data shared in the workshop showed that the project contributed significantly to enhance knowledge and skills of health care practitioners in HIV/AIDS prevention care and treatment in the three countries. Over 500 trainers have been trained by the project in each participating country. These trainers were from various thematic areas, including physicians, nurses, counselor supervisors, laboratory technicians, HIV and AIDS program managers, procurement and supply chain managers and experts on TB-HIV. The meeting reiterated the need for ARCAN II.

Data shared in the workshop showed that the project contributed significantly to enhance knowledge and skills of health care practitioners in HIV/AIDS prevention care and treatment in the three countries. Over 500 trainers have been trained by the project in each participating country. These trainers were from various thematic areas, including physicians, nurses, counselor supervisors, laboratory technicians, HIV and AIDS program managers, procurement and supply chain managers and experts on TB-HIV. The meeting reiterated the need for ARCAN II.

For more infomation please contact:

African Regional Capacity Building Network for HIV/AIDS Prevention, Treatment and Care (ARCAN) Project