Here’s more from PlusNews,Global HIV/AIDS news and analysis:

In southern Africa, prevention campaigns highlighting the HIV risks of having more than one partner at the same time have largely targeted heterosexuals and ignored the fact that men who have sex with men also have multiple partners.

“Men who have sex with men” (MSM) describes men who have reported ever having had sex with another man, but who may not necessarily identify themselves as homosexual, or “gay”.

In one of the first studies to investigate multiple concurrent partnerships (MCPs) among African MSM, just over half of the 537 men surveyed in Malawi, Namibia and Botswana reported that they had had sex with both men and women in the last six months, and about a third of these men reported that the relationships had been concurrent. MCPs have been identified as a main driver of the HIV epidemic in southern Africa.

Presented at the annual meeting of the African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development (AfriComNet) in Johannesburg, the study also found that about a third of the men surveyed had a wife or long-term girlfriend.

The men in relationships with both men and women were more likely to pay for sex and to use condoms than those who reported only having sex with men, but the study found no difference in HIV prevalence between the two groups, according to researcher Gift Trapence with the Malawi-based Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP).

About 17 percent of all the men surveyed were HIV-positive, and their HIV prevalence rates were almost twice the national average in their respective countries. Trapence said that the findings point to an urgent need to target programming and more research at MSM having multiple concurrent partnerships.

“These issues have never been involved in our HIV prevention work,” he told IRIN/PlusNews. “When we try to design these programmes, we need to look at all the sexual behaviours [of men].”

Trapence said a larger, population-based study was planned to explore the findings and provide evidence crucial to prevention efforts targeting MSM, and to decriminalizing homosexuality in African countries.

CEDEP supported the two Malawian men who were recently prosecuted under laws criminalizing sexual acts between people of the same sex. Activists argue that such laws discourage MSM, who are often at increased risk of HIV, from using HIV testing and treatment services, and have a detrimental effect on prevention efforts in general.

At the meeting, representatives of Togo’s national AIDS commission, and Manya Andrews, former country head of Population Services International Togo, said research into HIV risk behaviours among MSM by Togo’s national university in 2006 had helped influence recent moves in the small West African country towards decriminalising same-sex relationships.

“The breakthrough was getting that [2006] study done, and then the support just snowballed from there,” Andrews told IRIN/PlusNews. “People in Togo were transformed by that research into advocates [for MSM HIV prevention programmes and rights].”

From IFEX:

Rwandan President Paul Kagame won another seven-year term in elections on 9 August, after already being in power for 15 years. He captured 93 percent of the vote by banning opposition parties and eliminating critical domestic news coverage, report Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Committee to Protect Journalists and other IFEX members. In the months leading up to election-day, the government systematically shut down news outlets and terrorised critical journalists into fleeing the country.

The Wall Street Journal shares an article by Farai Mutsaka on life in Harare after the world cup:

Shakira’s “Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)” continues to rock this city’s nightclubs more than a month after the final match of the World Cup. But the tournament’s bouncy pop song is about the only sign of soccer fever still lingering in Zimbabwe.

The country’s officials had hoped that World Cup enthusiasm in host South Africa would spill across the borders and help revive a moribund domestic league—and perhaps boost an ailing economy and lift national spirits. It wasn’t meant to be.

Officials lobbied several foreign teams to practice and play in Zimbabwe, hoping their fans would follow (only Brazil accepted). They suspended local games to allow players and fans to watch World Cup matches (attendance at domestic games has since plummeted). Zimbabweans did emblazon vehicles with flags (only for a while).

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The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) has issued a statement on the role of the Zimbabwe Police Force in elections. Check it out:

18 August 2010 – Harare – This statement is a response to an article that appeared on the 13th of August 2010 in the Zimbabwe Independent on the opposition to electoral reforms by the Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri.

Earlier this year political parties in the GNU agreed to reform electoral laws in Zimbabwe and this included among others a change in the role of the police in electoral processes. The three political parties in the inclusive government agreed to restrict the role of the police in electoral processes to maintaining law and order outside the polling stations as per international standards.

ZESN welcomed this development as the police’s role in previous elections overstepped the boundaries of maintaining law and order.

ZESN has over the years raised concern about the presence of the police in the polling stations which it views as intimidatory. The electoral insecurity argument that the Commissioner is allegedly proffering in his reported efforts to stall electoral reforms is blind to a number of issues pertaining to the role of the police in enhancing electoral democracy.  It is outside the polling station that voters are barred from entering the polling station. Police presence outside the polling station will aid in restraining political parties that campaign within 100 meters of the polling station. In addition, the deployment of the police outside the polling station will deter other forms of electoral irregularities similar to those that took place in June 2008 such as the recording of names of voters by some political parties.

Further, past elections have shown that electoral insecurity takes place well before and after voting while polling days have been largely peaceful, making the insecurity argument even weaker. ZESN seeks to reiterate that the role of the police in providing security to citizens has not been effectively executed as shown by the partial manner in dealing with cases of political violence in the past. The many complaints by victims of political violence between March and June 2008 that they did not get police protection for their persons and property but rather that they were arrested and prosecuted at the instance of their attackers made the electoral changes attractive.

Assisting voters:

In previous elections the role of the police in electoral processes has been contentious as it went beyond maintaining law and order to being present in the polling stations and being present when assisted voters were voting. ZESN has since welcomed the move to remove police presence when assisted voters where casting their vote and further recommended that those who are illiterate bring a trusted friend or relative to assist them and braille ballot papers for the visually impaired.

Postal voting:

In addition, the postal vote has been a thorny issue as the vote has been free from observer scrutiny and has been shrouded in secrecy. The application process has not been transparent and this lack of transparency has extended to the actual voting on issues that relate to the number of people in the security sector that will be eligible for postal voting, the number of ballot papers distributed, the actual voting process and counting of votes and the documented partisan pre-election statements by the Commissioner General.

The proposed reforms that provide for police officers to vote two days prior to polling are a welcome development that can foster transparency. There is no need for the police to vote thirty days before the poll as this removes confidence in the integrity of the process as it allows for tampering with ballot boxes and the outcome of the election. While the police sector was not audited, there is evidence that not all police officers need to be deployed outside the areas where they vote and so can vote in their respective areas where they are based.

ZESN recommends special voting as the case in most countries and not postal voting for the police. Voting that takes place two days before the election and which is also open to ZEC officials, the body that is mandated to run elections in Zimbabwe. We recommend that this process must be transparent and open to observation as well by both domestic and international observers and political parties. In the past postal voting took place before the accreditation of observers, which resulted in an opaque process that lends itself to much speculation, criticism and controversy, which damages the credibility of the country’s elections.

Members of the police as election officials:

ZESN is concerned with the fact that in the past police commanders have been engaged as presiding officers. The role of presiding over elections is best carried out by civilians and not the security sector. The role of the security sector in elections is to promote peace and ensure that the will of the people prevails. An independent and well resourced ZEC must be allowed free and unrestricted mandate to run the entire election while arms of government only play a supportive and not a participatory role. History has lessons.

It is against this backdrop that ZESN strongly condemns the proposed return of the police officers inside polling stations during polling and the use of police and security commanders as presiding officers when the police and military vote. ZESN continues to advocate for comprehensive electoral reforms that includes media reforms; security reforms; an overhaul of the voters’ roll; the creation of a conductive election environment; and transparency and accountability in the whole electoral process.

Here’s a press release published by the Artists Trust of Southern Africa (ARTSA):

Zimbabwean renowned poet, Albert Nyathi performs on the 17/08/2010 for all of SADC’s Heads of State during the 30th Anniversary of the regional body here in Windhoek, Namibia. He is the only regional artist who has been brought in, in  a landmark arrangement between SADC Secretariat and Artists Trust of Southern Africa (ARTSA).

The Artists Trust of Southern Africa (ARTSA) is a network of artists from the 15 member Southern African Development Community (“SADC”) operating in various artistic disciplines whose main function is to coordinate the development and promotion through smart partnerships, of varied cultural interventions at all levels targeted at artists and to make use of art in all spheres. In particular, ARTSA is involved in the organizing and coordinating and implementation of the rotational SADC Artists Aids Festival which is held on an annual basis.

ARTSA was formed during the Malawi edition of the SADC Artists Aids Festival by stakeholders present as well as through a direct push from the SADC Secretariat present who felt that it was imperative to have an organisation that could be a conduit between themselves (SADC Secretariat) and artists as well as push for the implementation of the SADC Culture Trust Fund.

One of the key objectives of ARTSA is:-
To advocate for artists in the region to interact with governmental structures especially the political leadership, for many a time the cultural industry is always on the back burner and we are treated as a “by the way”. Through platforms and interactions such as the one Albert has been exposed to, we believe we have started reclaiming the regions oneness. To borrow from the poem he will present to the Heads of States, ….”One SADC, One People”..and from SADC Secretariat’s own key driver…”One team, fifteen nations”.

This oneness must resonant within all of SADC’s citizenry and what better way than to do it through our arts and culture.

Recently, ARTSA in partnership with SADC, GTZ and the South African Governments, Department of Sports coordinated cultural events from the region at KeNako Plaza which was situated right in the heart of the International Football Village during the 2010 World Cup. This platform afforded visual artists and performing artists from the SADC region an opportunity to share their spell binding cultural and artistically rich wealth to an appreciative foreign market.

Here’s a poem by Albert Nyathi:

In Silence We Sing

Even the silent ants
Trampled upon by giant elephants
Do sing a silent song

They shall surely know
How to shoot
The great foot
Weighing heavily on them.

Here is something from Fungai Machirori, one of Zimbabwe’s best social commentators:

It’s just you and me … and my wife and your boyfriend…

This might sound like a humorous line. But in Lesotho, one of the world leaders in prevalence of HIV, this is the name of a play that has been developed to address the issue of multiple and concurrent partnerships (MCP).

And this play was one of the innovative interventions shared at the Africa-wide practicum on HIV prevention among married and cohabiting couples in Africa, held from 11 to 13 August in Johannesburg, South Africa. The three day-long meeting which brought together over 100 HIV and AIDS communications experts from almost 20 African countries was organised by the African Network for Strategic Communication in Health and Development (AfriComNet).

In his opening address the guest of honour – South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) Communications Advocacy and Campaigns Manager, Junaid Seedat – underscored the importance of looking at HIV transmission among married people and those involved in stable relationships by citing regional statistics on a growing epidemic that is hardly ever discussed or addressed.

Kenya, around 40% of new HIV infections are happening among married women while in Uganda, about 65% of new HIV infections are found in cohabiting couples,” said Seedat, quoting national data from both East African countries. He also cited a 2008 Cape Town study that demonstrated that people involved in MCP were using condoms only 64% of the time within their stable relationships.

The practicum focused on various communication challenges and interventions such as couples’ HIV status discordance, behaviour change communication, couples HIV counselling and testing and condom use.

“Some people don’t think that communication matters and some people want to resort to an entirely medical approach to HIV,” observed international HIV and AIDS expert, Helen Epstein who delivered the practicum keynote address. “But I think it would be a mistake to give up on communication completely.”

During the practicum factors such as sexual dissatisfaction (lack of variety in sex positions, infrequent sex or no sex at all), lack of communication between partners and male entitlement to multiple partners were discussed as some of the drivers of MCP in some regions of Africa.  Such concurrency, coupled with low condom use, is currently a high-risk factor for HIV transmission.

Bisexual concurrency among men who have sex with men (MSM) was also noted as a driver of HIV by Gift Trapence of the Centre for the Development of People in Malawi. In a three-country study conducted in Botswana, Malawi and Namibia, overall rates of HIV infection were found to be about double national prevalence estimates for all men of reproductive age.

As noted by Churchill Alumasa of the Discordant Couples of Kenya, one of the challenges to people involved in stable relationships in knowing their status is what he described as ‘proxy testing’ whereby one partner bases their HIV status on that of their partner’s.

Evidence shared at the practicum shows that a couple that has been sexually active can maintain different HIV statuses. But early detection, through regular HIV testing is key to ensuring that the HIV negative partner remains negative and that the couple takes up consistent and correct condom use throughout the rest of their sexual relationship.

One of the challenges to this as shared by many of the speakers at the practicum is that models of couples testing across the continent tend to focus on bringing couples together to testing centres and yet thereafter, each member of the couple is tested separately thus providing leeway for an HIV positive partner to disclose a false status to their partner. For instance, Professor Susan Allen of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Global Health, shared that routine testing for partners of pregnant Rwandan women increased from 40% in 2006 to 80% in 2008, but that women and men were tested separately.

Allen added that regular couples testing had a significant cost advantage over the recently mooted ‘test and treat’ policy that seeks to treat all people found to be HIV positive (thereby making them less infectious to people who are HIV negative) and would actually prevent far more new infections thus putting less financial strain on the treatment end of the spectrum.

Allen’s data showed that in Zambia, it would cost USD 675 000 per year to prevent 70 new infections among 1 000 serodiscordant couples. But yet that same amount of money could provide couples HIV counseling and testing to 10 227 more couples preventing 285 infections in one year, and a cumulative 1282 infections in five years.

Religion and cultural norms were also identified as barriers to effective uptake of services. A study conducted by Zimbabwe’s Family AIDS Caring Trust (FACT) presented by Pemberai Zambezi showed that among members of the Johane Marange Apostolic Church, many refused to acknowledge the existence of HIV in the belief that one could pray for healing from the virus.  Such denialism was suggested to be particularly dangerous for this group as evidence shows that their previously clustered and closed  sexual networks, developed through practices such as polygamy, child pledging and wife inheritance, are now also becoming multi-linked as partners seek sexual relations outside of their closed unions.

But while the experts shared their promising practices, they also shared some of the obvious challenges inherent in their programmes; for instance, the strong emphasis on love in many of the communications interventions shared. These included couples testing campaigns such as ‘Prove Your Love’ in Mozambique and ‘Keep Your Love Under One Roof’ in Zimbabwe. This, many participants felt, left a grey area for those involved in sexual relationships who did not identify themselves as being in love with their partner.

However, it was agreed that often government influence, from whom buy-in must be guaranteed if a campaign is to be successful, led to organisations having to moralise sex and therefore censor their content to gain government’s favour. For instance, due to government pressure and displeasure, Uganda’s ‘Get Off the Sexual Network’ Campaign had to withdraw the use of children highlighting how their parent’s concurrent sexual partnerships had destroyed their family life.

Another obvious challenge shared was funding to ensure sustainability of programmes. One stark example of this was Zambia’s OneLove Kwasila! campaign which achieved overwhelming success particularly through its television drama, ‘Club Risky Business’ depicting the lives of three men all involved in MCP. The campaign’s theme song was a Zambian Top 10 hit showing that the campaign had not only served its communication functions to inform and educate, but also to entertain. The campaign has however been unable to replenish funds to enter into the second phase of the intervention.

Also consistency and uniformity in messaging was identified as a barrier to audiences understanding communications efforts. For example, participants could not reach consensus among themselves on the meaning and parameters of serial monogamy – a sexual practice which was suggested as being far less conducive to accelerated HIV transmission than MCP. It was also suggested that reference to HIV counselling and testing as either HCT or HTC, depending on the region of Africa, made it confusing for people to always understand what was being discussed.

Recommendations offered at the end of the practicum were for such AfriComNet to include private sector players who might be able to engage in public-private partnerships with civil society and government, in future editions of the event.  It was also suggested that AfriComNet facilitate capacity building exchange visits between countries and programmes, while also creating a clearing house for HIV and AIDS materials on its website. The need for AfriComNet, whose secretariat is currently located in Uganda, to establish regional secretariats was also emphasised.

Source: AF-AIDS List