South Africa has an estimated 5.25 million people living with HIV, approximately 10.9% of the country’s population.

Futures Group’s Sexual HIV Prevention Program (SHIPP) in South Africa is a flagship bilateral project of USAID that aims to measurably boost HIV prevention by building the leadership capacity of the Department of Health, Department of Basic Education, and South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) to fulfill constitutionally mandated planning, coordination, and implementation responsibilities through the provision of technical assistance. The Office of the President and the Department of Public Service Administration are also major government stakeholders in supporting and directing the work of SHIPP.  Key partners in delivering SHIPP include the University of the Witwatersrand Reproductive Health Institute, the Centre for AIDS Development, Research, and Evaluation, EngenderHealth, and Futures Institute.

The SHIPP team is working with community leaders in the health and social sector and with the South African Government agencies to identify and respond to key drivers of HIV transmission to reduce new infections.  The project aims to reduce HIV sexual transmission through building national and local capacity to design and implement a package of HIV prevention activities. This combination prevention approach will address behavioral risk, social norms, biomedical interventions, and school-based programming.

SHIPP supports HIV combination prevention activities in the three Provinces with the highest prevalence of HIV in South Africa. Technical Assistance is offered to the Health and Education Teams in Regions A & G of the City of Johannesburg in Gauteng Province; Zululand District in KwaZulu Natal and Gert Sibande and Ehlanzeni Districts in Mpumalanga. The technical assistance needed is determined in collaboration with the health and education teams and is monitored and evaluated by the District and Local  AIDS Council (DAC & LAC) at local level. Civil Society is seem as an important partner in this process and local civil society organizations will be encouraged to respond to combination prevention activities through  a small grants scheme aimed at addressing behavior change communication, gender inequalities and developing demand side initiatives.  Further expansion to other districts will follow in 2012.

The districts identified by provinces for SHIPP support are both urban and rural and all have significant numbers of Most at Risk Populations (MARPS) including commercial sex workers, men who have sex with men, migrants and refugees and poor people living in urban informal settlements. SHIPP will support District and Local AIDS Councils in assessing areas of intervention for HIV combination prevention by defining and identifying vulnerable populations, providing technical support to assess the levels of need and suggesting interventions that will support and strengthen local capacity to address these needs. DACs will strengthen their services and highlight areas of good practice that can be scaled up and sustained by local communities.

Key Results:

• Five district/sub district sites identified in highest HIV prevalence provinces are receiving technical support to strengthen their combination HIV prevention activities
• Technical support supplied to National Department of Health through two ‘think tank’ workshops on MARPS – Informal settlement populations and HIV prevention for adolescents
• Technical Policy  support is being provided to the Department of Basic Education through technical assistance to support and strengthen life orientation; life skills and peer education skills to approximately 12 million learners
• Two technical advisers are seconded to the Department of Basic Education HIV and AIDS Programme
• A research officer is seconded to the South African National AIDS Council
• SHIPP has supported the development of the National Strategic Plan for HIV & AIDS, Tuberculosis & STI 2012 – 2016 through technical interventions on HIV prevention.in collaboration with the Presidency, National Department of Health, Department of Public Service Administration and Department of Correctional Services