Manaso warns government on 90:90:90 target
The Malawi Network of Aids Service Organisations (Manaso) has warned that Malawi might not achieve the triple-90 target if community-based organisations (CBOs) continue working in isolation as is the case now.
Manaso said it is difficult to measure the work which the CBOs and other players in the sector are doing because there is no coordination and most organisations are focused on individual work.
Manaso Executive Director Abigail Dzimadzi made the remarks in an interview in Mangochi when her organisation held a consultative meeting with the network’s members on a new World Bank-funded Workload Indicator Staffing Needs (Wisn) project, which is being piloted in Mangochi, Blantyre, Mzuzu and Mzimba.
Dzimadzi said currently, there is conflicting information which health volunteers provide to patients in rural areas. This is confusing local people as to what is the correct information on HIV and Aids.
However, Wisn project, according to Dzimadzi, intends to work with all health volunteers regardless of the organisations they represent so that there should be standardised information and records of HIV and Aids-related matters.
“As a country, we need to accelerate the achievement of the 90:90:90 target by among other things providing a job description for volunteers to help in referrals and home-based care for people with the virus. But if we continue working the way we do now, we will not achieve the triple-90 target,” she said.
She said players in the sector need to harness and empower the CBOs so as to improve the quality of data that is registered in relation to the progress and gains made in the fight against HIV and Aids.
Chairperson for Manaso in Mangochi Grace Mafuta said most CBOs in the district are facing challenges ranging from mobility, funding to coordination such that the coming in of Wisn project brings hope that their work will now be easy as there will be an outline of their duties.
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