Abstract
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Civil society organisations (CSOs) have been on the front line in the fight against HIV in Kenya ever since the official declaration of HIV as a national disaster back in 1999.
While their crucial role in reversing trends in HIV prevalence as well as mitigating its adverse impact on the target population is unquestionable, there is still scanty research on how these organisations have empowered the beneficiaries to take charge of their own life and demand for services from duty bearers.
This exploratory study commissioned by the AMREF Maanisha programme attempts to consolidate practical project experiences in terms of how the intervention has enhanced community voices across the targeted populations.
The AMREF Maanisha programme is a community focused HIV intervention funded by Sida and DFID to the tune of US$ 30 million for 5 years (Oct 2007-Sept 2012). The programme currently provides grants and capacity building to over 720 civil society organisations in Nyanza, Western and Eastern provinces as well as the Lake Victoria basin districts of Rift valley province.
While the Maanisha model has been successful to the extent of being replicated at national level, a gap that was identified by the Joint Annual Review meeting (JAR) in December 2010 was the lack of systematic documentation on how the project was enhancing the community voice among the targeted grassroots community beneficiaries.
This report, which responds to the above program gap, was commissioned by AMREF in June 2011. The report, by focusing on the work of civil society organisations, also aims at contributing to the National AIDS Control Council's multi-sectoral approach in HIV programming. It also hopes to contribute to the scarce literature on how CSOs have emancipated the target beneficiaries in need of diverse HIV related services to voice their concerns for quality services. We hope that some of the approaches and results obtained to demonstrate change among the target beneficiaries can be
replicated by other stakeholders within and without Kenya for an effective response to HIV.
AMREF is a transparent organisation distributing funds of up to $85 million per year.
