A Comparative Analysis of the Financing of HIV/AIDS Programmes

In Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

The provision of universal access to healthcare, a right enshrined in the South African Constitution, is the responsibility of government. Although much progress has been made towards the creation of a national health system which makes 'access to health for all' a reality, much remains to be done.

Policy governs many aspects of the professional lives of educators. It is also central to their and the sector's response to crises such as the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As such policy can contribute directly to curtailing the attrition of educators, by encouraging and providing protection against threats such as HIV/AIDS, and by creating a positive and supportive working environment. This study examines workplace and HIV/AIDS policies from the Department of Education (DoE) and the HIV/AIDS policies of two trade unions, as part of a broader study looking at the attrition of educators. The policies themselves were found to be well written and if implemented, would create a good environment for educators. A number of successes were noted, particularly in terms of the transformation of education structures. The findings suggest that problems are centered on a lack of policy implementation, resulting from disjunctures between the national office and provincial and district offices, as well as a lack of resources and inadequate planning and preparation for implementation.

This report encompasses a situational analysis which was carried out in seven research sites in Botswana: Palapye, Letlhakeng, Kanye, Mahalapye, Molepolole, Serowe and Maun. Information was collected from orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), their caregivers, community members, community-based organisations (CBOs), government officials and community leaders; as well as members of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and faith-based organisations (FBOs). The objectives of the study as outlined in this report, are to improve the living conditions of orphans and vulnerable children; to support households and families to cope with the increasing burden of care for affected and vulnerable children; to strengthen community-based support systems under which vulnerable children exist; and to build community-based systems for sustaining care and support to vulnerable children and their families.

If you are sitting in a South African school or university right now, you need to put aside 1948 and "Bantu Education" as a primary target of enquiry – these were little more than steps along a road that was already paved – and study when, where and how your institution came into being in the first place. This book joins the growing body of work (much of it by South African scholars) displacing the many mind-numbingly dull texts loaded with assumptions and logics that, in the case of South Africa, reify a simplified colonial explanation of the past. Generations of students, educators and policymakers have suffered enough through tedious though inaccurate history books disguised as dispassionate, impartial views of "the facts."