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1. INTRODUCTION

The Zambia National AIDS Network (ZNAN) was established in June 1994 with the primary objective of promoting liaison, collaboration and co-ordination among NGOs and CBOs involved in HIV/AIDS prevention and care. The origins of ZNAN can be traced to the Regional Conference held in Kenya, Nairobi in 1988. Participation of Zambian NGOs at this Conference made them realise that in order to effectively fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic liaison, collaboration and co-ordination were of outmost importance. This was because the ethical, technical and managerial demands and challenges of HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation had assumed such high dimensions that they could not be effectively and efficiently tackled by any one individual or even a few organisations.

Therefore, it was realised that the point of departure in combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic was to build solidarity among NGOs/CBOs involved in HIV/AIDS work. That would make it possible to unite for a common cause and advocate for strong social and political will which were seen as being cardinal to fighting HIV/AIDS. In addition, liaison, collaboration and co-ordination would make it possible for NGOs and CBOs to pull their meagre technical, managerial and financil resources together, with the view to meet the increased demands and rising expectations from society in regard to the HIV/AIDS scourge.

Against the background given above, in 1989, the NGOs formed a National AIDS CO-ordination Committee whose mandate was to co-ordinate the activities of NGOs and CBOs involved in HIV/AIDS work. This led to the birth and registration of ZNAN in 1994.

2. ZNAN’S MISSION, VISION AND SHARED VALUES.

Mission Statement

ZNAN is a network of civil society organisations with a mandate to promote and facilitate their liaison, coordination, resource mobilisation and capacity building in order to enable them to effectively respond to the challenges of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Zambia. ZNAN does this in collaboration with government, cooperating Partners and other stakeholders.

Vision Statement

An AIDS free Zambia

Shared Values of ZNAN as a Network:

· Excellency in service delivery

· Delivery of quality services

· Team work

· Nurturing a culture of mutual respect and trust

· Transparency and accountability

· Good corporate governance

· Client orientation

· Ethical conduct

The Key functions/ activities of ZNAN:

· To facilitate information-sharing among member organisations and other interested parties;

· To facilitate the exchange of resources and expertise among member organisations and other interested parties;

· To represent and advocate the interests of member organisations;

· To provide services that aim at strengthening the capacity of personnel and their member organisations to deliver HIV/AIDS services;

· Arranging exchange visits;

· Skills- and capacity building;

· As a PR of the GF, it also carries out the following sub-granting activities:

· Behavioural change programmes targeted at young people and at the workplace;

· Programmes targeted at high-risk groups;

· The expansion of VCT and PMTCT programmes;

· Programmes to prolong the lives of PLWHA;

· The strengthening of home-based care;

· Support of and for orphans and vulnerable children.

ZNAN’S role as a PR of the GF has changed the focus of its activities; ZNAN now devotes a considerable proportion of its time and effort to grant-making activities. As a result it now faces the following challenges:

· Tackling the diversity of implementing agency programmes, and their geographical locations;

· The proliferation of new NGOs/CBOs, briefcase organisations in particular;

· The lack of a clear channel through which to support or disburse funds to specific groups;

· The lack of baseline data for, and capacity of, most NGOs/CBO.

How ZNAN has achieved sustainability:

· Having a strategic plan and ensuing that it is implemented;

· Ensuring that this plan is also a living plan, wherein members and stakeholders participate in its execution;

· Having access to resources, both financial and human (skilled);

· Being able to retain staff;

· In relation to the latter, having ‘security’ system in place (medical insurance, career advancement opportunities, etc.);

· Incorporating feedback as a standard procedure;

· Being accountable and fully transparent;

· Ensuring that the nature or type of their products are both clearly defined and dully deliverable;

· Working from and in environment (office, building, etc) that follows a set of organisational policies applicable to all;

· And finally, a factor that is absolutely intrinsic to sustainability:

Establishing, maintaining, and improving upon a good reputation.

Tangible results as a successful network:

In the case of ZNAN, the following can be examples of indicators of success:

· Having documented achievements (the objectives reached and goals met, etc);

· Efforts in advocacy that have changed policy or law;

· Increased and/or increasing numbers of paid-up members;

· Being considered a major nexus, i.e. being consulted by other groups;

· Being able to attract partnerships with other organisations and/or donors;

· The implementation f M&E plans and surveys that have a specific aim and application;

· Holding skills-building workshops that lead to reactive and pro-active inter-and intra- organisational change and development;

· Close liaison between national and regional networks.

3. ORGANS 0F ZAMBIA NATIONAL AIDS NETWORK[ZNAN]

The three main organs of the Zambia National AIDS Network are as follows:

· ZNAN Congress

· ZNAN Liaison Committee

· ZNAN Secretariat

ZNAN Congress

In accordance with the Constitution of the Zambia National AIDS, ZNAN should hold a congress every two years. The Congress of ZNAN is the largest assembly of the organisation. It is an Electoral College whose main responsibility is to elect the members of ZNAN Liaison Committee. In this connection, the Bi-Annual Congress of ZNAN elects sixteen-(16) members f the Liaison Committee, which include at least five (5) representatives from the nine provinces of Zambia.

Thus, the ZNAN Congress gives geo-political legitimacy to both the organisation, and consequently, to all the affairs presided over by office bearers. However, ZNAN’s constitution had been found lacking and a new constitution was enacted by the congress at its session held in June 2006.

ZNAN Liaison committee

As noted above, the ZNAN Liaison Committee is elected by Congress for a two-(2) year term of office. The Liaison Committee elects from among its members, an Executive Committee consisting of the Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary

The main function of the ZNAN Liaison Committee is to provide a strategic vision and policy direction to all the affairs of the organisation. This function is executed by formulation of policies and programs, which the ZNAN Secretariat implements.

ZNAN Secretariat

The Zambia National AIDS Network has a full-time Secretariat, which runs the Network’s affairs on a daily basis. Currently the secretariat is headed by an executive Director, who coordinates and supervises the functions of the various departments namely accounts, monitoring and evaluation, NGO/CBO support and administration.

The specific functions of the ZNAN Secretariat may be summarized as follows:

· To establish an effective and transparent grant disbursement mechanisms;

· To mobilize resources;

· To provide technical-backstopping services to personnel in member AIDS service organisations, with the view to strengthen their service delivery capacity to target groups. This is undertaken by conducting skills and capacity building workshops and extension services;

· To facilitate timely reporting to cooperating partners;

· To facilitate exchange visits between member organisations;

· To present ZNAN on relevant government and other decision making bodies;

· To publicize the activities of ZNAN;

· To provide “on the spot” technical service through extension service visits;

· To provide such other services necessary for strengthening national networking and service delivery capacity building of member organisations;

· To service the liaison committee.

4. PROGRAM ACTIVITIES OF ZNAN

4.1 Core Program Activities

Skill and capacity building

Imparting technical skills to the personnel in AIDS service organisations order to build their service delivery capacity is a cross-cutting issue. This is in the sense that as they acquire more technical knowledge and sills, the personnel are able to apply it to effectively manage their diverse activities.

In view of the above, and bearing I mind that lack of technical and managerial skills constitute one of the key challenges facing AIDS service organisations in Zambia, ZNAN has taken remedial measures. ZNAN conducts skills and capacity building workshops for personnel in AIDS service organisations. Additionally, ZNAN sponsors personnel in member organisations for specific training programmes.

Exchange Visits

Overall, the main reason why ZNAN facilitates exchange visits between member AIDS service organisations is to enable them to share experiences on HIV/AIDS related programmes.

Extension (Outreach) Services

Apart from workshops, extension services constitute an important programme activity for skills and capacity building of member AIDS service organisations. In this connection, the Network provides extension services whose objective is to offer “on the spot” technical advice to personnel in member organisations in response to identified needs.

Information, Education, Communication (IEC)

The Zambia National AIDS Network undertakes IEC activities not only to publicise its activities to both members and non-members, but to encourage organisations to contribute information about their activities to the ZNAN newsletter as a way of sharing best practices.

In this connection, publication of a periodic News Letter for ZNAN and running Radio Programmes are currently the main vehicles that drive ZNAN’s publicity campaigns.

Networking

Within the context of ZNAN’s programme activities, networking refers to all the activities undertaken by ZNAN, which are aimed at promoting liaison, collaboration and coordination with other stakeholders. This takes place at national, regional and international levels.

National Networking

At national level, ZNAN’s networking activities are manifest in its active participation and contributions at consultative for a, which include policy formulation such as representation on NAC and review of implementation e,g, CCM

Regional Networking

At regional level, ZNAN networks with several organisations. ZNAN not only a member of SANASO, but it also is the organisation’s representative in Zambia.

International Networking

In its continued quest to effectively discharge it mandate, ZNAN’s networking activities transcend beyond the Zambia and immediate regional borders to encompass the international arena. In his regard, participation in the Conferences enable ZNAN to share with other stakeholders, latest developments in HIV/AIDS management and mitigation.

Regional and international networking is critical to enhance ZNAN’s knowledge of he latest development in HIV/AIDS.

Monitoring and evaluation

In line with established management practice, ZNAN monitors and evaluates its performance from time to time. In this regard, ZNAN has developed an M & E Framework and a template for use by its sub-recipients.

Quarterly Liaison committee Meetings

The Liaison Committee provides guidelines to ZNAN and also approves broad strategies. Therefore, every quarter, this committee evaluates the performance of the ZNAN Secretariat with the view to determine whether the program activities implemented conform to the policy guidelines. In addition, the Liaison Committee evaluates the performance of ZNAN and provides advice on additional measures to be implemented by ZNAN Secretariat so that the Network can significantly improve member AIDS service organisations’ service delivery capacity to their primary target groups.

4.2 Sub-granting Programme

ZNAN sub granting programme is focused on prevention, care and support, which are the areas on which the National Strategic Plain is based:

· In areas of prevention, ZNAN contributes to national objectives on safe sexual behaviour, VCT and PMTC;

· In areas of care and support, ZNAN contributes to national objectives on PLWAs, OVC, and BHC.

· Human rights and advocacy.

5. LESSONS LEARNT BY ZNAN AS a Civil society NATIONAL NETWORK

The following can be listed as lessons learnt in the performance of the Network:

· The open confrontation of organisational problems is very important;

· If networks are to face all their challenges, they must both source and be granted funding;

· Networks must increase their fundraising skills;

· Networks have to build their capacity vis-à-vis resource mobilisation, etc.;

· Networks should encourage members to pay subscriptions, however nominal, as this will generate income and incentive;

· It is not just external factors pose challenges for networks - internal factors are jut as influential. For example, the success of an application to the F could be substantially increase if there was greater sharing of information between those who have started applying and those ho have done so successful;

· Information-sharing is very important, if not crucial;

· For information to be effectively cascaded, it must be translated into the appropriate languages (s);

· What a regional or sub-regional network can provide must be known;

· There must be a reciprocal relationship between regional, sub-regional, and national networks;

· Networks at international, continental, regional, and national level all need to come together more frequently;

· Networks must look at collaborating with government by instigating dialogue;

· Increased scope of responsibilities since becoming PR;

· Providing adequate support related to its core program (networking, collaboration, information sharing & liaison);

· Overstretched in providing services related to sub-granting ) e.g. M & E capacity building and on-spot monitoring & capacity support).