AEGiS-15IAC: Building bridges for partnerships through project Encontros: bringing government, NGOs, civil society, and the sex work community together in a multidisciplinary STI/HIV prevention project with sex workers in Corumba, Brazil.

15th International AIDS Conference

Bangkok, Thailand - July 11-16, 2004

Building bridges for partnerships through project Encontros: bringing government, NGOs, civil society, and the sex work community together in a multidisciplinary STI/HIV prevention project with sex workers in Corumba, Brazil.

Int Conf AIDS 2004 Jul 11-16; 15:(abstract no. E10239)

Lippman SA, Donini A, Leite G, Faria JM, Chinaglia M, Kasar MS, Laudari C, Domingues R, Diaz J
Population Council, Campinas, Brazil

ISSUES: The successful implementation of this community STI/HIV prevention project demonstrates the benefits of collaborative planning, implementation, and monitoring between government, private institutions and civil society. Collaborative efforts may require a slow and arduous process, but ultimately sow deeper commitments and bestow greater benefits for the community.

DESCRIPTION: Project Encontros, located in the Brazilian border town of Corumba, aims to reduce STI/HIV transmission and increase safer sex behaviors among sex workers by offering enhanced clinical services, community outreach and education, and community building. Project development proved extremely delicate as partner institutions encountered difficulty finding a common language. Mistrust rooted in long-standing biases between research and advocacy institutions, misinformation, and poor communication of grievances made negotiations between the investigative team, government, and civil society representatives contentious. Inspired by the local community's steadfast interest in the project, the disputes gradually gave way to transparency and progress towards a common goal. Today the project enjoys collective commitment to the partnership and the project, largely due to personal and institutional growth in learning to work together.

LESSONS LEARNED: Partnerships are not easy to forge, especially between entities with distinctive perspectives. Inroads are made when local interests outweigh institutional differences and grievances are exposed with transparency. Researchers, advocates, and government institutions should be open to tempering extreme positions in the interests of strengthening community initiatives. We found that building bridges ultimately yields stronger commitment and greater likelihood of success.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Project Encontros continues to grow steadily with systematic support of stakeholders, now formalized in an advisory group. The intervention scope now contemplates a human rights and citizenship perspective reflective of national policies and consensus.

Keywords: AEGIS, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Prostitution, HIV Seropositivity, HIV Infections, Government, Societies, Health Planning Guidelines, Research, Health Planning, Brazil, Humans, education

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