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28 May 2008

A plenary meeting of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), chaired by the Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, was held yesterday, 27 May 2008, in Pretoria to discuss a number of issues related to SANAC's functioning, the restructuring of provincial AIDS councils and improving SANAC's visibility and impact.

The following issues where on the agenda:

* approval of SANAC procedural guidelines
* report and recommendations from the SANAC Programme Implementation Committee (PIC)
* report and recommendations from the SANAC Resource Management Committee (RMC), specifically with regard to South Africa's intended proposal to the Global Fund on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM).

The plenary adopted procedural guidelines that now set out clearly the functioning of SANAC. The plenary agreed that strengthening the secretariat of SANAC, including its capacity for effective monitoring of the NSP, is overdue. This will be discussed urgently at a meeting of the Inter-ministerial Committee (IMC) and a report be given to SANAC on measures to be taken before the next plenary.

A report was received from the PIC on a range of issues, including progress with the restructuring and the activeness of Provincial AIDS Councils (PACs). It was agreed that there is a need for better synergy and communication between SANAC and PACs. To this end PACs will henceforth be invited to have one representative each at SANAC.

The Resource Management Committee (RMC) reported that a new country application for funding from the GFATM will be submitted in June 2008. The estimated amount that is to be requested is R4 billion. On this issue it was resolved that the RMC and the NGO sector look into strategies to capacitate and strengthen small NGOs so that they may benefit from the fund.

Comprehensive progress reports were presented by government and civil society which will be available shortly on the SANAC website (http://www.info.gov.za/issues/hiv/sanac.htm). However, the Chairperson of SANAC stressed the importance of being able to show impact and outcomes, rather than just activities and inputs. As a result SANAC resolved that at its next plenary, in July 2008, the agenda will focus on impact reports from the Departments of Health, Social Development, and Public Service and Administration as well as from the non-governmental organisation (NGO) sector.

For more information contact:
Denzil Taylor
Cell: 082 561 3772

Issued by: The Presidency on behalf of SANAC
28 May 2008
Source: The Presidency (http://thepresidency.gov.za)