Background
AfriComNet was established in 2001 in recognition of the severity of the HIV and AIDS pandemic in Africa and the need for high quality strategic communication to respond to the crisis. It is a network of more than 740 strategic communication practitioners who reside, work or have a primary interest in Africa. The network organised organized a three day practicum on alcohol, gender norms and gender-based violence as they relate to HIV and AIDS from the 6th – 9th August 2007 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Practicum Rationale
As the HIV and AIDS epidemic has evolved in Africa, so has understanding of the root causes of HIV transmission. It is recognized that an effective response cannot be limited to AIDS awareness campaigns and expanded HIV care, support and treatment. The response must also address underlying social factors that influence prevention, care and treatment practices, such as gender norms, gender-based violence and alcohol and drug abuse. Few communication programs in the region adequately address these issues, resulting in continued risk behavior, barriers to services and poor adherence and treatment outcomes despite significant investment by donors.

Increasingly, HIV and AIDS programs have seen the need for strategic communication to address underlying factors. There are some small-scale, isolated examples that can inform design of broader programs, but these have yet to be systematically documented and shared. HIV and AIDS programs would benefit greatly if they knew about these examples and what has been learned.

Thus, there was a recognized need for a meeting of communication practitioners to analyze practical experiences, share tools, research and materials, and synthesize and package lessons learned for wider dissemination.

Practicum purpose
The purpose of the workshop was to familiarize participants with the situation regarding the underlying social factors that influence prevention, care and treatment practices, such as gender norms, gender-based violence and alcohol and drug abuse in the region, as well as communication approaches to address them. With funding from the Regional Outreach Addressing AIDS through Development Strategies (ROADS) Project and UNAIDS, AfriComNet brought together over 86 communication practitioners from 9 countries in this practical exercise to synthesize and document strategies that may have wider application.

The overall aim was to enable participants to integrate alcohol, gender norms and gender-based violence into HIV and AIDS community outreach, advocacy, media, and client education and counseling programs. This will improve the effectiveness of HIV prevention, care and treatment programs in the region.