Accra:  The Integrated Social Development Center (ISODEC) in collaboration with IDASA Governance and AIDS Programme (GAP) of South Africa is undertaking two researches. The studies are part of a multi-country research project being conducted in Burundi, Ghana, Namibia, Uganda and Zambia.

The outcomes and recommendations from the studies will inform and assist in the formulation of targeted capacity building work to enable District Assemblies to fulfill their mandates.  Based on this, ISODEC and its partners have sought the assistance of six experts from different organizations known as the reference group with expertise in the area of HIV and AIDS and in tracking government resources.

The Reference Group's work will be to assist ISODEC in areas of technical input in the research process, guidance and sharing of knowledge on reference to data sources, review of research outcomes input into policy recommendations and any other issue the research team may need assistance on.

Members of the six reference group include Mr. Vitus Azeem, the executive secretary of the Ghana Integrity Initiative, Dr. Felix Asante, a senior research fellow with ISSER and Dr. Zakariah Afisah of the Ministry of Health. The rest are Mr. Eric Osae of the Institute of Local Government Studies, Ms. Betty Akumatey of the Department of Sociology, University of Ghana, Legon and Dr. Gurumuithy Rayaya of UNAIDS.

In her presentation on identifying the relationship between HIV and AIDS and the fragility of the local government structure in Ghana, Ms. Ama Blankson-Anaman a policy analyst of ISODEC said the study, which falls under IDASA's Governance AIDS programme, wishes to understand the impact of HIV/AIDS on democratic governance and vice versa.

The policy analyst explained that the framework of the study is from prior research conducted already in 6 countries which IDASA conducted in South Africa in 2009 on the effect of HIV and AIDS on local government structures in South African.  According to her, the South African study suggests that HIV and AIDS could affect the effectiveness of decision makers due to prolonged illness leading to absenteeism from Public Office.

She further revealed that the fear of rejection by constituencies , leading to self exclusion, and the repeated vacuums that come with the deaths of local councilors on a regular basis, which might result in delayed decisions or replacement by less experienced candidates.

"The South African study found out that fragility could be created within the tier of local governance if locally appropriate response were not tailored to meet local community needs," said the policy analyst.

On the objectives of the study, Ms. Blankson-Anaman said the research will gather and provide empirical evidence on how local governments are coping with HIV and AIDS; provide tools to assist local governments to plan and manage the HIV and AIDS among their staff and also promote citizens participation by contributing towards strengthening democratic societies across the continent.

Issues to be explored in the study include implications of deaths of assembly persons and consequent loss of institutional memory, economic costs of replacing deceased assembly members and sustainability, impact of stigma and discrimination on functionality of leadership at local level, community perceptions of HIV - positive assembly members, service delivery and local government response to HIV and AIDS.

In his presentation, Mr. Daniel Chachu, a policy analyst of ISODEC, said the background and rationale of the research was to study the proliferation of HIV and AIDS strategies and increased funding, with its remaining implementation gaps.  Mr. Chachu said key targets of the study will be National and Sub-national governmental organizations, Governments departments, National AIDS Commissions, People living with HIV and AIDS and funding partners /donors and media.

In this study, some anticipated challenges included the transfer of key staff and lack of proper records, getting full year on actual spending, level of disaggregation of financial data, and the delay in release of data.

The research will take off from April to June in 10 Districts. These are Kweabibrem, Manya Krobo, Ketu, Kwabre, Wassa West, Asikuma Odoben Brakwa, Techiman, Wa, Kasena Nankana and Bole.