Terminology
Advocacy is a method and a process of influencing decision-makers and public perceptions about an issue of concern, and mobilising community action to achieve social change, including legislative and policy reform, to address the concern.
Affected communities is a term used to encompass the range of people affected by HIV/AIDS, including people at particular risk of HIV infection and those who bear a disproportionate burden of the impact of HIV/AIDS. This will vary from country to country, depending on the nature of the particular epidemic.
Discrimination is a manifestation of stigma (see below). Discrimination is any form of arbitrary distinction, exclusion or restriction, whether by action or omission, based on a stigmatised attribute.
Enabling environment refers to an environment where laws and public policy protect and promote the rights of PLHA and affected communities and support effective programmes.
Harm reduction is used to refer to polices and programmes that aim to prevent or reduce the harms associated with injecting drug use.
HIV/AIDS programmes refers to work that is focused on HIV/AIDS, such as HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programmes for PLHA, or HIV/AIDS-focused interventions that are integrated within broader health and related programming. The goal of HIV/AIDS programming relates specifically to HIV/AIDS (for example, preventing HIV transmission or reducing HIV-related stigma and discrimination).
Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS refers to adapting development and humanitarian programmes to ensure they address the underlying causes of vulnerability to HIV infection and the consequences of HIV/AIDS. The focus of such programmes remains the original goal (for example, improving household incomes or food security, or raising literacy rates).
NGO is used to encompass the wide range of organisations that can be broadly characterised as ‘non-government', including Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs) and organisations of affected communities, including people living with HIV/AIDS, sex workers, women's groups and many others, who are active in the HIV/AIDS response.
Scaling up is used to encompass different strategies to expand the scope, reach and impact of our responses to HIV/AIDS. We use the term to refer to expanding the geographical or population reach of HIV/AIDS-specific programmes and integrating HIV/AIDS-specific interventions within other health programming, such as sexual and reproductive health and child and maternal health programmes. We also use it to refer to mainstreaming HIV/AIDS within development and humanitarian programming.
Stigma is a process of producing and reproducing inequitable power relations, where negative attitudes towards a group of people, on the basis of particular attributes such as their HIV status, gender, sexuality or behaviour, are created and sustained to legitimatise dominant groups in society.
Supporting NGO refers to NGOs that provide other NGOs implementing programmes in-country with one or more of the following: technical support; financial support; capacity development and/or advocacy support.
Orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS (OVC) We use this term because children are affected by HIV/AIDS in a multitude of ways, and not only when a parent dies of AIDS. There are increasing numbers of children living with sick or dying parents. Children are often required to drop out of school to provide care or to generate an income for the family.