What is this about?
The HIV Leadership through Accountability programme is a collaboration between the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+), the World AIDS Campaign (WAC), national networks of PLHIV and national Civil Society platforms. The programme is funded by UK DfID and combines specific HIV mapping tools, national AIDS campaigns and targeted advocacy for Universal Access.
In Kenya, the National Empowerment Network of People living with HIV/AIDS will implement tools by and for PLHIV, elaborated by GNP+ and its partners, aiming at strengthening the evidence on four key areas:

• Stigma and discrimination (The People Living with HIV Stigma Index)
• The level of involvement of people living with HIV (The GIPA Report Card)
• Documenting and analysing current experiences in criminalisation of HIV transmission (The Global Criminalisation Scan)
• Documenting and analysing human rights violations against PLHIV (Human Rights Count!).  

• In addition to the four mapping tools, Advancing the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of PLHIV: A Guidance Package will support PLHIV networks to engage in national processes for the development and/or adaptation of sexual and reproductive health services.

The Programme Steering Committee
To raise the profile of the programme and mainstream it in the national AIDS response dialogue, NEPHAK has constituted a Programme Steering committee comprising of people nominated from the National AIDS Control Council (NACC), National AIDS and STIs Control Programme (NASCOP); UNAIDS; Kenya National Commission of Human Rights (KNCHR); Bar Hostess Association; Kenya Network of Religious Leaders Living with or personally affected by HIV and AIDS (KENERELA +); Kenya Network of Positive Teachers (KENEPOTE) the Committee (PSC) to provide policy and strategic leadership to the programme implementation team (PIT). PSC is a voluntary Organization of Health Workers Living with HIV/Expert Patients Support Group

The Programme Steering Committee will

• Monitor programme performance
• Provide Policy guidance for programme alignment and harmonization
• Provide strategic direction to the programme
• Advocate for the adoption of the best practices emanating from the programme into national HIV and AIDS policy and programme development
• Advise the programme implementation team (PIT) on programme related issues

Not just a coincidence in Kenya
The HIV Leadership through Accountability Programme has started in Kenya at a time when the country has just invigorated her commitment towards the delivery of Universal access targets by deliberate shelving of the 2nd National AIDS Strategic Plan (KNASP II) and unveiling of a 3rd Strategic Plan (KNASP 111 2009/10 – 2012/13). During the ‘summative review of KNASP 11’ and the subsequent development of KNASP 111, NEPHAK was at the forefront mobilizing PLHIV and affected communities to be part of this transition. NEPHAK must now move to disseminate and communicate key aspects of KNASP 111 to the entire PLHIV membership. Within the new strategic plan, NEPHAK has identified the need for targeted advocacy and communication for an expanded prevention framework that would work to empower PLHIV to reduce their risk of HIV–transmission and minimize re-infection. Working under the UA framework, NEPHAK has committed to reach 80% of PLHIV, their partners and family members, including discordant couples with information on prevention with positives (PwPs). This commitment has also been strengthened by the unveiling of national framework and guidelines for the planning and implementation of prevention with positives interventions. Above all, the National AIDS Control Council is set to launch a National Code of Conduct for stakeholders implementing HIV/AIDS interventions. Being part of the National Task Force on the National Code of Conduct for stakeholders involved in HIV and AIDS has also conferred on NEPHAK certain specific obligations. NEPHAK must as an example provide leadership to groups and networks serving PLHIV to initiate the process of complying with the Fundamental Principles and Standards of the national Code of Conduct. Like the Leadership through Accountability Programme, these national initiatives aim at enhancing national efforts towards the delivery of Universal Access and human rights targets

What do we hope to achieve together?
The programme will enable NEPHAK to build a solid evidence base about why it is important to achieve universal access and how this can happen in practice through the meaningful participation of PLHIV.
The information gathered will inform national-level priorities and the delivery of HIV programmes with a focus on key issues. It would enable national governments to deliver coordinated and effective responses to HIV and AIDS. More importantly, it would also highlight the unique role of civil society, including people living with HIV networks, in working with governments to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate programmes that contribute to realizing targets for expanding access to HIV care, treatment and prevention.

The Five Evidence-Gathering Tools
The GIPA report card
Identifies existing levels of the application of the GIPA principle and provides insights on how the participation of PLHIV can be made more meaningful.  The GIPA Report Card is an advocacy tool, which aims to increase and improve the programmatic, policy and funding actions taken to realize the greater involvement of People Living with HIV in Kenya’s HIV response.
The GIPA Report card is a prime example of GIPA in action and was developed and is being implemented by NEPHAK.

 The objectives of the GIPA Report card are to:

• Provide information on current GIPA implementations, which will serve as baseline against which future GIPA implementation can be measured
• Hold the Government, NGOs, UN agencies, donors, organizations of PLHIV and other stakeholders accountable to their commitments relating to GIPA.
• Increase and improve the meaningful participation of PLHIV in different sectors within broader national response to the HIV epidemic in Kenya.
• Assist in developing indicators to monitor and evaluate GIPA.

Global criminalization scan
Criminalizations of HIV transmission and cases when the laws have been used to criminalize persons with HIV have been used using existing documents on legislation.
Over the last few years, there has been an alarming trend towards criminalizing the transmission of HIV.  People have been prosecuted and convinced for HIV transmission or exposing their partner(s) to HIV.  There court cases have been based on the reasoning that PLHIV who transmit the virus or expose their partners to HIV are criminally culpable, claiming that the PLHIV is the sole person responsible for preventing submission.
The Global Criminalization Scan documents laws, judicial practices and case studies, around criminalization of HIV transmission.  The Global Criminalization Scan is the only collection presenting these data on a world wide scale.

The objectives of the Global Criminalization Scan are:

• To collect and keep up to date information on national or state level laws criminalizing the transmission of or exposure of HIV transmission.
• To stop criminal prosecution of unintentional transmission of HIV
• To provide an easy accessible vocal point of resources, research and initiatives on the subject;
• To provide a platform for advocacy initiatives.

Human Rights Count
Records human rights violations experienced by women, men and excluded individuals living with HIV. The Human Rights Count programme was developed after the killing of a Jamaican AIDS activist in 2005.  Following the initial outrage, GNP+ found that advocacy on human rights violations could be strengthened if a collection of evidence and data on these instances would be available.  I addition it was realized that increasing knowledge and understanding of human rights laws and conventions at grass root levels would enhance activism and advocacy.
The Human Rights Count will provide this evidence collection and build the necessary capacity to increase and advocacy.  The Human Rights Count is a programme aimed to create a self-reporting system for human rights violations against PLHIV by PLHIV and their advocates.  The Human Rights Count provides an easy accessible, online template for self-reporting human rights violations, links these data with advocates and advocacy efforts, and makes them publicly available.

The objectives of Human Rights Count are:

• To document human rights violations against PLHIV
• To analyze quantitatively and qualitatively human rights violations against PLHIV across the country and regions and detect time trends.
• Inform future programming at national, regional and global level through the sharing of evidence and documented cases.

The PLHIV Stigma Index
Collects and examines HIV related stigma experiences by PLHIV; exploring its direct and indirect impacts on individuals.
HIV related stigma and discrimination are widely recognized as barriers to accessing HIV prevention, treatment and care services.  Much of what we know about the stigma attached to HIV and the resulting discrimination towards people living with the virus is subjective or fragmented and this knowledge does not always include perspective of PLHIV.
Very little work has been dedicated to research that quantitatively records and analyses the different levels  and types of stigma ( both internal and external) faced by PLHIV, as well as changes in trends and with time.  Such evidence-informed policy and programme action.

The objectives of the PLHIV Stigma Index are:

• Document the various experiences of PLHIV within their communities regarding HIV-related stigma and discrimination;
• Measure changes over a period of time as it relates to changing attitudes.
• Provide an evidence base on HIV-related stigma for policy change and programmatic interventions.
• The ultimate aim of the Index is to improve programmes and policies to achieve universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support.
• Advancing the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of PLHIV: a Guidance Package
• The Guidance Package is intended to help anyone concerned with public health and human rights to better understand why and how to meet then sexual and reproductive needs and rights of PLHIV.

The objectives of the Guidance Package are;

• Provide a framework for NEPHAK and advocacy with programmes and policy making at a national level.
• Improve the quality of SRHR services for PLHIV
• Protect SRHR of PLHIV, and in particular, key populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM) sex workers (CSW) and young women.