METHODOLOGY

The identification of a number of innovative and promising interventions was achieved through consultations with various experts in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention at the international, regional and local levels, as well as through reviews of published literature. A parallel project supported by UNAIDS, and based within the East-West Center in Hawaii, has recently established an archive of HIV prevention studies. The aim of this report is to complement this and similar reviews.

Information was sought from key individuals working in international agencies and charitable foundations at headquarters, and when necessary, followed-up at the regional level. Information was also gathered from individuals within UNAIDS and cosponsoring agencies at headquarters as well as at regional and national levels. A standard pro forma was used to alert individuals to the nature of the project’s work and to invite collaboration and participation. Copies of this pro forma were subsequently sent by e-mail, fax or post to named individual contacts at intercountry and country level. This invited the nomination of local programmes, projects and activities to be considered for inclusion in this review.

Contact was then made with individual projects via their manager or coordinator and descriptions of their ongoing work were elicited under a series of headings. These included:

· the location of the project, contact details and the funding agency;

· an overall description of the work of the project;

· a statement of project activities and outputs to date;

· information about evaluation and project outcomes;

· a description of any innovative aspects of the work;

· a statement of constraints/obstacles affecting local activities and the success of the interventions.

The activities undertaken as part of this work should not be regarded as comprehensive. Rather, the aim is to identify key studies and investigations on HIV prevention interventions beyond information dissemination. Thus, this work provides a set of intervention examples for HIV prevention and highlights some of the key issues to consider when designing, implementing and evaluating HIV programmes.