Responding to HIV and AIDS in the fishery sector in Africa: proceedings of the International Workshop, February 20-21 2006, Lusaka, Zambia

This paper from the WorldFish Centre examines how fishing communities in Africa have responded to the impact of HIV. It presents the findings of a workshop held in Zambia in 2006 and attended by representatives of thirteen African countries and international organisations. A wide range of community-led programmes have been developed by fishing communities to respond to the issues of health, livelihoods and resource-use affected by the high prevalence of HIV in these communities. Community participation in and ownership of programmes are essential for their success, but they also need technical expertise from the health and economic sectors urgently. Programmes also need to focus on the whole community and sector rather than specific groups who are believed to be at higher risk.

The paper recommends that successful interventions need to be scaled up and studied more fully so this knowledge can be used elsewhere. It also recommends increased levels of communication, co-operation and co-ordination between government and non-governmental agencies and between regional, local and national government. Service providers need to engage more with fishing communities and the fishing sector, and resources are needed by HIV services in fishing communities and by the fishing sector more generally.