September 2009 — The Strengthening Nigeria’s Response to HIV and AIDS Program (SNR) aimed to address the technical, human and financial capacity and resources needed for states and communities to take charge of and implement a coordinated, effective and sustainable multisectoral local response to HIV and AIDS.
Supported by the U.K. Department for International Development in six states, SNR’s most notable achievements included helping State Action Committees on AIDS (SACAs) achieve large improvements on indicators of organizational capacity. Five SACAs achieved agency status, meaning they can now receive funding directly from the national government, and program coverage has greatly expanded.
As a result of capacity improvements in SNR-assisted states:
- The number of people accessing services grew by 300 percent or more.
- The number of vulnerable people in target communities reached with services and interventions increased by over 100 percent.
- SACAs made great progress in strengthening Local Government Area Committees on AIDS (LACAs) to coordinate the response locally.
- Health care institution staff were oriented to national HIV and AIDS guidelines and protocols.
SNR also helped advocate for a legal and policy environment supportive of people living with HIV. This led to legislation that created gender-sensitive stigma reduction and workplace policies at state and national levels. At the local level, SNR supported interventions that “transformed mindsets” held toward people living with HIV.
This end-of-project report offers an overview and summary of SNR’s main achievements. It describes how outputs were approached and provides examples of each through the words of those who implemented or benefited from the program.