The National Strategic Plan for HIV/Aids & STI, 2007-2011 (NSP) is a multisectoral response to the challenges of HIV/Aids in our country. While ICTs are important in many areas of the implementation of the NSP, currently the document makes little reference to this topic, and there is no SA National AIDS Council (SANAC) sector that directly covers this area.

The 12 people at the informal meeting (who work at the National Department of Health, Constella Futures, HST, HISP, World Aids Campaign, Aids Portal, Mindset, UCT, ARK and Cell-Life) have no mandate or authority. However, there is a need for issues of ICT to be properly considered by SANAC. We therefore want to start a discussion among those working with ICTs and HIV/Aids that will aim to support the implementation of the NSP.

ICTs can assist in the fight against HIV in various ways:

• Improving the efficiency of the 'back-office' of HIV/Aids organisations, especially at community level;
• Strengthening mass communication of prevention, treatment, anti-stigma and other HIV messages;
• Supporting health informatics in the health system to provide treatment and care, especially through comprehensive record keeping;
• Monitoring & evaluating all aspects of the NSP;
• Supporting the self-organisation of people living with HIV as well as assisting in ensuring their voices are heard by the wider community;
• Providing a medium for research, advocacy and other forms of information sharing.

If not properly managed, ICT systems can also be inappropriate, a massive waste of money and a distraction from the real work. If you would like to be involved in this initiative, please send a message to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and you will be added to a mailing list on the topic. Also, if you know of other individuals or organizations involved in similar work, please send this information on to them.

As one of the first activities of this task group, we  would like to create a knowledge base of how ICTs are currently being used by different AIDS organisations within South Africa. This listing will be freely available on request. If you have any experiences in this field, please forward your answers to the following questions to Andrée Gacoin of AIDSPortal ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or Tom Scalway of the World Aids Campaign ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ).