National Guide on the Integration of Stigma and Discrimination Reduction in HIV Programs

This guide was developed by the Tanzania Commission for AIDS to provide experience-based direction for programmes seeking to integrate stigma reduction. It is designed for use by a wide variety of stakeholders working in Tanzania's grassroots organisations, programme designers, donors, researchers, policymakers, media, and planners and implementers of HIV and AIDS activities at all levels to strengthen HIV stigma reduction efforts in their specific contexts.

The guide first provides an overview of key concepts with respect to HIV-related stigma and discrimination. It then delineates 3 essential steps to begin HIV stigma reduction work, as follows:

1. Act now by using existing resources: Skilled human resources and tools to reduce HIV-stigma in Tanzania do exist and are accessible.
2. Integrate stigma reduction activities and messages into existing HIV/AIDS programmes.
3. Engage key stakeholders to broaden the impact.

The guide concludes with suggestions on how to scale up integrated stigma reduction activities countrywide. These include:

• Expanding the pool of national anti-stigma trainers;
• Using a cascade approach, where trainers conduct training of trainers (TOT) - either by sector, region, or district;
• Making tools and resources more widely known and available; and
• Establishing a national stigma reduction working group to exchange experiences, successes, and challenges

The book's appendices include examples of information, education, and communication (IEC) materials, recommended exercises from the Understanding and Challenging HIV Stigma: Toolkit for Action (see the below link under "Related Summaries"), and a list of anti-stigma trainers.