The Aksi Stop AIDS (ASA) Project

OCTOBER 2007 — The Aksi Stop AIDS (ASA) Project , the centerpiece of FHI's portfolio in Indonesia, is designed to assist the National AIDS Commission and the Ministry of Health to respond the expanding HIV/AIDS epidemic in Indonesia in the most appropriate and effective ways possible. Phase II began in October 2005 and runs through 30 September 2008.

Core funding for the ASA Project is provided by USAID, the Indonesian Partnership Fund for HIV/AIDS, and DFID (through the Indonesian Partnership Fund). Supplementary funding is from the Global Fund (for work with injecting drug users) and through the TB CAP Project (for work on HIV-TB).  The project provides a unique example of donor harmonization and collaboration.  Donor goals, objectives, and requirements are combined into a single, joint program, with a single set of strategies and workplan and one monitoring and evaluation system.

FHI's technical assistance is designed to

• increase intervention coverage and use of risk-reduction behaviors, practices, and services
• improve STI/HIV/AIDS clinical services
• enhance coverage and quality of activities of implementing agencies
• strengthen institutional responses by the Ministry of Health and the health service network, local AIDS commissions, the national prison system, and the uniformed services
• produce a comprehensive package of HIV/AIDS interventions for the prison system and a coordinated response to the epidemic within Indonesia's uniformed services

FHI is contributing to a new national strategy on HIV/AIDS, facilitating the contributions of working groups, revitalizing provincial assistance teams, and taking a lead role in the design and implementation of second-generation biological and behavioral STI/HIV/AIDS surveillance.

FHI works closely with AIDS commissions in eight provinces and the 78 districts that contain "hotspots" of high-risk behavior, facilitating and mentoring technical and operational improvements to limit the expansion of the epidemic and mitigate its impact.  Areas for such improvements include the collection and use of data and the production of routine and evidence-based strategic plans and annual workplans. FHI technical assistance is also encouraging stronger integration between clinical services and outreach to ensure a continuum of care that has built-in quality control systems and good logistics management.

The program promotes stigma reduction and behavior change, and encourages the involvement of target populations in this and other work. People living with HIV and AIDS and their organizations are involved in all program activities, especially in strengthening prevention within care settings and creating peer support for interventions.