As part of CARE Canada’s Southern African Nutrition Initiative (SANI) funded by the Government of Canada, ICAD is leading a capacity-building initiative to improve the health outcomes of women living with HIV and children living with and/or affected by HIV in targeted regions of Malawi and Zambia. ICAD’s ultimate goal of the project is to contribute to the reduction of maternal and child mortality in 4 target districts in Malawi and Zambia.
PROJECT GOALS
The goal of the SANI HIV/SRHR capacity building initiative is:
To reduce the impact of HIV, gender inequality and poor nutrition as confronted by women of reproductive age living with HIV and children under 5 living with and/or affected by HIV in selected districts in Malawi and Zambia.
The objectives of the initiative are:
- To improve the health and nutrition outcomes of women of reproductive age living with HIV and children under 5 living with and/or affected by HIV;
- To strengthen community/civil society capacity in Canada, Malawi and Zambia to address gender, SRHR, HIV and food and nutrition security;
- To increase the knowledge of community/civil society in Canada, Malawi and Zambia to better understand and address linkages between gender, HIV and food and nutrition security through the exchange of good practices;
- To identify and disseminate results and lessons learned about community twinning projects the community/civil society response to gender, SRHR, HIV and nutrition/food security in Canada, Malawi and Zambia.
HOW WE DO IT
This capacity-building initiative is being accomplished through twinning partnerships between organizations or groups in Canada and in selected districts in Malawi and Zambia. Small grants have been awarded to selected organizations to implement 18-24 month community projects that focus on gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), HIV and nutrition/food security.
WHAT IS TWINNING?
Twinning is a formal, substantive collaboration between two or more organizations. Twinning encourages civil society organizations to collaborate and form partnerships with like-minded organizations in other countries or regions and provides a platform for the two-way exchange of knowledge, expertise and strengthening of capacity on specific project related approaches, strategies, interventions, and lessons learned from local contexts.
THE FOUR TWINNING PROJECTS
Through the SANI twinning initiative, 4 partnerships of 2-3 organizations each were established, including 3 Canadian organizations, 3 Zambian organizations and 4 Malawian organizations.
1. CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT OF WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE ON HIV, SRHR, NUTRITION AND GENDER
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2. TOWARDS REDUCING THE IMPACT OF HIV FOR WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE LIVING WITH HIV AND CHILDREN UNDER FIVE LIVING WITH OR AFFECTED BY HIV
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3. IMPROVING NUTRITION OF WOMEN LIVING WITH HIV
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4. IMPROVING NUTRITION STATUS FOR CHILDREN LIVING WITH OR AFFECTED BY HIV
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PROJECT RESOURCES
PROJECT BRIEF
Southern African Nutrition Initiative: Improving women and children's health in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia
CARE’s Southern African Nutrition Initiative (SANI) aims to improve the nutritional status of women of reproductive age and children under 5, while working with local health authorities and communities in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. Specifically, SANI is expected to contribute to the improved health of approximately 230,000 individuals directly, and over 345,000 individuals indirectly.
LESSONS LEARNED
Lessons Learned through the SANI Twinning Initiative
This document is a compilation of lessons learned throughout the implementation of the SANI twinning initiative through:
• ICAD monitoring visits
• Partner reports and conversations with partners
• Partner meetings
• Analysis of partner qualitative monitoring activity results
• Input from CUSO volunteers working with twinning partners
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BODY MAPPING
Body Mapping and the SANI Twinning Initiative
In February 2019, as part of a capacity-building workshop on qualitative monitoring, ICAD introduced the concept of body mapping to twinning partners:
- As a tool to evaluate the impact of the twinning initiative as a whole
- To complement the quantitative monitoring within each project
- To understand experiences of nutrition and living with HIV in the broader context of people’s lives
- To engage women in the storytelling process
VISIT MICROSITE
HIV, NUTRITION, FOOD SECURITY: EXPLORING THE INTERSECTIONS
FACT SHEET: HIV, Nutrition, Food Security and Gender
This fact-sheet presents an overview of the manifold intersections between nutrition, HIV and gender, with the aim of promoting an integrated programmatic and policy approach to addressing these global challenges, which have been exacerbated by the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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TACKLING HIV-RELATED STIGMA
BLOG: SANI partners in Malawi work to tackle HIV-related stigma and discrimination
We know that lack of food security has direct implications for HIV prevention and treatment efforts by constraining individual choices, which can negatively affect treatment adherence and individual health outcomes. That is why the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development (ICAD) is leading a capacity-building initiative through the Southern African Nutrition Initiative (SANI) to improve the health outcomes of women living with HIV and children living with
and/or affected by HIV in targeted regions of Malawi and Zambia. The aim is to contribute to the reduction of maternal and child mortality in targeted regions.
AIDS 2020 VIRTUAL
VOLUNTEER BLOG
Read about the experiences of Chenai Kadungure and Sheriff Wiredu, CUSO International Volunteers who worked with our twinning partners in Malawi. Chenai and Sheriff worked as a Program Management Advisors with the four twinning partners in Malawi to support their projects and to provide capacity building support.
ABOUT SANI
The Southern African Nutrition Initiative (SANI) is a 24 million CAD initiative to address under-nutrition in women of reproductive age and children under five in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. Funded by the Government of Canada, SANI is led by CARE International and implemented in partnership with Cuso International, the Interagency Coalition for AIDS and Development, and McGill University’s Institute for Global Food Security in Canada, and with the Government and communities of Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia.