Solomon Islands: Leadership needed at all levels

Lo sentimos, pero este contenido no está disponible en español.

Dolores Devesi, Oxfam's Country Representative in the Solomon Islands, has played a key role on the Oxfam team in the Solomon's for over six years. Dolores and a handful of committed individuals established a small national working group of International NGOs whose goal was to work alongside the Solomon Islands National AIDS Council to improve national level communications on HIV and AIDS with more open and constructive dialogue between the government and civil society.

Meet Dolores Devesi, Oxfam's Country Representative in the Solomon Islands. Dolores has been a committed part of the Oxfam team in the Solomon's for over six years. She started in Administration, then as the HIV and AIDS Program Officer, before commencing her current role.

Throughout this time, Dolores has been an integral part of the evolving HIV and AIDS response in the Solomon Islands.  Although HIV and AIDS have not reached epidemic proportions in the Islands, it is only a step away from Papua New Guinea, which has the unfortunate distinction of being the first country in the Pacific region where HIV prevalence has reached epidemic levels. High levels of migration between Papua New Guinea and The Solomon Islands are increasing the risk of an HIV epidemic in the Solomons. Coupled with high levels of sexually transmitted infections, extramarital and unprotected sex, and a low community awareness of HIV and AIDS, the Solomon Islands is now near the cusp of a new phase of the twin epidemics in the region.    As these risk factors have become more evident, so has the need for an urgent coordinated national response. Dolores and a handful of committed individuals established a small national working group of International NGOs whose goal was to work alongside the Solomon Islands National AIDS Council (SINAC) and improve coordination and management of interagency meetings. “This group was initiated because I was attending a regional meeting for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, for which Oxfam is the national NGO representative, and I wanted to consult with others prior to my departure to ensure that I represented views of the Solomon Islands NGO sector and not just Oxfam,” said Dolores.This Working Group developed organically as a loose association of individuals from NGOs working to support SINAC. SINAC's goal is to improve national level communications on HIV and AIDS with more open and constructive dialogue between the government and civil society. Oxfam played an essential role in SINAC's establishment, and the engagement of key agencies such as the Department of Education. We are viewed by the Solomon Islands' Ministry of Health as the key ally and collaborator in the country's HIV and AIDS strategy.  According to Dolores, the success of such a working group initiative was the constructive work of individual organizations: “We were all speaking the same language. Because all of us understood each others' work in the HIV sector it made coordination with the Government less complicated. Plus the Ministry of Health was very clear on what each organization was working on”.  The group's achievements included improved communication and clarification of stakeholder roles in the Solomon Islands' HIV and AIDS response. Members of the working group were also able to complement each other's activities and subsequently enhance the effectiveness of their programmes at the national level. Additionally, this cooperation has nurtured trust between the NGOs .To date the Solomon Islands has only reported a handful of HIV and AIDS cases. However with many HIV and AIDS risk factors prevalent in communities, and the proximity of the Solomon Islands to Papua New Guinea, without coordinated action between Government and Civil Society the level of infection could soar in the future.“NGOs and community activists can not do this alone. We need the government to hear their people and share information in order to be able to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic that is growing,” Dolores concludes.Oxfam believes that the HIV and AIDS pandemic cannot be combated without the active leadership at all levels. This includes individual leaders such as Dolores who collaborated with International NGOs and government bodies to help prevent an HIV and AIDS epidemic from occurring in her country. 

Palabras clave: