Developing HIV/AIDS work with drug users: a guide to participatory assessment and response

This guide describes how to design and carry out an assessment on HIV/AIDS and drug use based on a Participatory Assessment and Response (PAR) approach. This approach builds on the Alliance's work in integrating the Rapid Assessment and Response (RAR) and the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approaches. It emphasises the importance of linking assessment activities with developing a response, the need to respond quickly to problems related to drugs and HIV/AIDS, and the importance of participation of affected communities in responding to the HIV/AIDS problem among drug users. The guide is presents 10 steps to do participatory assessments: planning the assessment; setting up an Advisory Group; forming and training an assessment team; designing the assessment; using secondary sources; learning from key informants; making contact and building trust; conducting group discussions and interviews; analysing information; next steps - developing a response. In addition to the guide the work book includes a section introducing topics related to HIV and drug use, describing the social, economic, political and legal context; the situation of drug users; problems relate to drug use; current response to problems; and suggestion of action priorities. It goes on to present a ôtoolö section with participatory methods such as body mapping, Venn diagrams, trend diagrams, lifelines, daily activity charts, cause/effect flow charts, ranking, matrix scoring, assessment grids, evaluation wheels, and ôBt why?ö diagrams. Finally it addresses the main skills needed in participatory work with HIV and drug issues: active listening; effective questioning; facilitating group discussions; and using participatory tools. The fulltext document can be found on http://www.eldis.org/ or http://www.aidsalliance.org/eng/publications/_pge/prevention.htm