As of now we will also regularly publish an interview with one of the local partners of the GDP on the website. The first one to be interviewed by Development through Media is Lucy Simiu of the Health Rights Advocacy Forum. Read the article here.

Monitoring & evaluation and research
As part of the STOP AIDS NOW! ‘intermediate effectiveness study’ we have done surveys among local partners. The outcomes helped us to better understand the local needs and gave us a clearer idea of the actual impact of the GDP last year. Our main challenge is ‘attribution’: to know if a change (positive or negative) is due to the GDP or to other factors. We are currently looking into ways to adapt our M&E system in order for it to address this issue. We will keep the groups posted on the process, as there will be trainings next year for our new learning trajectory.

Research initiative Kenya
Since the last newsletter, the baseline report has been finalised and disseminated via email to the local partners. The report is also available online. Dr. Kawango Agot, our researcher in Kenya, and her team, will start the endline data collection In January 2009. The endline report will be published by the end of March 2009.

Research initiative Java
The research initiative in Java focuses on the effect of the GDP activities on the levels of knowledge of women and girls on HIV and AIDS, and their gender-related attitudes, beliefs and perceptions. The baseline report for Indonesia has been completed, but final editing is still to be done. The final version will be posted on the SAN! Website soon. Endah Triwijati, “Tiwi”, who is leading the research initiative for the GDP in Java, has facilitated a refresher research training in anticipation of the endline data collection, which will start this November.

The latest news in Kenya
Project activities
Proposal Process 2009
All organisations have send in their proposals for 2009. The steering committee and WOFAK will be evaluating them in line with STOP AIDS NOW! guidelines.

Workshops
Two trainings are planned before the end of 2008. There will be a workshop to train groups on lobby and advocacy and plan for future coalition activities, and another workshop on human rights. What we have seen in the GDP thus far is that groups shy away from emphasizing the human rights theme as much in their work with beneficiaries. This is perfectly understandable since much of what has been written on human rights requires a law degree to read and use. There are, however, some Information Education and Communication materials that have been developed to help organisations work within the international legal context, using tools such as CEDAW or the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. These explain the issues in language all can understand. The upcoming workshop is part of STOP AIDS NOW! efforts to support the local groups in being able to work on human rights just as much as on gender and HIV.

Coalition activities
The steering committee had a meeting on October 13. On the agenda for the meeting was further working out of the plans for the end of year coalition activities, including participation in the Campaign, ‘16 Days of Activism against Gender based Violence’. The theme of the Campaign this year is “Human Rights for Women, Human Rights for All: Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60th Anniversary”. This theme is a good fit for the GDP. As all 16 Days Campaigns can be adapted as necessary, we can readily integrate our work on HIV within the Campaign messaging. Download the Campaign toolkit now!

The latest news in Indonesia
Project activities
Proposal Process 2009
Most of the local partners are now focusing on developing ideas for their proposals to follow up on their GDP activities in 2009. The second phase of the GDP should be building from what has been already accomplished and learned in 2006-2008. Proposals should focus on specific activities in this new phase that strengthen good approaches discovered and/or address problems or gaps that emerged in the first phase of the GDP. Some of the groups in Java and Papua have expressed difficulties with engaging men and women living with HIV in their activities. This new phase of the GDP could be an opportunity to try to improve on this aspect of the work. In Papua, a special problem has been addressing gender issues with the community. Addressing gender is viewed as a threat to the position of men. Engaging men more successfully in activities could be a way to counteract this response from the community.

Additional training
Just as in Kenya, in the remainder of 2008, there will be workshops to train groups on lobby and advocacy and plan for future coalition activities, and on human rights. The groups in Indonesia have faced similar challenges to the groups in Kenya in relation to working directly with beneficiaries on human rights issues in a friendly and accessible manner.

Information Education Communication materials
In Papua, Foker and MDM have taken the lead in developing a toolkit that groups can use with their beneficiaries. The challenge is going to be how to ensure the manual is sensitive enough to the different cultures of Papua to be useful. Once the manual is developed, it is our hope that we will be able to adapt it to use in Java and in Kenya.

Interesting publications, approaches and projects

Gender equality, transforming gender-based attitudes and behaviours and HIV

• ‘Heterosexuality, fuelling or fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic?’
  This paper examines the issues relating to heterosexist notions of masculinity, femininity and sexuality within the context of the HIV and AIDS pandemic currently being experienced in South Africa. It takes the position that heterosexuality is fuelling rather than fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
• ‘Kenya: Young Girls New Bait for Fishermen’
  There is a new take on 'jaboya' (a customer who is also a lover, in the local Luo language), in which female fishmongers develop sexual relationships with fishermen and middlemen in exchange for fish.
• 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign toolkit in English
• UNIFEM Progress of the World’s Women 2008/2009: “Who Answers to Women?
  Gender and Accountability” According to the Report, governments and multilateral organizations must do a better job of answering to women for commitments made to move from commitments to results. Women must be included in all oversight processes; gender equality must become standard against which public performance is assessed.