Curriculum for 20 regional organizations of “100 % of Life’s”

From August 27 to August 31, 2018, more than 20 representatives from Ukraine’s regions started training in the framework of the “100 % of Life’s” scholarship program called “Public Sector Management”. An education provider is the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) of the Ukrainian Catholic University. The program developed by the ILM includes the following blocks that will be considered with the help of ten well-known practitioners:

✔ Management and strategic planning;

✔ Administration and organizational development;

✔ Marketing communications;

✔ Finances.

Only 20 of the most motivated participants of a large number of those who wish to study were selected from such regions that most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic as Odesa, Kherson, Poltava, Mykolayiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kyiv, Donetsk oblasts and Kyiv. All participants are employees of community, patients’ and charitable organizations. Everyone is the leader of changes in his/her region and is working to improve the provision of services to PLHIV at both health facilities and local communities. These are leaders of organizations, advocacy specialists, representatives of patients’ communities and community leaders who are vulnerable to HIV. The incentive for participation in the NGO management program is the desire to get a systematic understanding of the principles and mechanisms of effective management and development in rapidly changing environments.

“The most important thing in my work is the knowledge about the tools for building strategic communications inside and outside. Since the success of any public organization or project is determined not only by constant funding but also by the stable presence in the information space, it became important to establish long-lasting relationships and a clear reputation,” convinced Victoria, a participant of the scholarship program.

For this reason, during the training modules in Kyiv and Lviv, the course participants will have a lot to do regarding the competencies of team building and management, mastering new experiences and structuring the previous ones, strengthening partnerships and exchanging ideas among themselves, guests of the program and trainers. Among the trainers, there are Natalia Bordun, Oleksandra Baklanova, Andriy Rozhdestvenskyi, Dzvenyslava Novakivska, Dmytro Yakymets, Olga Sadoha, Maria Artemenko, Vitaliy Lysyuk and Iryna Titarenko.

“Investments in knowledge and skills of regional teams is a priority for us. Until 2020, Ukraine intends to carry out the plan to transfer to the government financing of all HIV/AIDS programs; and already in 2019, regional non-governmental organizations will provide prevention and care services for PLHIV in 12 regions. That is why we are constantly strengthening potential and expertise of them as local state partners.

“We thank our colleagues from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for their support in the implementation of the “Public Sector Management” program (note! the scholarship program became possible due to the project called “Accelerating Ukraine’s Efforts to End HIV” (HealthLink)). I believe that together we will make significant progress in overcoming the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” said Yevgenija Kononchuk, the head of the “100% of Life’s” Advocacy Team.

Today, about 244 000 HIV-positive people live in Ukraine, and only 143 000 of them, or every second, are under medical supervision. The efforts of “100% of Life” are equally aimed at services, reducing stigma and discrimination, and advocacy activities at the national and regional levels. All this as a whole should ensure the conditions for the stable provision of services for patients using state financial support and partnership of the public sector.

“The strategy is essentially a way from where we are to where we want to be. The “100% of Life’s” team understands very well what they want. Learn how to focus, fill in gaps, make sure that nothing important is left out of sight and become better managers are what this program helps with,” said Oleksandra Baklanova, the trainer, the advisor on strategy and change management, the executive partner of the PRO.MOVA company, ex-employee of the European headquarters of SONY, a member of the team which created the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School.

Maria Artemenko, the lecturer and the PR specialist, said, “It’s hard to attract attention in the age of information noise. Every day there are tens of thousands of news, the Facebook pages are crowded, advertising is aggressive, phone calls and SMS are already very annoying. We just drown in the flow of information, in which even the best project can fail, and valuable information will be missed. There are only 8 seconds to get interested. How to determine, what is the most important thing? How to search for insights of a target audience? How do you highlight key points? Details are an excellence we will learn during the scholarship program.”

HealthLink’s activities aim at the general public to identify the maximum number of people with HIV. Sexual partners of PLHIV and representatives of risk groups are in a focus as well. Services are being implemented by peer-to-peer persons, so regional case-managers were selected based on their ability to work with specific target groups. Our key partners in the regions are also representatives of key communities: LGBT, commercial sex workers and people who inject drug.

Moreover, the “100% of Life’s” team is now making significant efforts to strengthen medical reform and, therefore, to launch a new model of patient care while changing the role of doctors themselves in order to fight against the HIV epidemic in Ukraine. The development of the E-Health system is additionally supported, and transparency of regional medicines procurement for patients living with HIV is also ensured.

The normative framework will also be improved soon to facilitate access to HIV self-testing, medical records of PLHIV, services for violence victims with a high risk of HIV transmission, palliative and hospice care for PLHIV on time, as well as to abolish the prohibition on adoption for HIV-infected people. Then, changes will be made to the regulation of criminal responsibility for the transmission of HIV in accordance with modern principles; models of the confidentiality status regarding tuberculosis will be developed; rules and practices on forced isolation of TB patients, who are not adherent to treatment, and other things will be improved.