Uganda’s HIV/AIDS success story: truth or myth?

Uganda’s response to the devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic in a resource constrained setting has been acclaimed as a global model. The focus on Uganda resulted from the 1995 announcement of the declining national HIV sero prevalence rates.

The announcement brought a lot of international focus on Uganda's approaches and interventions especially on the adopted HIV prevention approach;
the ABC (A=Abstinence, B=Being faithful to one partner, C=Condom use).

However, during the 2000 national strategic planning exercise, it was acknowledged that the declining trends could not be attributed to neither one single intervention nor one stakeholder but was rather a result of concerted efforts by a multiplicity of partners from various sectors

Many people, from inside and outside Uganda, have raised many questions about this success story: many acknowledge the success and seek to scale-up on what works, some put it down to a modest achievement since the prevalence rate is still high, while others dispute the story calling it a myth. It would also appear that perceptions on Uganda's success also depend on what one refers to as success not just reference to hard data relating to declining trends. Casting the achievements against the background in which the response has evolved also provides a deeper understanding of the situation. Uganda welcomes constructive criticism to its approaches and inputs from various partners at national and international levels have informed decision making process at various levels

To Ugandans, the success story was met with both enthusiasm and apprehension: It was a sign that the tireless efforts were paying off and indeed an indicator that AIDS can be conquered; but has also since been a source fear for complacency at individual and institution level in scaling up and sustaining the fight against the deadly epidemic.

This page provides forum for sharing information about Uganda's achievement focusing on the debate on the success story and also issues related to the ABC model
For more information read documents below:( .pdf)
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