DESIGNING LOCALLY APPROPRIATE SERVICE MODELS

Toolkit: Scaling Up HIV-Related Legal Services

Participatory needs assessments may involve consultations with: 1 Local nongovernmental organizations and community-based groups, including organizations of people living with HIV and those representing key populations. 2 Government legal aid services, where they exist, and other nongovernment legal service providers. 3 Local lawyers, judges, the police and prosecution services. 4 Human rights organizations, including national human rights institutions (human rights commissions and ombudsmen), where they exist. 5 The National AIDS Commission and any provincial or local AIDS committees. Photo credit: UNAIDS/P. Virot

A comprehensive situation analysis and needs assessment should examine the following issues: 1 Which populations in the local community are most affected by HIV? 2 What legal and HIV services already exist for these populations and who is providing them? 3 What legal services are most required by these populations? What violations of legal rights are commonly faced by these populations? Do these violations contribute directly to HIV risk or vulnerability? Are these legal problems HIV-related? 4 Is legal aid available from the government? What capacities do government legal aid services have to respond appropriately to the legal needs of people living with HIV and key populations? 5 How should services respond to the differing needs in rural and urban settings? 6 How should services respond to differing needs in high HIV prevalence and low HIV prevalence areas? 7 Are there geographic or other obstacles to access to legal services that need to be considered in designing services for specific populations? 8 Are alternative dispute resolution procedures available, including traditional, religious or informal village-based systems, and how well would these procedures respond to the legal needs of people living with HIV and key populations? 9 Who are the potential partners and referral points for legal services? 10 What financial, technical and human resources are available for HIV legal services? 11 What capacity do existing and planned organizations have to absorb funds and deliver services effectively? The design process can help to define the goals, outcomes and outputs for the HIV-related legal services (see the example of a design framework in Appendix 4). A thorough needs assessment can help to ensure that services are delivered to the people who most need them and to the places where they are most needed. It can also provide a baseline of needs, which can be used in later years when evaluating the HIV-related legal service.

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