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this page Introduction and Background
The Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) is a Faith Based regional Organization that was established in 1979 in Chilema, Malawi, by the Anglican Primates in Africa. Its goal is to coordinate and articulate issues affecting the Church and communities across the region. The Council operates in 12 Anglican Provinces in 25 African countries where the Church has its presence including the Diocese of Egypt. These Provinces are Burundi, Central Africa (Bostwana, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe), Congo, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Southern Africa (Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland), Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and West Africa (Ghana, Cameroon, Togo, Sierra Leone,).
CAPAs aims and objectives
- To help the Anglican Churches in Africa develop beneficial relationships between themselves and with the wider Anglican Communion;
- Provide a forum for the Church in Africa to share experiences, consult and support each other;
- Confer about common responsibilities on the African continent;
- Establish opportunities for collaboration and joint activities;
- Maintain and develop relationships between the Anglican Church in Africa, Partners, other Denominations, Fellowships, National and Regional Councils.
Vision of CAPA
A unified and self-sustaining Anglican Communion in Africa, providing holistic ministry to her members and fulfilling Gods promise for abundant life.
Mission of CAPA
CAPA exists to effectively coordinate and provide a platform for the Anglican Church in Africa to celebrate life, consult and address challenges in the continent in order to fulfil Gods promise for abundant life.
In the late 90s CAPA was affected with the burden of HIV/AIDS infections and its related challenges in all her Provinces and Dioceses. These include stigmatization and discrimination, lack of adequate care and support for those infected and affected, increasing funeral services for her members and lack of adequate knowledge and understanding about HIV/AIDS and high number of widows and orphans among others. To address these challenges two new programmes namely; Communications and HIV/AIDS Programme were established.
Aims of the Review
The aim of this desk review is to provide an overview of CAPA HIV/AIDS activities including successes and challenges that were experienced by various HIV/AIDS Programme stakeholders and implementers within the 12 Anglican Provinces in Africa and the Diocese of Egypt.
Scope and Methodology
This review is based on the written reports and testimonies that were provided and shared by the Provincial HIV/AIDS Directors, Advisers and Coordinators during CAPA HIV/AIDS meetings and other forums.
In this review, there is no information from the Diocese of Egypt, due to the gaps in communication. However, the review recognizes that activities on HIV/AIDS are ongoing especially among the refugees camps in the Diocese of Egypt.
CAPA was not able to travel to the different Provinces to collect information at the time of this review due to financial constraint.
It is important to mention that a lot of activities on HIV/AIDS are taking place, some of which were not captured by this review due to its nature as desk study.
The information documented in this review direct and reliably informed the plan activities in the second CAPA integrated 5 years Strategic Plan on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
CAPA will in the future do a more detailed and structured evaluation of her subsequent HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria activities using an agreed M & E tools by the stakeholders.
CAPA HIV/AIDS Programme
The initiative to address HIV/AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa was the vision of the former Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Revd. Hon George Carey, and the Primates of the Anglican Communion when they met at Kanuga Conference Centre, USA, in March 2001. The devastating reports presented at that meeting on the HIV/AIDS situation in Sub-Saharan Africa, moved the Primates to immediately discuss a response to the epidemic. In August 2001, a workshop was organised for the Provinces of Africa to discuss HIV/AIDS in the continent. CAPA Primates and other stakeholders within and outside the Church met at Boksburg, South Africa and came up with the first Strategic framework (2001-2005), entitled Planning our Response to HIV/AIDS: A Step by step guide to HIV/AIDS planning for the Anglican Communion which has been used to guide the Anglican Communion in their Provincial HIV/AIDS planning and responses.
The framework had a vision, mission and commission in the context of HIV/AIDS with specific areas of focus, namely; Prevention, Pastoral Care, Counselling, Care, Death and dying, Leadership.
In the same year (2001), the CAPA HIV/AIDS Board was established with representation from each of the 12 Provinces and the Diocese of Egypt. Most Provinces commenced effective implementation of the framework in 2002 by recruiting their respective programme personnel and established structure inline with the aims and objectives of the framework.
- CAPA stakeholders made several commitments which include:
- CAPA AIDS statement on VCT Board meeting (December 2001);
- Statement from CAPA AIDS Board (August 2002: Nairobi);
- Statement on HIV/AIDS from the meeting of the Primate of the Anglican Communion (April 2002);
- Pastoral letter from the Primate of the Anglican Communion (May: 2003).
CAPA HIV/AIDS Vision
We, the Anglican Communion across Africa, pledge ourselves to the promise that future generations will be born and live in a world free from AIDS.
Mission
Our mission is to respect the dignity of all people by:
- Securing the human rights of those infected by HIV/AIDS, and giving unconditional support;
- Improving the health and prolonging the lives of infected people;
- Supporting those who are dying to die with dignity and supporting those who are left behind;
- Celebrating life;
- Nurturing community and advocating for justice.
The Role of CAPA HIV/AIDS Programme
CAPA as the ecumenical hub for the Anglican Church in Africa, has the
responsibility to facilitate, advocate, train, and mobilize resources and
institutionalize appropriate policies and programmes that will improve
the quality of life for her community members through the Provinces and
Dioceses. In addition, create conducive environment for consultation and
co-operation within and
outside the Church.
CAPA has been involved in the following activities:
- Guide, advice and assist the 12 African Anglican Provinces in the implementation of the African Anglican AIDS initiative using appropriate management and technical resources;
- Enable the 12 Provinces and the Diocese of Egypt to make progress in their goal that future generations will be born in a world free from AIDS through the Anglican AIDS initiative;
- Coordinate managerial support and technical guidance for the Provinces to implement the six commission of the AIDS framework;
- Identify and facilitate access to resource for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria work in Provinces and Dioceses;
- Support and facilitate the development and implementation of Provincial HIV/AIDS Plans and responsive structures;
- Provision of resource for initial seed funds for most Provinces HIV/AIDS work;
- Mobilized resource for Provinces to implement various HIV/AIDS activities;
- Carried out a number of technical visits to Provinces;
- Establish linkages and networks between Provinces and development partners;
- Engaged in a number of International dialogue on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria;
- Monitor and evaluate Provincial HIV/AIDS work.
Programme Implementation Strategy
CAPA HIV/AIDS Programmes was implemented to strengthen the Provinces and Dioceses HIV/AIDS responses to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic in communities. The churchs core focus has been on behaviour change, care and support. Most efforts were invested on prevention and stigma reduction activities. This was aimed at contributing to the regional and national efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa.
The Provinces through the coordinating offices equipped and mobilised parishes to sensitise everyone on the basic facts and other information about HIV/AIDS transmission. The Church encouraged Christ-like compassion and care for those infected, to reduce stigma, denial and discrimination experienced by PLWHA and those affected by AIDS.
HIV/AIDS programme activities are coordinated at the Provincial level and implemented at the parish level under the supervision of the Diocese. In each of these levels there is a focal person mandated with the day-to-day responsibility of programme implementation.
CAPA provided overall programme guide and support to Provinces. They also engaged in advocacy and mentoring of staff to facilitate programme implementation.
The Provincial and Diocesan AIDS programme addressed the issues of prevention, capacity building, care and support, counselling, home based care, education and training.
The human resources (Clergy, Women, Youth and PLWHA) within respective Provinces and Dioceses developed different intervention strategies inline with Church and national programmes to mitigate the impact of AIDS.
Communication for Change
Accessing information is one of the major challenges facing the rapidly growing Anglican Church in Africa. A critical need was therefore identified in the year 2000 to assist Provinces in Africa re-engineer their communication strategies in order to incorporate Information Communication Technology (ICT) systems to support their administrative and communication activities. CAPA has established a Communication office that coordinate, mobilize and share information on socio- spiritual development and integration with the Church in Africa. Since then, there has been increased dissemination and access to information especially through emails. This has helped to support health and social information needs at the Provinces and Dioceses.
In addition, documentation of ongoing HIV/AIDS activities in the Provinces and Dioceses has been strengthened as a result of availability and utilization of ICT tools. CAPA newsletters, bulletins and publications dedicate sections to provide information on specific issues such as stigma reduction, AIDS care, and counselling and the growing problem of orphaned and vulnerable children.
Integration of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria
Tuberculosis and Malaria Programme have not yet been actively incorporated into the HIV/AIDS Programme. By mid 2004, the Church leaders met and agreed that tuberculosis and malaria component should be added to the existing HIV/AIDS programme. TB prevalence in Africa has increased rapidly with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
In some Provinces malaria and tuberculosis has been integrated into the existing HIV/AIDS programme. Various Church programmes are providing education on Malaria prevention, distribution of insecticide treated nets for under-five children and pregnant women.
CAPA has incorporated these components into her second strategic plan (2007 2011) in order to scale up HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria programme delivery at all levels of the Church in African.
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