Having analysed the results of your assessment, the next step is to decide what your organization will or will not do in relation to HIV/AIDS-related treatment. This process involves using the analysis of your results to set priorities for the future. This lays the foundations for developing polices and strategies to put the work into action.

It is important to decide who should be involved in making the decision when setting priorities. Decision-making about what to do will be more effective if you involve all those concerned, particularly those that will be directly affected by the work. They include:

• families
• community leaders
• staff, volunteers and trustees
• donors
• people living with HIV/AIDS
• other NGOs
• government.

The involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS in the decision-making process, as well as at all other stages, is especially important.

After the analysis of your assessment of needs and resources, the gaps in HIV/AIDS-related treatment will be clear. In fact, there might be a long list of things to do to improve the quality and coverage of treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. Clearly, one group cannot meet all of those needs on its own.

When making your decision, it is important to set priorities that fit your organization's mission and are realistic and sustainable. The key priorities should be the ones that, based on your assessment, you believe will make the biggest difference.

Some important questions to think about:

• What have you learned about the priority needs of people living with HIV/AIDS?

• What are the main barriers to access to treatment?

• What is already happening to improve access to treatment?

• What still needs to be done to improve access to treatment?

• What are your organization's advantages and disadvantages in working on HIV/AIDS-related treatment?

• What work is realistic for your organization, considering its technical skills, other resources, and aims and objectives?

• Will what you are planning be sustainable - for example, in terms of the cost and the policy environment?

Further information on this subject can be found in an information sheet, 'Thinking creatively about what you can do - treatment in context', on page 112 at the end of this chapter.

Participatory group activity

Aim

To decide what your organization will and will not do in relation to HIV/AIDS-related treatment work.

Instructions

1. Explain the aim of the activity.

2. Ask participants to identify the four to six types of HIV/AIDS-related treatment needs that emerged as priorities from their assessments.

3. Write the treatment needs down the lefthand side of a piece of flipchart paper. Write criteria for prioritizing them across the top. Examples might include relevance, feasibility and sustainability. Draw in the lines to form a grid.

4. Ask participants to give each treatment a score, according to how much it meets the criterion. If it meets the criterion very well, give it three ticks. If it meets it quite well, give it two. If it meets it poorly, give it one.

5. Ask participants to identify the one or two treatments with the highest scores.

6. Ask participants to decide how their organization will provide that treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS in the community. Ask them to write a sentence summarizing what their organization will do.

7. Discuss what can be concluded about the organization's decision about what it will and will not do about HIV/AIDS-related treatment work.

Facilitators' notes

• Ensure that participants discuss each treatment and criterion in depth, as the prioritization process is vital and should not be rushed.

• Ensure that participants continually refer back to the results of their assessment, to ensure that their prioritization reflects the real needs and resources of the community.

Example