THE PLATFORM

The ELSA platform aims at achieving the following goals :

• being an instrument for south-south, north-south and south-north co-operation between AIDS fighting NGOs in France and Africa;

• being a mediator in representation and support of the interests, needs and expectations from people actually living with AIDS in developing countries, while working with local associations involved in fighting HIV/AIDS.

Working as an associative platform offers several advantages:

For African partner associations:
To act for a significant development of general and community-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS.
To widen co-operation with partners from the North, each able to lend its specific skills and expertise.
To foster exchanges of knowledge and know-how along South-South and North-South lines.
To propose a structured and complementary offering of experience and knowledge.
To increase recognition by governments and the international donors of the role and purpose of associations with respect to national programs for access to treatment.

For French associations:
To formalize, organize and optimize a common project : to increase the effectiveness of associations in hosting partners from the South, as well as to optimize logistics, human and financial resources.
To create a common space for collaboration and communication.
To benefit from the expertise of each association and thus offer more effective support to associations.
To encourage closer co-operations between association efforts and public action of France in the struggle against AIDS.

The platform was created in order to develop the following programs:

• organization of internships for African partners in France
In three years, the ELSA program plans to allow 16 African partners to come to France to follow a training session that suits their needs. A specific expertise is indeed available in developed countries, due to the greater experience in access to treatments. The training sessions also provides an opportunity to meet their French partners (associations and institutions) and organize working sessions.

• Assistance for experience sharing through South-South internships
In order to disseminate and promote African actors’ experience and knowledge on issues such as prevention, medical and psychological care, project management, etc., ELSA sets up South-South exchange programs. They consist in 45 training sessions organized in three years for African actors in different African NGOs.

• Optimization of logistic resources for the distribution of drugs, condoms and equipment
The logistical co-ordination enables the gathering of material from collects and purchases bound for African partners. The shipments include prevention material, antiretroviral treatments, or working material such as computers or specialised documentation. Two to three shipments are organized every month.

• Co-ordination of exploratory missions to African NGOs
The ELSA platform leads, on a partnership basis, joint missions to African countries, in order to strengthen and create links with African partners. New partners can then benefit from financial support allocated by Sidaction and Solidarité Sida according to the programs implemented on the field.

The co-operation between the French members has greatly developed in the field of technical operations set up by the platform. Those operations also implied other structures as hosting structures for trainees (ACT UP, REMED, French hospitals, ACTION AID UK, ARAS Romania…). After three and a half years of existence, the platform managed to create a common space for reflection and was able to put forward its specific skills : improvement of the quality of exchanges between associations, set up of over 90 internships/training sessions, organization of over 75 shipments towards 25 African associations, realization of 5 exploratory missions and 3 follow-up missions, which helped investment and running support for new partners through the financial involvement of Sidaction and Solidarité Sida up to €360 000. The ELSA Platform also allowed the valorization of African associations’ expertise by offering greater visibility and greater legitimacy for associations to apply for other funding opportunities.