Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI Programmes with Sex Workers Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI Programmes with | Page 184

6 Programme Management and Organizational Capacity-building

Non-sex worker staff: Training goals for non-sex worker programme staff include:
• acquainting the staff with the specifics of the project (e.g. intervention, reporting forms)
• building technical skills in new areas (e.g. examining for anal and oral STIs, counselling issues
related to sex work)
• orienting staff to the issues of sex work and the overall goal of transferring skills and responsibilities
to the sex worker community. This may require a change in staff members’ attitudes toward sex
workers (sexuality, morality of sex work, etc.).
Some approaches to capture programme lessons include:
• routine visits for programme managers to learn about local innovations and transfer lessons to
other sites
• regularly scheduled programme reviews with several implementing organizations together; they
may also be used for cross-sharing
• cross-site meetings of technical officers to share approaches
• formal revision of programme approaches, minimum standards, standard operating procedures
and reporting forms.
Sex worker staff: The programme goal is to increasingly involve sex workers in the management
of the programme and to capacitate them to address some of the environmental and structural
constraints that inhibit preventive behaviour. Training objectives are to strengthen the capacity of
the sex workers to do outreach, increasingly manage all aspects of outreach and to move into other
staff positions in the programme, including management. This can be phased as basic and advanced
training. More details can be found in Chapter 3, Section 3.2.2 part B.
Although non-sex worker staff and sex worker staff may differ in their types and levels of experience,
wherever possible training should take place jointly so that all participants can learn from one another
and bridge the gaps in their knowledge and skills in a collaborative manner.

6.4 Staff development
Several good practices have been articulated to ensure that staffing is optimal and that staff are
motivated and satisfied by their work. These practices include:
• clear job descriptions and roles and responsibilities for all positions in the programme, including
sex worker positions
• clear reporting lines showing to whom each person is accountable
• team-building and a culture of mentoring
• clear criteria for performance reviews
• clear policies on leave, travel reimbursement, and remuneration for work, including equitable
policies for sex workers. Ideally, these should be uniform across a country
• opportunities for training for different positions in the organization, such as outreach supervisor,
clinic assistant, nursing, counselling, social work, office manager.

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