Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI Programmes with Sex Workers Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI Programmes with | Page 186

6 Programme Management and Organizational Capacity-building

Box 6.8

The role of community empowerment in capacity-building
The role of capacity-building is to institutionalize support for sex workers and to further empower these
groups to lead their own responses. This is important in two respects:
• Because many sex worker populations are migratory and those responsible for the interventions may not
remain with the organization in the long term, creating an organizational structure provides consistency
over time and processes to ensure that key people are replaced if they leave.
• Although community empowerment supported by others may involve communities making their own
decisions, such organizations are still led by outsiders. Organizations led by sex workers are not beholden
to external forces and will, therefore, be empowering by definition.
Note that not all sex worker groups will (or should) become independent organizations. It is up to each
community of sex workers to define its own way forward. This may entail the development of a CBO or
NGO, but some organizations may find it easier and more appropriate to continue to work through other
organizations.

6.6 Forming a registered organization
Chapter 1, Section 1.2.3 describes some of the ways sex worker organizations or collectives may
be formed. Such organizations are likely at first to be informal groupings that then create structures
and processes in order to carry out a community-led agenda more effectively.
Depending on the organization’s type, size and goals, as well as the country in which it is forming, it
may decide to become a legally registered entity. The process to do this varies from country to country.
It is important that the organization have a clear understanding of its expectations with respect to size,
geographic reach, types of activities, etc. Mission and vision statements and a strategy statement
or strategic plan help an organization to define these elements.
Most countries have NGO coordinating bodies that offer advice or guidance through the process of
forming a formal organization. Networks of AIDS service organizations include the Asia Pacific Council
of AIDS Service Organizations (APCASO) and the African Council of AIDS Service Organizations
(AfriCASO). In individual countries, networks that cover all sectors, for example the Botswana Council
of Non-Governmental Organizations (BOCONGO) and the Namibia NGO Forum (NANGOF), can also
provide information.10 Sex worker-led organizations in neighbouring countries or regional networks of
sex worker-led organizations can also often provide advice and support on dealing with registration
and overcoming the barriers that face sex workers registering their own organizations.
The necessary registration materials must be obtained from the relevant government office.
Precise requirements for documentation are set out by the government. Examples of the types of
documentation required are:
• one of the following: memorandum of association, by-laws, constitution, charter, etc.
• report of annual activities
10 APCASO: www.apcaso.org
AfriCASO: www.africaso.net
BOCONGO: www.bocongo.org.bw
NANGOF: www.nangoftrust.org.na/

164