Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI Programmes with Sex Workers Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI Programmes with | Page 19

Introduction

Chapter 1 Community Empowerment is the foundation of the tool. This chapter describes how
empowerment of the sex worker community is both an intervention in itself, and also essential to
effective planning, implementation and monitoring of all aspects of HIV and STI prevention, treatment
and care.
Chapter 2 Addressing Violence against Sex Workers focuses on one of the most urgent needs
of sex workers: to be protected from violence, discrimination, abuse and other forms of humanrights violation. The effectiveness of HIV/STI prevention interventions is often compromised when
interventions to address violence are not implemented concurrently.
Chapter 3 Community-led services: Like community empowerment, a community-led approach
to planning, delivering and monitoring services for sex workers is essential to make programmes
more effective and sustainable. This chapter describes the principles of community-led services and
shows how they are applied to outreach, safe spaces (drop-in centres) and programme oversight.
Chapter 4 Condom and Lubricant Programming presents a detailed description of how to plan
and implement the provision of male and female condoms and lubricants, using the approaches
outlined in the previous chapters. The chapter covers planning for and managing adequate supplies,
multi-level promotion of the commodities, and creating an enabling environment.
Chapter 5 Clinical and Support Services presents detailed descriptions of fundamental prevention,
treatment and care interventions, incorporating the approaches outlined in the previous chapters. The
services described include voluntary HIV testing and counselling, antiretroviral therapy, treatment
of STIs and co-infections, such as tuberculosis and viral hepatitis, and additional services, such as
for sexual and reproductive health, harm reduction for sex workers who inject drugs, post-rape care
and mental health.
Chapter 6 Programme Management and Organizational Capacity-Building provides practical
guidance on planning, starting, scaling up, managing and monitoring an effective programme from
two perspectives: (1) a large multi-site programme with centralized management and multiple
implementing organizations, and (2) local community groups seeking to start or expand services.

What are the key elements of each chapter?
Each chapter begins with an introduction that defines the topic and explains why it is important. The
introduction presents one or more of the 2012 Recommendations, where relevant, and in some
chapters underlying principles are also presented. Interventions are described in detail, broken
down into stages or steps, wherever possible, to make them easy to follow. Topics or points of
particular interest are presented in text boxes. Case examples from programmes around the world
are presented in shaded boxes. These examples do not describe an entire programme in detail, since
numerous publications address common programmatic issues, but they highlight specific aspects
related to sex worker programming that have worked well in their contexts. The purpose of the case
examples is to illustrate how an issue or challenge has been addressed, and to inspire ideas about
approaches that could work in the reader’s own context. The forms, charts, etc. presented from
various programmes have the same purpose. Each chapter ends with a list of resources—tools,
guidelines and other practical publications—that are available online; and further reading—journal
articles and other publications—that provide a research or academic perspective on some of the
points made in the chapters.

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