Community Advisory Board
Introduction:
Since 1992, Siaap has directly worked with populations at risk and with infected people to provide resources for prevention and care, to advocate for inclusive policies that respect the sensitivities and rights of affected people; and to build upon their skills to plan and implement HIV prevention and care programmes within their own communities. The central strategy in all interventions is to assist communities to takeover, wherever possible. Thus work initiated with Women Selling Sex and with Men who have Sex with Men in Tamil Nadu has been handed over to 24 organisations (sangams) and two federations of these communities. Siaap is currently in the process of strengthening these federations that will largely takeover the responsibility for advocacy and capacity building.
Siaap believes that Community led initiatives should be relevant, effective, and sustainable and have to be fostered to complement NGO efforts. In this context Siaap established a Community Advisory Board (CAB). The CAB is a group of community representatives and people from various walks of life whose purpose is to provide community perspectives and to make Siaap more accountable to the community.
Constitution of the of the CAB:
The Community Advisory Board is an 8-member committee, consisting of
- 4 representatives from the federations, (2 each from MSM and Women Federations)
- 2 senior representatives from Community Based Organisations (CBOs), (Mr.Sekar & Ms.Meera)
- 1 Siaap trustee (Dr.Rangarajan)
- 1 Siaap staff (Ms. Lavanya, Advocacy Officer)
Responsibilities:
CAB members meet once a month at Chennai to provide community perspectives on the following:
- Community activities of Siaap – to ensure that they remain attentive to the communities concerns, needs and priorities
- Relevance to the community – to ensure that all activities of Siaap has relevance to community needs
- To guide Siaap in planning and monitoring community related activities
- Guide and ensure action on priority issues of the community
- Guide organisations in decision making processes during conflict situation
- Identify opportunities for federations to expand activities