Description:

North Star is a public-private partnership established in November 2006 by commercial logistics provider TNT and the UN World Food Programme (WFP). The group of core supporters has since been expanded to include the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), UNAIDS and international logistics systems developer ORTEC.

Further information:

www.northstar-alliance.org

Dilemma: Dealing with transport-specific dynamics

Transport workers are particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, and their role as a vector of HIV and other diseases poses two main challenges to transport and logistics companies, as well as those who rely on them (whether for commercial, humanitarian or public purposes). The first is the loss of skilled employees to AIDS faster than their replacements can be trained. The second is the risk that in the process of delivering goods, people or aid, HIV is potentially being introduced into recipient communities.

Specific challenges facing North Star relate to the unique nature and dynamics of the groups that it was trying to target its prevention and treatment efforts at. These include:

• The itinerant work and living conditions of transport workers, obstructing the management of patient records, and the ability of transport workers to attend regular check-ups and treatment
• Transport workers' multiple interactions with different population groups, including sex workers, making them, their families and casual partners particularly vulnerable to HIV/AIDS

Good practice: Providing front-line prevention and treatment to transport workers, sex workers and local communities

North Star is using best practice supply chain management, network technology and inside knowledge of the transport industry to establish a network of Wellness Centres along major transport routes in Africa. These are modelled on an original project between the WFP and TNT to establish a drop-in 'Wellness Centre' at the Mwanza border crossing (with Mozambique) in Malawi as a shared response to the threat of HIV/AIDS to the transport sector and related communities. In 2007, TNT, the WFP and the ITF joined together to expand the programme across southern and eastern Africa - and ultimately to the whole of the continent. They were joined in their efforts in 2009 by ORTEC. North Star and Maplecroft have worked together to decide the location of Wellness Centres by using GIS mapping to match major transport routes against areas with a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

Wellness Centres, which are supported by a number of sponsors including Chevron and Shell, are aimed at providing prevention and treatment to transport workers, sex workers and the broader transport community. They do so using:

• Local counsellors to run behaviour-change communication strategies
• Clinical services for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), as well other target group-specific issues such as hypertension and poor nutrition
• A proprietary ICT system to allow patient data to 'travel' with patients as they navigate transport routes, and to gather key performance indicators

Results: Delivering education, STI treatment, HIV testing and condoms

Every year each Wellness Centre carries out 6,000-8,000 education sessions, 2,500-3,500 STI treatments and 1,500-2,000 VCT referrals. Each centre also distributes 150,000 condoms.

According to figures from the Wellness Centre at the Mwanza border post, around 46% of attendees at the Wellness Centres are truck drivers, 7.5% are sex workers, 16.5% are female community members and 30% are male community members.

Wellness Centre interventions in South Africa have been able to achieve an average reduction in STI prevalence of 17% among drivers, sex workers and community members.