The Parliamentary Committee on Gender and Children has worked on improving parliament's role in the national fight against HIV/AIDS. In March, 2006 at our regular Legislative Series[1] members of the Gender Committee with cross-section of MPs from Health, Employment & Social Welfare as well as the Committee on Education interacted with the Ghana AIDS Commission  on the theme: Breaking the Chain of HIV/AIDS in Ghana: the Role of Parliament. The forum promoted improved networking by the Committee with the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) and expert stakeholders, as it increased information base for work of the committee.

The interaction informed a decision for a subcommittee study visit to the Parliament of Uganda where they learned and shared some best practices and strategies to improve parliaments input in the fight against HIV/AIDS. These lessons were later shared with colleagues during a committee meeting. Also, individuals and/or the Committee have embarked on the following activities to deepen the role of  Parliament in fighting HIV/AIDS:

• constituency sensitization and voluntary HIV status testing;
• committee discussed recommendations of the study visit report and briefed the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) on lessons learnt from the trip;
• request to GAC to produce communication toolkit on HIV/AIDS for Parliament;
• conducted oversight field visit to selected stakeholder sites- Tema General Hospital, the AIDS Support Association, and Unilever's workplace HIV/AIDS programme.

The visit also specifically fostered improved linkages between the two parliamentary institutions and helped transfered best practices for improved governance and accountability.

Key recommendations from the HIV/AIDS study visit

The following recommendations are aimed at centralising the role of parliament in the national HIV/AIDS strategy:

• Active voluntary parliamentary group on HIV/AIDS to liaise with stakeholders and keep Parliaments/MPs continually informed;
• Parliament should mandate a parliamentary committee to work closely with the Ghana AIDS Commission and report regularly to Parliament the situation HIV/AIDS in Ghana;
• Collaborates with the Ghana AIDS Commission to produce an HIV/AIDS Communication Tool kit for Parliament;
• Specific percentage (%) allocation of the annual budget to HIV/AIDS;

Work in progress

The Canadian Parliamentary Centre and the Ghana AIDS Commission are partnering to produce a communication toolkit on HIV/AIDS for Parliament.