Evidence for an enhanced HIV/AIDS policy and care in Cameroon: proceedings of the second Cameroon HIV Research Forum (CAM-HERO) 2021

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger, multi-sectoral strategies to improve nutrition are necessary. Building towards this goal, the food and agriculture sector must be considered when designing nutritional interventions. Nevertheless, most frameworks designed to guide nutritional interventions do not adequately capture opportunities for integrating nutrition interventions within the food and agriculture sector. This paper aims to highlight how deeply connected the food and agriculture sector is to underlying causes of malnutrition and identify opportunities to better integrate the food and agriculture sector and nutrition in low and middle income countries. In particular, this paper: (1) expands on the UNICEF conceptual framework for undernutrition to integrate the food and agriculture sector and nutrition outcomes, (2) identifies how nutritional outcomes and agriculture are linked in six important ways by defining evidence-based food and agriculture system components within these pathways: as a source of food, as a source of income, through food prices, women’s empowerment, women’s utilization of time, and women’s health and nutritional status, and (3) shows that the food and agriculture sector facilitates interventions through production, processing and consumption, as well as through farmer practices and behavior. Current frameworks used to guide nutrition interventions are designed from a health sector paradigm, leaving agricultural aspects not sufficiently leveraged. This paper concludes by proposing intervention opportunities to rectify the missed opportunities generated by this approach. Program design should consider the ways that the food and agriculture sector is linked to other critical sectors to comprehensively address malnutrition. This framework is designed to help the user to begin to identify intervention sites that may be considered when planning and implementing multi-sectoral nutrition program

Political instability and hiv/aids response in the south west and north west regions of Cameroon: a qualitative study

Abstract Background Politically motivated violence and insecurity continue to be a major threat to progress in HIV epidemic control and a significant contributor to health inequality. Despite a decreasing HIV/AIDS disease burden, the Republic of Cameroon in West Africa is experiencing ongoing political instability in her North and South West Regions. Our study used qualitative methods to better understand key frontline health care providers’ (fHCP) perceptions of the effects of political instability on HIV/AIDS response gains in Cameroon since 2018, as well as lessons learned for overcoming them. Methods Between July and August 2022, semi-structured, in-depth key informant interviews involving 10 purposively selected participants were conducted in the two regions. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, coded thematically, and analyzed manually. Results Six overarching themes emerged from the transcribed key informant interviews. They were as follows: Challenge with access to and availability of health care services (HIV care, commodity supply chain) in the smaller communities; Impact on continuity of treatment; Increased risk of new HIV infections; The socioeconomic impact of the crisis on the quality of life; The impact of the crisis on fHCPs’ physical and mental health and the health system’; and Coping mechanisms. Conclusions Frontline healthcare workers have acknowledged the significant impact the current political instability has had in hindering the development and advancement of a successful local response to HIV/AIDS in the two impacted regions of Cameroon. Coordinated efforts must be made to strengthen the health sector in areas such as HIV healthcare decentralization, supply chain, and protecting frontline healthcare workers from political quagmires in order to lessen the impact of the nation’s socio-political crisis on the HIV/AIDS response and, more generally, on the entire health sector