This program, a successor to the Regional Outreach for Addressing AIDS through Development Strategies (ROADS) project, is implemented under a Leader with Associates (LWA) cooperative agreement, where Family Health International (FHI) is the holder of the Leader Award and DAI is a subcontractor to FHI.

ROADS II, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, operates in nine East African countries: five PEPFAR focus countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) and four non-focus countries (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, and Sudan). It has two objectives: to increase access to multisectoral HIV/AIDS, health, and related services for mobile populations and vulnerable communities along major transport corridors; and to increase African regional institutions’ capacity to assist in scaling up best practices and applying lessons learned in HIV and health.

DAI is contributing in two areas: food security, and the economic strengthening of AIDS-vulnerable communities. We focus on increasing household food production, building savings and access to credit and other financial services, and linking affected households into business activities in mainstream value chains that will enhance the food security of participating communities.

The economic activities of most ROADS II beneficiaries lie in low-yield subsistence agriculture and low-margin petty trade. Most of these households are further disadvantaged by the recent deaths of working members, poor agricultural skills, inadequate access to inputs, the inability to raise the capital required to grow microenterprises, and the dissolution of safety nets that would allow them to recover from accidents or illnesses. They are stuck in a poverty trap, eking out a living by, for example, selling poor-quality sunflower oil or peddling water bottles at truck stops. Adverse living conditions force many of these low-income women and youths to engage in transactional sex, furthering exposing them and their partners to HIV infection.

With FHI, DAI is rolling out a program to empower members of these communities to improve their lives through savings groups, business skills training, and participation in higher-value local and regional industries, with the goal of building their resilience and reducing the risks they face in securing their livelihoods.

DAI’s technical and regional experience in this area is informed by our work on the Urban Agriculture Program for HIV-Affected Women in Ethiopia and its successor, the Urban Gardens for HIV-Affected Women and Children project.