About CMA:
The Civil-Military Alliance to Combat HIV and AIDS (CMA) is a
technical consulting group addressing health and security issues and, in
particular, HIV/AIDS prevention and training in the uniformed services -
and in humanitarian emergencies, post-conflict and peacekeeping settings.
Purpose
- The purpose of the Alliance is to promote inter-sectoral
cooperation in combating HIV/AIDS and closely related diseases -
sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis - though the promotion
of effective health and prevention policies, strategies and training
programmes in both civilian populations and the uniformed services.
- The Alliance supports HIV/AIDS prevention, care and training
among the "uniformed services". These encompass military, police,
paramilitary, civil defence and civil protection forces, and
peacekeeping forces (at home and during foreign deployment); and their
families and communities.
Short Term Objectives:
- to collect, analyse and disseminate information useful in the
control of STIs and HIV/AIDS in the uniformed services;
- to encourage a prevention focus on HIV/AIDS in all these
uniformed services;
- to develop an advocacy for a commitment to STI and AIDS
prevention and care;
- to encourage the operational research and epidemiology needed to
reach these goals;
- to publish research projects, planning and training materials
useful to this population;
- to assemble and adapt documentation resources, teaching modules,
research data and reports;
- to gather and make available policy recommendations;
- to encourage and facilitate the exchange of such information
among key military police and civil bodies; and
- to provide culturally specific HIV/AIDS prevention
courses/education to uniformed forces personnel - including medical and
nursing officers of U.N. and other international peacekeeping forces -
at home and during foreign deployment and travel.
Long Term Objectives:
1. Collaboration between the uniformed services and national AIDS
programmes
- to facilitate cooperation between the national AIDS control
programme and the AIDS programmes of the military/uniformed services in
all countries;
- to encourage examination of cultural risk factors that contribute
to HIV transmission;
- to work on issues concerning armed forces, women in these
services, wives/military families, children, communities and sex workers
near military installations;
- to encourage education, prevention and care programmes for
uniformed personnel; and
- to promote work on issues of demobilisation and civil-military
cooperation in the national struggle against HIV/AIDS.
2. Sharing Assistance within the Sectors
- to encourage leaders in the uniformed services to exchange useful
information on how successful prevention and control programmes are
structured, and
- to suggest policy options appropriate for the wider communities
in which they live.
3. AIDS Prevention in Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Emergencies
- The prevention of HIV transmission involving UN/multinational
peacekeeping personnel.
- HIV prevention and behaviour change for all affected populations
and international personnel involved in post-conflict and humanitarian
emergencies.
- Continuing analysis of security, risk and vulnerability factors
that affect the local population and international agency staff in
regions most heavily affected.
4. Long-term Policies and Regional Stability
- To monitor the strategic implications of the epidemic - such as
the potential for contributing to regional instability through the
erosion of military preparedness, and the enhanced risk of HIV
transmission in humanitarian emergencies; and
- to support an open examination of the policy issues that are
critical for a rational approach to HIV/AIDS prevention and care in the
uniformed services and in humanitarian operations.
The CMA is a partner in the Complex Emergency Response and
Transition Initiative (CERTI) collaborative network, together with other
agencies that are active in the field. These include the U.S.
Agency for International Development (USAID); the George Washington
Center for International Health at George Washington University; the
Center for Refugee and Disaster Studies at the Johns Hopkins University;
the Human Security Program, Harvard Center for Population and
Development Studies, and the Program in Humanitarian Crises, Francois
Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, both associated with the
Harvard University School of Public Health; and the Tulane Center for
International Resource Development, Tulane University School of Public
Health, and the Payson Center for International Development and
Technology Transfer, Tulane Institute for International Development
