In September 2000 the Japan Trust Fund for HIV and AIDS (JTF) was established within IPPF with funds from the Government of Japan.

Building on the philosophy and principles outlined in the Okinawa Infectious Diseases Initiative1, the aim of the JTF is to assist IPPF Member Associations and Regional Offices to strengthen their institutional capacity to tackle issues related to HIV and AIDS and to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights, as well as to implement effective programmes for the prevention and management of HIV and sexually transmitted infections.

With a view to enhancing Member Associations’ capacity in HIV/AIDS related activities, the JTF financial support was complemented on an annual basis by a regional training programme focusing on HIV advocacy, project planning and proposal development. The training programme aimed to foster greater collaboration among southern partners (south-south cooperation).

Since 2000, more than 190 representatives from Member Associations in the Africa, South Asia, and East and South East Asia and Oceania regions have participated in this annual training programme.

The key objective of the regional training programme was to increase participants’ knowledge on key aspects of HIV programming and to assist them in gaining practical knowledge and skills in project proposal development for STI and HIV prevention and care projects.

Drawing on experience and practice, IPPF has developed a set of tools to help Member Associations develop HIV project proposals (tools which IPPF believes will now be beneficial to share with a wider audience).

This guide contains the key modules used in the JTF training on HIV project planning and proposal development. In this way it facilitates the access of more Member Associations to this information and, where appropriate, enables this information to be shared with their local partners and colleagues.