The principal aim of the project is to improve the services provided by a large variety of public and private non-profit organizations working in the field of HIV/Aids. While in general the work of these organizations is competent and professional, it is hoped to achieve further progress by stimulating a process of organizational learning for preventing the spread of HIV and improving the conditions of people already suffering from Aids.

A great deal of information about organizations working with HIV/Aids has become available as the result of a cross-national comparative study on the organizational response to HIV/Aids in eight European countries. The results of this research which was carried out by the European Centre for Social Welfare on behalf of the World Health Organization, is the basis of the present project which is being carried out in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. Using the experience gained in the preceding large scale investigation, suitably updated, the current project uses a method of facilitating organizational learning called Group Feed- back Analysis (GFA) carried out in four phases during ten meetings over two years. Group Feed-back Analysis concentrates on dissonant experience and data, that is to say inconsistencies or conflicts or differences of behaviour, policies, priorities, experiences, values and ideology in relation to the handling of this disease.

Previous research has established that people faced with dissonant information are motivated to analyse the reasons for the inconsistencies and to reduce them whenever possible. The project starts with separate meetings of "experts" from each country to establish to validity of the data and to agree on the nature of the dissonant problems.

The problems are divided into four areas: policy, epidemiology and people issues, organizational issues and collaboration & integration. In each area the problems are categorized as solved or unsolved The second phase meeting brings the four country teams together to develop a deeper understanding of the dissonances and to discuss similarities and diffences between the four countries. Phase III goes back to each of the countries to work on their own dissonances and see whether any cross-country experience from Phase II can be included in the learning process and in the preparation for the final Phase IV cross national meeting. The final meeting has two objectives; firstly a narrowing of dissonances, that is to say a movement from unsolved to solved issues and, secondly, an attempt to use the established insight for the purpose of making policy suggestions in anticipation of the next five years.

At the end of the first year we have achieved the objectives for phases one and two as set out above. A significant number of dissonant issues have been identified and analysed, some of them common to several countries. Other issues are apparently unique to one country or one stage of development, but are subject to further consideration in phases III and IV.