title: State-civil society partnerships for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention in Ghana: exploring factors associated with successes and challenges.
abstract: The past decade has seen an increased number of state-civil society partnerships in the global Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) response of many countries. However, there has been limited research carried out concerning the successes and challenges of these partnerships.
  
  
  
  In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 23 participants from 21 different state-civil society partnerships throughout Ghana including all three major geographical zones (Northern, Middle, and Southern zones) to examine the nature of these partnerships and their positive and negative effects in responding to the national HIV/AIDS epidemic.
  
  
  
  Major themes included: 1) commitment by the government and civil society organizations to work cooperatively in order to support the development and implementation of HIV/AIDS interventions in Ghana; 2) the role of civil society organizations in facilitating community mobilization; capacity building; and information, resources and skills exchange to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of these partnerships for HIV prevention and treatment; and 3) significant challenges including funding issues and other structural barriers for these partnerships that need to be addressed moving forward.
  
  
  
  Future research should focus on examining the impact of recommended changes on state-civil partnerships and studying the extent and nature of these partnerships in other countries in order to establish the generalizability of the findings from this study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Sciences, School of Allied Health Sciences, University for Development Studies, P.O. 1883, Tamale, N/R, Ghana. marthush7@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6127-4150
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hushie
authors.affiliation: College of Education, University of Ghana, P.O. Box LG 1181, Legon, Accra, Ghana.
authors.forename: Cephas N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Omenyo
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, The Miriam Hospital, 164 Summit Avenue, Providence, RI, 02906, USA.
authors.forename: Jacob J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: van den Berg
authors.affiliation: Division of Infectious Diseases, The Miriam Hospital, 164 Summit Avenue, Providence, RI, 02906, USA.
authors.forename: Michelle A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Lally
mesh_terms: D005869:Ghana; D006077:Government Agencies; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D009938:Organizations; D055818:Public-Private Sector Partnerships; D036301:Qualitative Research
keywords: Ghana; HIV/AIDS response; Qualitative research; State-civil society partnerships