The department has four sub programmes under its portfolio

Mentoring - this strategy entails one on one skills enhancement that ZAN staff or identified member organisations offer to a selected organisation for a defined duration of time until that ASO is able to continue operating properly on its own. Such assistance has been offered in governance, financial management, strategic planning, information technology organisational policy development and human resource management.

Our new strategy emphasizes utilisation of member skills in mentoring other members. The capacity assessment undertaken assisted in identifying areas of expertise for each member organisation that can be referred to in linking up needy organisations with mentors.

Technical support/ Student attachment
The department uses the intimate knowledge of membership by the Provincial Coordinators and results of capacity assessments to prioritise and design courses for enhancing technical competences of members. Top on the list is member training in:

• Monitoring and evaluation
• Strategic plannin
• Project planning and management

Equitable selection of members from across the provinces is done as members are invited to courses. Whenever possible and relevant training of trainer approach is used to ensure skills dissemination to the rest of the chapter members.

The student attachment program was borne out of the realisation that member organisations gets overwhelmed with programme implementation requirements while facing resource constraints that hinder them from engaging more staff. Thus ZAN engages students and pays for their allowances while they work at the member organisation for the whole duration of their attachment period.

Rollout of the Join In Circuit
ZAN has been implementing the Join In Circuit Project.
 The JIC is part of a wider campaign called "˜Don't Give AIDS a Chance" and it focuses on issues of love, sexuality as they relate to HIV and AIDS. The intention is to address issues of pleasure and joy in love relationships rather than just focusing on danger and risk. JIC is different from other programmes in that its approach is very interactive and is based on the use of a variety of communication strategies, such as games, pictures, role-plays, billboards, posters and postcards.
Implementation of this project entailed adaptation of materials, development of training manual, training of ZAN staff and stakeholders then training of local facilitators who would run JIC sessions in communities. This was done for six provinces and the remaining four provinces will be covered by end of 2008.
The project is funded by GTZ. They also provide technical assistance during training  and field back up
JIC training manual is available

Gender, sexuality and HIV Training project
This project was borne out of the realisation that organisations have approached the issue of HIV prevention from a gender neutral and superficial manner as far as the modes of transmission are concerned. This project explores the dynamics of human sexuality in a gender sensitive manner and implementation entailed development of training materials, training of facilitators and cascading of approach to grassroots communities. Work has been done in two provinces and rollout to other provinces is under way.
The project is funded by Africa Groups Of Sweden
Gender and sexuality course guide was compiled and is used for training.

Minigrants
The main purpose of this programme is to provide financial and material support to members as a way of building their capacity

Types Of Assistance Offered
Blankets, HBC kits, volunteer uniforms, OVC school fees, computers, printers, office furniture, bicycles. These were given to member organisations according to justified needs as expressed in their application forms. The applications were first screened by the chapter executive then a national selection committee before grant disbursements were made.  Priorities for assistance have been changing over the years. Each cycle has its own needs identification to maintain relevance. Five cycles have been conducted since 2003
The project was funded by CDC, Irish AD and SIDA.
 
Information exchange- this strategy will entail convening of trained organisations to share experiences on utilization of skills. Exchange visits will be facilitated for members to learn from successful good practices.

Interlinkages with other departments
The department derives course participants from the networking department that is directly in touch with the membership. The provincial level coordinators also offer back up support and monitoring for trained participants as well as monitoring usage of grants. The information department assists with computer maintenance for members receiving IT support.  The Capacity Building Advisor also assists the human resources department with technical training for staff.