Institutional Background Information Hodi, established in 1996, was set up with a deliberate policy of servicing remote rural communities through capacity building of community based organisations using livelihood strategies as a means of achieving its objective.  Hodi preferred approach is one where the community drives their development process through established community structures and using their preferred activities and timelines.  Since 1996 Hodi has been empowering the civil society in Zambia to carry out community-based HIV activities primarily in rural areas. It has become an accomplished intermediary between Zambian Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs), on the one hand, and large donors and local government units.   The bulk of Hodi’s experience has been obtained from its traditional areas of work with rural communities.  Hodi has discovered the importance of long term investment in community institutional structures.  Ordinarily, Hodi has been in a community for a minimum of 6 years where organisational structures and systems have been used and adapted to anchor livelihood activities.  This long term partnership has on one hand given the community a sense of ownership and authority over the development process and its overall outcome and on the other hand a relationship of trust.    This relationship has allowed the development process to transform, and not remain static.  Read More.. Organisational Structure   Although Hodi’s initial activity in any community has traditionally revolved around an agriculture based activity, it has been observed that the lessons learnt in collective group action have been applied to deal with education, health, water and income generation activities in the community.  The other main actor with whom Hodi works in the community is government. Each of the prioritised activities is implemented with the full knowledge of the local district authority and participation.  This tripartite partnership recognises that each partner, community, government and Hodi bring to the table, skills and resources which allow for joint planning on how to use the combined resources is done with the community at the centre. To some extent, there have been consequences to Hodi’s focus on rural communities at local level.  The result of this has been the challenge to raise its profile at national level and though it provides a wealth of evidence for national level advocacy work, such rights of children, packaging of that information has not been successfully done. Hodi has also realised that it cannot limit its experience and skill base to rural communities only and that sometimes, it is necessary to ‘cross over’ to peri-urban communities and apply its skills and experiences.  This has occurred in situations where a request has been made to Hodi.