"The implementation and improvement of community-based voluntary counselling and testing
(CBVCT) services is a means of offering these so-called hard-to-reach or more-at-risk populations an
opportunity to know their HIV status, receiving information and counselling, being linked to the
health system if necessary and being treated in a non-judgmental way. The community-based
approach will be the leitmotiv of this document, since CBVCT services target one or more
communities and include community members in at least one part of the implementation process
of the service.
The CBVCT approach can break down many barriers to HIV testing among most-at-risk populations
through the social proximity of the staff to the target community. Promotion of quality
implementation of CBVCT is necessary to guarantee and extend the valuable characteristics of the
community-based approach." (p. 4)
