ABSTRACT
After much debate, the first stage in building IDO’s institutional ideology
is concluded in New York with the decision to support local NGOs in
anti-HIV/AIDS work and, in so doing, help establish good governance in
Central Asia and the Caucasus. Armed with this overall guideline, IDO
members begin the second stage of developing their institutional ideo-
logy. As they systematically meet the actors engaged in fighting the epi-
demic, they discover a very specific context in the region, which is linked,
among other factors, to the legacy of the Soviet era: only state institutions are currently active in HIV prevention work. Moreover, government
officials remain convinced adherents of the strategies used in the Soviet
response to the epidemic (and before it, to controlling sexually trans-
mitted infections) – strategies which were also mechanisms of social
control.
