a-b-o-u-t CrowdOutAIDS

2011-12-09T15:28:00.000-08:00

CrowdOutAIDS is a collaborative online/offline project by and for young people to develop UNAIDS' new strategy on youth and HIV!

Yet to openly invite young people from across the world, reaching a broad group to collaborate for new ideas, new energy and new partnerships was attractive, given the size of the challenge.

While there have been many successes in the AIDS response, 30 years into the epidemic awareness about HIV is still very low in many places. Only 24% of young women and 36% of young men in low-and middle-income countries have adequate knowledge about HIV and how to prevent it. An estimated 5 million young people are living with HIV today. Many lack access to lifesaving treatment.

In response, policies are made and programmes put in place “for” young people. But young people don’t always have a say. CrowdOutAIDS.org, UNAIDS new crowdsourcing project, turns that model on its head: it’s an online collaboration to rebuild the organization’s approach to HIV and young people from the bottom up. Through it, we want to find new ways to work with young people, across borders, for a shift on AIDS.

To develop UNAIDS’ new approach to youth and HIV, a transparent four step process has been put together:

First, connect the community of Advocates.

Step two is about setting the agenda; engaging the community in dialogue and based on the discussion, a survey will be developed to prioritize key issues.

Third, an application will be launched where young people can submit ideas and actions to solve the challenges defined by the community in step two.

Finally, a document summarizing the key outcomes of the CrowdOutAIDS process will be drafted, in public.

CrowdOutAIDS has one ultimate goal: that young people across the world ensure the ambitious commitments made by UN Member States in the 2011 UN Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS—such as halving new HIV infections and ensuring 15 million people have access to treatment by 2015—are met.

CrowdOutAIDS Open Forum, Akwa Ibom, Nigeria

a-b-o-u-t CrowdOutAIDS