Laura Kirkegaard, Head of Advocacy at AIDS-Fondet and NGO Delegate for Europe representing the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), shares why it’s important that we all become activists for an AIDS vaccine

Today is World AIDS Vaccine day. By echoing the slogan of the frontrunners of AIDS activism – “Until there is a cure” – I want to remind myself and everybody else of that central – but still missing – piece of the HIV prevention puzzle. In the history of infectious diseases, no major viral epidemic has been eliminated without a vaccine. Yet we talk very little about it, don’t we?

As an HIV/AIDS and development advocate, I get entangled in complex discussions around hard-to-reach-populations, decriminalization, transitional funding mechanisms, grant management, development policy issues … which are all very relevant – and to me, interesting – topics! Nevertheless, in light of today’s theme these issues seem quite removed from the reason why I chose this career path in the first place: to put an end to that virus!

Well, that sounded bombastic, but don’t we want to aim high? And it is still my big dream that we find a vaccine that can protect all humans regardless of their sexual orientation, gender, profession or income level. Despite all our efforts to make treatment available to as many as possible and despite the preventive effect of our success in doing so, an affordable, safe and effective HIV vaccine is our best shot at a future without AIDS.

I have learned that probably the first HIV vaccines that we will see might not offer 100% protection and that they might not protect us all to the same degree or forever. But even with a less than perfect preventive effect, a vaccine could mean millions of infections averted and, together with existing and new prevention methods, it could mean the end of AIDS.

Developing any vaccine takes a long time. The polio vaccine, for example, took almost 50 years to develop. AIDS vaccine research is a relatively young science.  However, we have reason to be optimistic today. Recent breakthroughs include the first ever trial that found evidence of protection in humans and researchers have also identified what could eventually be the “Achilles heel” of the HIV virus and intense efforts are on-going to fully leverage the potential of these extraordinary findings.

“Market failure”: that is the technical term for the self-evident fact that the private sector is not trying to meet the demand of those who cannot afford their product. This is why my organization asks our government to fund research in a HIV vaccine for the world’s poorest, and this is why we have been partners with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative for more than 10 years.

Market failure is why the vaccine is not coming by itself; the demand is not heard, financially speaking. But we activists can be a mouthpiece, and we can empower communities to speak for themselves. Let this year be the day that we lend our voices to this cause and make sure the demand is heard – from communities all over the world. As David Apuuli said at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico: “AIDS vaccines also need activists.”

Share this blog post if you agree!

Until there is a vaccine!

UNAIDS/F.Chironi

First posted 16 April; Last updated 14 May

Watch this post for periodic updates on the upcoming meeting’s documents and information.

Registering as a civil society observer

Agenda (EN | FR)

Consideration of the report of the twenty-ninth meeting (EN | FR)

Report of the Executive Director (EN | FR)

UNAIDS Cosponsorship: UN Women (EN | FR)

Report by the Chair of the Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations (EN | FR)

Report by the NGO representative (EN | FR)

Leadership in the AIDS response (EN | FR)

Follow-up to the thematic segment from the 29th PCB meeting (EN | FR)

Financial and performance reports for the biennium 2010-2011 and 2012-2015

Financial reporting (EN | FR)

Interim financial management update (EN | FR)

Performance monitoring (EN | FR)

Update on indicators, monitoring and evaluation of the 2012-2015 Unified Budget, Results and Accountability Framework (EN | FR)

Strategic investment (EN | FR)

UNAIDS Technical Support (EN | FR)

AIDS, Security and Humanitarian Response (EN | FR)

Statement by the representative of the UNAIDS Staff Association (EN | FR)

Thematic Segment: Combination prevention: Addressing the urgent need to reinvigorate HIV prevention responses globally by scaling up and achieving synergies to halt and begin to reverse the spread of the AIDS epidemic. (EN | FR)

UNAIDS/F.Chironi

UNAIDS PCB NGO Delegation Update: April 2012 (pdf)

2012 NGO Report – Civil Society in the HIV Response: Urging UNAIDS Action in the HIV Funding Crisis

This year’s NGO Delegation annual report to the Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) addresses the worsening impact of reductions in funding for HIV on civil society, including people living with HIV and key populations. It is based on a review of evidence and case studies by constituents of the NGO Delegation. The report covers the realities of decreased bilateral and multi-lateral funding for and national investment in HIV and explores the impacts on civil society and its critical programmatic and advocacy contributions to responses to HIV.

In its report, the NGO Delegation is calling on UNAIDS to examine and report back at the 31^st PCB meeting on how decreased funding for HIV impacts UNAIDS’ strategies and the ability to meet the goals laid out in the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. The report will be presented at the upcoming board meeting in June.

You can read our report in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Translations will be updated on our website as they become available.

Register as an NGO Observer for the Next UNAIDS Board Meeting!

You can now register for the 30th Programme Coordinating Board meeting to be held at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland from 5-7 June 2012. Visit the UNAIDS registration page at http://pcbregistration.unaids.org. The deadline to apply is 21 May 2012. Check our website for more information and to find up-to-date documents.

Please note: Do NOT register unless you can obtain your own source of funding to attend. UNAIDS and the NGO Delegation are unfortunately not able to fund civil society observers. If you require a visa to attend the meeting in Geneva, you must request one from UNAIDS as soon as possible; UNAIDS does NOT automatically provide letters of invitation. Contact PCBregistration@unaids.org to obtain the necessary letter.

The 30^th PCB agenda is now available in English and French. The three day meeting will include a presentation of the NGO Delegation’s annual report,  follow-up to the 29th thematic on HIV and the law, a presentation on AIDS leadership, a closer look at proposals for Strategic Investment in the HIV response, a report on “AIDS, Security and Humanitarian Response”, and UNAIDS technical support, as well as a full day of speakers and debates on “Combination prevention: Addressing the urgent need to reinvigorate HIV prevention responses globally by scaling up and achieving synergies to halt and begin to reverse the spread of the AIDS epidemics”. Watch our website for agenda documents.

The Delegation’s Communications Facility is seeking a new host

The NGO Delegation’s Communications & Consultation Facility is hosted by organizations for two-year periods. It has been based at the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO), Toronto, Canada since October 2010; previously, it was in Amsterdam, Netherlands at the World AIDS Campaign (WAC).

Visit our website at http://unaidspcbngo.org/?p=17963 or the UNAIDS RFP page for all necessary documents and contact details.

The deadline for submissions is 11 May 2012.

Reading Room: Recent Blog Posts

• NGO Delegation & INPUD Welcomes Inclusion of Round 5 in Global Fund Transitional Mechanism
• UNAIDS Bureau Questions the Investment Framework
• Sign the Oslo Declaration on HIV Criminalisation
• Calling All MSM: Global Men’s Health and Rights Survey 2012
• CrowdOutAIDS: Crowdsourced Recommendations for Youth Agenda Released
• Announcing the Sex Worker Freedom Festival

As this blog first reported back in October 2011, UNAIDS set out to try something no other UN agency had yet: to use crowdsourcing technologies and social media platforms to engage the public in developing AIDS policy. CrowdOutAIDS aimed to create a set of youth-defined recommendations that will guide the UNAIDS Secretariat’s work on HIV and young people through 2015.

The full set of crowdsourced recommendations are now presented in Strategy recommendations for collaborating with a new generation of leaders in the AIDS response.

Through this project, young people proposed six key recommendations for the UNAIDS Secretariat, including:

1. Strengthen young people’s skills for effective leadership at all levels of the AIDS response;
2. Ensure the full participation of youth in the AIDS response at country, regional, and global levels;
3. Improve young people’s access to HIV-related information;
4. Diversify and strengthen strategic networks between the UNAIDS Secretariat, youth networks, and other key players;
5. Increase the UNAIDS Secretariat’s outreach to both formal and informal networks of young people; and,
6. Increase young people’s access to financial support.

For more information, read the full UNAIDS press release and the NGO Delegation’s comments on the strategy from the December UNAIDS board meeting.

Press release

MSM Around the World: Stand Up, Be Counted!

The Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF) is thrilled to announce the official launch of the 2012 Global Men’s Health and Rights Survey (GMHR)!

GMHR 2012 is the second global survey on the health and human rights of gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) conducted by the MSMGF. The first global survey – GMHR 2010 – yielded more than 5,000 responses from around the world, revealing vital information about the state of homophobia, human rights, and access to health services for MSM worldwide

Like GMHR 2010, this year’s survey is designed to support knowledge generation, policy development, program implementation and advocacy linked to the issues that matter most to our communities. We are stepping up recruitment this year in hopes of significantly increasing the number of respondents from each region around the world, generating robust data to help local organizations develop regionally-tailored advocacy and program initiatives.

Learn more and take the survey at:

English
Chinese
French
Spanish
Russian

Please forward this to the MSM in your networks! The more men from your region that take the survey, the stronger the data will be to support local work!

Any questions regarding this initiative can be directed to GMHR2012@msmgf.org.

21 to 27 July 2012 | Swabhumi, Kolkata, India

US government travel restrictions for sex workers mean that many of us will not be able, or will not want to go to the IAC in Washington this year. The Sex Worker Freedom Festival is an alternative event for sex workers and our allies to protest our exclusion and ensure the voices of those excluded are heard in Washington.

The festival programme will focus on freedoms that we are all entitled to:

• Freedom of movement and to migrate;
• Freedom to access quality health services;
• Freedom to work and choose occupation;
• Freedom to associate and unionise;
• Freedom to be protected by the law;
• Freedom from abuse and violence; and
• Freedom from stigma and discrimination.

Working with 9.5 hour time difference between Kolkata & Washington

Kolkata programming will start at 12.30 and run through to 22.30 to provide a 5 hour overlap with conference sessions and Global Village activities in Washington.  We will have video linking between Kolkata and Washington conference sessions and the Global Village.

Registration for the Sex Worker Freedom Festival will open on 2 April 2012 and close on 30 June 2012. Registration forms will be available on the NSWP website at http://www.nswp.org/page/iac-2012-kolkata.

Sex Workers: FREE

Organisations with budget less than $250,000: $100

Organisations with budget more than $250,000: $500

The call for activity proposals (policy discussions, workshops, presentations, cultural activities, etc) during the Sex Worker Freedom Festival will open on 2 April 2012 – sex workers submitting an activity proposal will also be able to apply for an NSWP scholarship to support their participation. The registration, proposal submission and scholarship application form will be available on the NSWP website. DEADLINE for proposals and scholarship applications is 13 May 2012.

There are a limited number of scholarships available so please contact your donors to ask them to support your participation.

Sex workers who have abstracts accepted for the IAC 2012 should contact the conference organisers if you want to present your abstract in Kolkata, IAC abstract scholarships awarded will be transferable to Kolkata. So remember to request a transfer to Kolkata when you reply to abstract acceptances or scholarship offers if you want to be part of the Sex Worker Freedom Festival.

The Sex Worker Freedom Festival is an Official International AIDS Conference 2012 Hub. Supported by Open Society Foundation – Sexual Health and Rights Program, UNAIDS, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNFPA, HIVOS, AIDS Fonds and AIDS 2012 conference secretariat.

Following recent consultations with civil society organisations, the Medicines Patent Pool Board[1] has decided to appoint one Board member from the communities of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and two additional EAG members drawn from organisations representing communities of PLHIV with expertise in the field of work of the Medicines Patent Pool.

As part of this process we are asking organisations and networks of PLHIV to nominate suitable candidates who fulfil the requirements for the Board or EAG and who would be willing to participate in the governance of the Medicines Patent Pool.

The Governance Board is responsible for financial and strategic oversight of the Pool, ensuring that all regulatory and financial reporting requirements are fulfilled, and approval of any licensing agreement. Further details on the responsibilities of the Board can be found in the Statutes of the Medicines Patent Pool Foundation[2] and in the attached document on the roles and responsibilities of the Board.

The role of the EAG is to provide the Governance Board and the Executive Director with advice regarding Patent Pool licence negotiations and to assess whether the terms and conditions of proposed licence agreements meet the key requirements as set out by the Medicines Patent Pool statutes and Memorandum of Understanding with UNITAID (MoU) and represent a significant improvement over the current situation. Further details on the EAG can be found in the attached document on roles and responsibilities of the EAG.

Members of the Governance Board and the EAG will be required to act in their individual capacity and within the confidentiality requirements of on-going negotiations.

The working language of the Board and EAG is English.

We would like to invite your organisation to circulate the call for candidatures to your networks and nominate suitable candidates to serve on the Governance Board or the Expert Advisory Group of the Medicines Patent Pool.

The process for nominations is as follows:

§  Networks of PLHIV wishing to nominate qualified candidates should identify candidates that possess the required expertise, qualify for nomination and understand the responsibilities of Board/EAG members as noted in the attached roles and responsibilities documents and are willing to commit to these.

§  Candidates should then complete the attached application form (Board and EAG) and write a cover letter outlining relevant experience and expertise and interest in joining the Board or EAG. Candidates should reference the roles and responsibilities documents in preparing the letter.

§  The completed form, cover letter, CV and a letter from the nominating organisation should be submitted to office@medicinespatentpool.org by 10 May 2012.

§  Should there be a need to interview candidates, candidates will be informed individually.

§  The Pool Governance Board will then review all applications and select candidates that best complement existing expertise. As stated in the Pool governing documents, Board terms are for 2 years and EAG terms are for 3 years.

§  Organisations will be informed of the outcome by end of June.

I thank you very much for your on-going engagement with the Pool, and look forward to receiving your nominations.  Please direct any questions related to the process to office@medicinespatentpool.org and it will be appropriately directed.

[1]http://www.medicinespatentpool.org/WHO-WE-ARE2/Governance
[2]Available at: http://www.medicinespatentpool.org/content/download/207/1195/version/1/file/Statuts+ENG+FRA+%28Final-06+07+2010%29.pdf

The Medicines Patent Pool, founded with the support of UNITAID in 2010, aims to bring down the prices of HIV medicines, and stimulate the development of needed new formulations, through access-oriented voluntary licences. The Pool’s voluntary licences are negotiated to maximise their public health impact, and the full terms and conditions of each licence agreement are made public on the Pool’s website.

UNAIDS/F.Chironi

Members of the Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) met on 22nd March to discuss upcoming and potential agenda items for the upcoming PCB meeting. Read the full record or highlights below.

H.E. Dr. Tom Mboya Okeyo, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Kenya in Geneva presented to the Bureau the Action Plan for the consultative process around strategic approaches to investment in the AIDS response, an update of which will be presented to the Board in June. Concerns were raised around the policy-making process, including the consequences of the imposition of a framework and “the lack of a fully consultative process in the development of the framework and full country ownership”.

NGO Delegates will be speaking further with Ambassador Mboya Okeya in the coming week for clarification on the progress.

The format of the thematic day on Combination Prevention will be as follows:

• Morning plenary: Combination Prevention — what it is, what works for different epidemics and scaling up through strategic investments to maximize returns.
• Four breakout sessions:
• Morning:
• 1: Young people and Combination Prevention
• 2: HIV and co-infections with viral hepatitis B and C
• Afternoon
• 3: Community mobilization
• 4: Filling the gaps in prevention programming
• Afternoon plenary: (1) reporting from the breakout sessions and (2) focus on monitoring and evaluation.

The Bureau also decided that the planned ‘Review of PCB NGO participation in the PCB’ for the 30th meeting, which arose from a decision point from the 20th meeting (June 2007), will instead be presented at the 31st PCB meeting in December.

A new host is required for fall 2012. Whether you applied or not during the previous Call for Expression of Interest, you can still and will need to apply to this Request for Proposals.

Download here or visit the UNAIDS RFP page for all necessary documents and contact details.

The deadline for submissions is 11 May 2012.

Cover Letter

Request for proposals

Acknowledgment Form

Confidentiality Undertaking

Proposal Submission Form

Press release

The AIDS 2012 online volunteer application form was successfully launched on 1 April and we have already received more than 200 applications!

If you know anyone who would like to volunteer at the conference, please ask them to apply online at www.aids2012.org/volunteer.aspx as soon as possible.

For more information about the AIDS 2012 Volunteer Programme, you can visit www.aids2012.org/volunteer.aspx and the very handy FAQs . You can also like the programme on Facebook and follow on Twitter.

UNAIDS/F.Chironi

You can now register for the 29th Programme Coordinating Board meeting to be held at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland from 5-7 June 2012.

Visit the UNAIDS registration page at http://pcbregistration.unaids.org. The deadline to submit is 21 May 2012. Please ensure that you read the information for participants document (EN | FR) before registering.

Members of civil society can attend the meeting by registering as Observers. This is a great opportunity to experience policy making and to have your voice heard. As an Observer, you may have the chance – at the chair’s discretion and after board members have spoken – to give interventions on the floor during the meeting. If you attend, you will be invited to daily civil society debriefs with the Delegation where you will have a chance to ask questions about the issues discussed each day and give feedback on Delegates’ interventions.

Please note: Do NOT register unless you can obtain your own source of funding to attend. UNAIDS and the NGO Delegation are unfortunately not able to fund civil society observers. Observers to the PCB meeting are required to make their own travel arrangements and to cover all of their own expenses, including air fare and their stay in Geneva. Registration does not automatically grant access; all Observers must be approved by the UNAIDS Executive Director and chair of the Board.

If you require a visa to attend the meeting in Geneva: you MUST request one from UNAIDS as soon as possible; UNAIDS does NOT automatically provide letters of invitation. Contact PCBregistration@unaids.org to obtain the necessary letter.

The draft agenda (EN | FR) for the three day meeting includes a presentation of the NGO Delegation’s annual report,  follow-up to the 29th thematic, a presentation of the Strategic Investment Framework, a report on “AIDS, Security and Humanitarian Response“, and UNAIDS technical support, as well as a full day of speakers and debates on “Combination prevention: Addressing the urgent need to reinvigorate HIV prevention responses globally by scaling up and achieving synergies to halt and begin to reverse the spread of the AIDS epidemics”.

Updates and further information will be posted in the coming weeks.

Since its creation on 13 February, 1340 supports have signed onto the Oslo Declaration on HIV Criminalisation. Prepared by civil society in Oslo, Norway, on the eve of the global High Level Policy Consultation on the Science and Law of the Criminalisation of HIV Non-disclosure, Exposure and Transmission, the  declaration is an advocacy and policy statement against the overly-broad use of the criminal law to regulate and punish people living with HIV for behaviour that in any other circumstance would be considered lawful.

Watch the video on the Declaration and read it in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Oslo Declaration on HIV Criminalisation

1. A growing body of evidence suggests that the criminalisation of HIV non-disclosure, potential exposure and non-intentional transmission is doing more harm than good in terms of its impact on public health and human rights.[1]
2. A better alternative to the use of the criminal law are measures that create an environment that enables people to seek testing, support and timely treatment, and to safely disclose their HIV status.[2]
3. Although there may be a limited role for criminal law in rare cases in which people transmit HIV with malicious intent, we prefer to see people living with HIV supported and empowered from the moment of diagnosis, so that even these rare cases may be prevented. This requires a non-punitive, non-criminal HIV prevention approach centred within communities, where expertise about, and understanding of, HIV issues is best found.[3]
4. Existing HIV-specific criminal laws should be repealed, in accordance with UNAIDS recommendations.[4] If, following a thorough evidence-informed national review, HIV-related prosecutions are still deemed to be necessary they should be based on principles of proportionality, foreseeability, intent, causality and non-discrimination; informed by the most-up-to-date HIV-related science and medical information; harm-based, rather than risk-of-harm based; and be consistent with both public health goals and international human rights obligations.[5]
5. Where the general law can be, or is being, used for HIV-related prosecutions, the exact nature of the rights and responsibilities of people living with HIV under the law should be clarified, ideally through prosecutorial and police guidelines, produced in consultation with all key stakeholders, to ensure that police investigations are appropriate and to ensure that people with HIV have adequate access to justice.

We respectfully ask Ministries of Health and Justice and other relevant policymakers and criminal justice system actors to also take into account the following in any consideration about whether or not to use criminal law in HIV-related cases:

6. HIV epidemics are driven by undiagnosed HIV infections, not by people who know their HIV-positive status.[6] Unprotected sex includes risking many possible eventualities – positive and negative – including the risk of acquiring sexually transmitted infections such as HIV. Due to the high number of undiagnosed infections, relying on disclosure to protect oneself – and prosecuting people for non-disclosure – can and does lead to a false sense of security.
7. HIV is just one of many sexually transmitted or communicable diseases that can cause long-term harm.[7] Singling out HIV with specific laws or prosecutions further stigmatises people living with and affected by HIV. HIV-related stigma is the greatest barrier to testing, treatment uptake, disclosure and a country’s success in “getting to zero new infections, AIDS-related deaths and zero discrimination”.[8]
8. Criminal laws do not change behaviour rooted in complex social issues, especially behaviour that is based on desire and impacted by HIV-related stigma.[9] Such behaviour is changed by counselling and support for people living with HIV that aims to achieve health, dignity and empowerment.[10]
9. Neither the criminal justice system nor the media are currently well-equipped to deal with HIV-related criminal cases.[11] Relevant authorities should ensure adequate HIV-related training for police, prosecutors, defence lawyers, judges, juries and the media.
10. Once a person’s HIV status has been involuntarily disclosed in the media, it will always be available through an internet search. People accused of HIV-related ‘crimes’ for which they are not (or should not be found) guilty have a right to privacy. There is no public health benefit in identifying such individuals in the media; if previous partners need to be informed for public health purposes, ethical and confidential partner notification protocols should be followed.[12]

References

[1] UNAIDS. Report of the Expert Meeting on the Scientific, Medical, Legal and Human Rights Aspects of Criminalisation of HIV Non-disclosure, Exposure and Transmission, 31 August-  2 September 2011. Geneva, February 2012.
[2] UNAIDS/UNDP. Policy Brief: Criminalization of HIV Transmission. Geneva, July 2008; Open Society Institute. Ten Reasons to Oppose the Criminalization of HIV Exposure or Transmission. 2008; IPPF,GNP+ and ICW. Verdict on a Virus. 2008. See also: IPPF. Verdict on a Virus (documentary) 2011.
[3] GNP+/UNAIDS. Positive Health Dignity and Prevention: A Policy Framework. Amsterdam/Geneva, January 2011.
[4] UNAIDS/UNDP. Policy Brief: Criminalization of HIV Transmission. Geneva, July 2008.
[5] UNAIDS. (2012) Op. cit.
[6] Marks G et al. Estimating sexual transmission of HIV from persons aware and unaware that they are infected with the virus in the USA. AIDS 20(10):1447-50, 2006; Hall HI et al. HIV transmissions from persons with HIV who are aware and unaware of their infection, United States. AIDS 26, online edition. DOI: 10.1097/QAD013e328351f73f, 2012.
[7] Bernard EJ, Hanssens C et al. Criminalisation of HIV Non-disclosure, Exposure and Transmission: Scientific, Medical, Legal and Human Rights Issues. UNAIDS, Geneva, February 2012; Carter M. Hepatitis C surpasses HIV as a cause of death in the US. Aidsmap.com, 21 February 2012.
[8] UNAIDS. Getting to Zero: 2011-2015 Strategy. Geneva, December 2010.
[9] Bernard EJ and Bennett-Carlson R. Criminalisation of HIV Non-disclosure, Exposure and Transmission: Background and Current Landscape. UNAIDS, Geneva, February 2012.
[10] GNP+/UNAIDS (2011) Op. cit.
[11] Bernard EJ and Bennett-Carlson R (2012) Op. cit.
[12] UNAIDS. Opening up the HIV/AIDS epidemic: Guidance on encouraging beneficial disclosure, ethical partner counselling & appropriate use of HIV case-reporting. Geneva, 2000.

© Shehzad Noorani

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has released a report on the effects of the funding shortfalls fand the cancellation of the Global Fund’s Round 11 based on the findings of a survey of 13 countries where MSF supports HIV and TB treatment projects.

“MSF calls on the stakeholders of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria – including its donors, Board of Directors, and Secretariat – to convene an emergency donor conference and to open a new early funding window to raise the necessary resources needed to ensure that the Fund is fully functioning and open for business in 2012. Countries simply cannot wait two years to access new funds to scale-up and improve lifesaving treatment programs. For its part, the United States must also ensure that funding for US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is preserved and that the commitments for scale-up of HIV treatment are met. European Commission and European Union member states must boost their financial support, and affected country governments must make all efforts to increase scale-up of HIV and TB services.”

Read the full report in English and French.

UNAIDS PCB NGO Delegation and International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD) express satisfaction at the decision of the Global Fund Board to include Round 5 in the Transitional Funding Mechanism

The NGO Delegation and INPUD are both delighted at the news that the Global Fund Board has made an exception to the technical guidance that defines which established Global Fund programmes are eligible for inclusion in the Transitional Funding Mechanism (TFM).

Without this technical amendment the situation for people who inject drugs in Russia would have been disastrous. Global Fund Round 5 has been the largest single piece of Global Fund investment for HIV prevention services for people who inject drugs in Russia. It provides services to almost 150,000 people who inject drugs with access needle and syringe programmes and other critical HIV services.

Round 5 also supports other key populations (mostly sex workers, people who use drugs and prisoners), it supports 48 community-based NGOs, and contributes much to the strengthening of institutional capacity and sustainability of the pioneering harm reduction services and HIV prevention agencies in Russia.

Pavel Aksenov Executive Director of the Russian Harm Reduction Network (ESVERO) stated that:

“Disruption of the Round 5 HIV Programme in Russia till 2014 would have meant the inevitable loss of the major part of essential harm reduction services supported by the Global Fund in the country in 2004-2011. The opportunity to bid to the Transitional Funding Mechanism gives us a way to secure the key stronghold of harm reduction in the country incurred by the rights and interests of key affected populations.”

The NGO Delegation also highlighted the potential risk to the UNAIDS Strategy given that Russia is one of the 20 countries identified in the UNAIDS Strategy. Mat Southwell, UNAIDS PCB NGO Delegate for Europe noted, “Russia is a priority country in the UNAIDS Strategy and one of the epicenters of the HIV epidemic among people who inject drugs in Europe. The inclusion of Round 5 in the Transitional Funding Mechanism is an important advocacy gain.”

INPUD has been highlighting concerns about Russia’s drug policy through its coordinated World AIDS Day actions and through Irina Teplinskaya’s powerful intervention at the December 2011 UNAIDS board meeting.

Eliot Ross Albers, Executive Director of INPUD, has stated that INPUD has “an ongoing commitment, and intention to continue highlighting the repressive nature of Russian drug policy and to underlining the intrinsic links between that policy and the relentless growth of HIV amongst injecting drug users”.

The NGO Delegation and INPUD congratulate the Global Fund Board for their receptiveness to feedback from civil society and to allowing Round 5 entry into the Transitional Funding Mechanism.

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UNAIDS PCB NGO Delegation Update: March 2012

UNAIDS Guidance for Partnerships with Civil Society, including PLHIV & Key Populations

UNAIDS has published the much anticipated guidance for partnerships with civil society, including people living with HIV (PLHIV) and key populations. The guidance came from a recommendation of the Second Independent Evaluation of UNAIDS to the UNAIDS Board in December 2009, with the aim of developing a shared vision and common approach to engagement with civil society by the UNAIDS Secretariat and Cosponsors.

The NGO Delegation welcomes the creation of the guidance, as the NGO Delegation has pushed for its development since the December 2009 board decision. The Delegation, throughout the writing process, tried to ensure that the document properly addressed engagement at all levels and across Cosponsors and included capacity-building and a commitment to PLHIV and key populations. However, better indicators and practical assessment measures still need to be identified and developed in UNAIDS Budget, Results and Accountability Framework to ensure strong monitoring.

The Delegation will continue to work with the UNAIDS Board to ensure that the partnership guidance meets the intent of the original decision point to have a coherent, measurable way of working with civil society. If you know of any forthcoming meetings or conferences at which the distribution of or a workshop detailing the guidance would be possible, please contact the Delegation with suggestions.

UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights Releases Statement & Recommendations on the Global Fund and the Crisis of HIV Funding

In late January, the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights published a statement on the NGO Delegation’s website entitled “The Global Fund and the Crisis of HIV Funding — A Severe Setback for HIV and Human Rights: Statement and Recommendations”.  In it, the Reference Group calls the cancellation of the 11^th round “an abrogation of legally grounded human rights obligations” and offers several recommendations including a request to the UNAIDS Secretariat and Board to “be strong, vocal and consistent advocates for the restoration and increase of financial support to the global AIDS response, including to the Global Fund as one of its main financing mechanisms.”

Access the full statement and recommendations in English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Updates from the Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) Bureau

This month, the PCB Bureau will finalize the agenda for the upcoming 30^th PCB meeting in June. NGO Delegates are currently involved in working groups or doing follow-up on several key expected agenda items: the annual NGO report; UNAIDS Investment Framework; the day-long thematic on combination prevention; follow-up to the 29^th PCB thematic on HIV and Enabling Legal Environments; and UNAIDS Technical Support Strategy. Current members of the Bureau, which oversees the PCB meetings and interim work, include Poland (Chair), India (Vice-chair), USA (Rapporteur), the World Bank (Cosponsor representative) and NGO Delegates Ebony Johnson (North America) and Ed Ngoksin (Asia-Pacific).

NGO Delegate Speaks at Asia-Pacific Meeting on Political Declaration & MDGs

In February, NGO Delegate for Asia and the Pacific, Jane Bruning, joined other civil society representatives at the Asia-Pacific High-level Intergovernmental Meeting on the Assessment of Progress against Commitments in the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS and the Millennium Development Goals. It was the first time representatives of civil society had been invited. Jane, coordinator of Positive Women New Zealand and representative of APN+, joined other experts in the civil society side event “The Gender Agenda: Making HIV Responses Work for Key affected Women and Girls” in offering examples of best practices and policies that have successfully addressed gender inequalities. Jane shared her personal story to speak about the complex link between gender violence and HIV. Read her story and full report here.

New Europe NGO Delegate

The Delegation welcomes its new Delegate, Laura Kirch Kirkegaard, as the representative for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). Laura is Head of Advocacy at AIDS-Fondet, an IAVI partner and Danish NGO that provides counselling and support to people living with HIV and high-risk groups, runs large-scale national information campaigns, and actively influences Danish development policy.

The Delegation would like to thank IAVI’s previous representative, Rhon Reynolds, who has left to work with UNICEF, for his time and dedication and to wish him well in his future work.

Multimedia Website Section

The Delegation’s website now features a section where you can view our collection of videos and photos from past UNAIDS PCB meetings, including Delegate and civil society interventions, NGO Delegation Report videos, and external interviews. Check out our new section here.

Reading Room: Recent Blog Posts

• UNAIDS Bureau Field Visit to Kenya
• Summary of the 29th PCB Thematic Segment on HIV and Enabling Legal Environments by Hon. Michael Kirby