Widely used in developed countries to maintain living standards and address transient poverty, social protection has now become an essential element of modern development efforts. Social protection in developing countries encompasses a range of programmes designed to help lift people out of poverty and prevent, manage and overcome situations that adversely affect their well-being.
To ensure that HIV is considered and integrated appropriately into social protection programmes, UNAIDS and partners have developed an HIV and social protection assessment tool. The tool has been designed to analyse social protection schemes and establish whether they take into account the needs of people at higher risk of contracting HIV and people living with and affected by the virus.
Reducing vulnerability to HIV and ensuring support and treatment are critical elements of a successful response to HIV. Ensuring that HIV is firmly part of social protection programmes is an important part of UNAIDS’ work.
The assessment tool is an online survey, designed to assist countries in gathering information on the social protection schemes that exist in different countries, their purpose, eligibility criteria, coverage and HIV sensitivity. It also asks whether people living with HIV, adolescent girls and young women at higher risk of HIV infection, key populations and other people eligible to benefit from social protection benefits are actually accessing existing social protection schemes. If not, the survey asks what key barriers people face in accessing social protection benefits and what can be done to overcome those barriers.
The tool will help countries to monitor progress towards meeting the social protection target that United Nations Member States committed to in the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS. That target seeks to intensify action in strengthening national social and child protection systems to ensure that 75% of people living with HIV, at risk of HIV or affected by HIV benefit from HIV-sensitive social protection by 2020.
The tool was launched at the annual meeting of the Inter-Agency Task Team on Social Protection, convened by the World Bank and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which was held at the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, on 26 April. Founding partners of the tool include UNICEF, the United Nations Development Programme, International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, USAID, Aidsfonds, World Vision International, Oxford University and the Governments of Kenya and Zambia.
“The HIV and social protection assessment tool is an entry point to realize the fundamental right to social protection of people living with HIV and at risk of and affected by HIV, including transgender people, to access social protection benefits.”
Erika Castellanos Vice-Chair, Global Network of People Living with HIV
“Social protection, with its cross-sectional linkage to multiple Sustainable Development Goals, is a key area to take AIDS out of isolation and leave no one behind. As the tool was developed collaboratively, it should be jointly rolled out in countries for success.”
Mariangela Simão Director, Community Support, Social Justice and Inclusion Department, UNAIDS
