The First Lady of Panama, Lorena Castillo de Varela, said that accelerating the AIDS response and empowering women and girls is key to ending the AIDS epidemic

GENEVA, 23 May 2016—At a high-level side event held during the 69th session of the World Health Assembly, taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, delegates have urged countries to end gender inequity in the response to HIV by putting women and adolescent girls on the Fast-Track to ending the AIDS epidemic. Lorena Castillo de Varela, First Lady of Panama and UNAIDS Special Ambassador for AIDS in Latin America, hosted the event. Ms Castillo de Varela stressed the importance of women assuming leadership roles to ensure the development of programmes and policies fitting to their needs.

“Limited access to health care and education, coupled with systems and policies that do not address the needs of young people, are obstacles that block adolescent girls and young women from being able to protect themselves against HIV, particularly as they transition into adulthood,” said Ms Castillo de Varela. “To reduce HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths, we must advance gender equality, women’s empowerment and autonomy to ensure that girls and young women make independent decisions about their own health and are able to live free from all forms of violence.”

The high-level side event focused on three topics, the elimination of new HIV infections among children, HIV prevention in adolescent girls and young women and access to HIV treatment for all.

The engagement and empowerment of women as leaders, policy makers, implementers and peer supporters combined with increased access to effective HIV treatment and prevention has proved essential in the success of global efforts to eliminate new HIV infections among children, which have decreased by more than half, from 520 000 a year in 2000 to 220 000 in 2014. This comprehensive and inclusive approach now has to be widened to include all people living with HIV, including young women and girls.

“We need a combined, holistic approach and interventions that support adolescent girls and women,” said HIV activist of the Salamander Trust, Angelina Namiba. “It is crucial that women living with HIV are meaningfully involved at all stages of these interventions right from design to delivery.”

Globally, AIDS remains the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age. In 2014, there were around 220 000 new HIV infections worldwide among adolescents (aged 15 to 19 years), with adolescent girls accounting for 62% of new HIV infections among this age group. In 2014, AIDS was the leading cause of death in adolescents in sub-Saharan Africa.

Gender-based violence, gender inequity, harmful gender norms, stigma and discrimination often prevent women and girls from knowing their HIV status and accessing appropriate HIV prevention and treatment services. It is estimated that of 670 000 adolescent girls aged 15 to 19 living with HIV, only one in five knows she is HIV-positive.

The UNAIDS Fast-Track approach focuses on ensuring that at least 90% of adolescents and young women and men (as well as other groups at higher risk of HIV infection) have access to combination HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health and rights services and that they are empowered with the skills, knowledge and capability to protect themselves from HIV by 2020.

In addition to scaling up HIV prevention, the roll-out of access to HIV treatment is critical. The World Health Organization’s global health sector strategy on HIV, 2016–2021, being discussed at this week’s World Health Assembly reiterates UNAIDS’ 90–90–90 treatment target. This will require that 90% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90% of people who know their HIV-positive status are accessing antiretroviral treatment and 90% of people on treatment have suppressed viral loads. To achieve this, innovative models of service delivery will be critical to ensuring that adolescents and young people are diagnosed early, rapidly linked to treatment services, helped to adhere to treatment and retained in care to make sure they stay healthy. These services must be accessible, affordable and sensitive to the needs of women and girls. Other Fast-Track targets include achieving fewer than 500 000 new HIV infections a year by 2020 and reaching zero discrimination.

Switzerland and Zambia, who were among the sponsors of the event in Geneva, are co-facilitators of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS. As co-facilitators they will take forward the summary outcomes of this World Health Assembly side event to help inform discussions at the High-Level Meeting, which will take place in New York, United States of America, from 8 to 10 June 2016.

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UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

The Kazan Marathon, which commemorates the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial, took place on 15 May in Tatarstan, Russian Federation. Under the slogan “Test yourself!”, more than 9000 people had the opportunity to test their endurance and learn about their HIV status.

With support from the Government of Tatarstan, the Republican AIDS Centre and the New Century nongovernmental organization, runners accessed voluntary, rapid HIV testing at the marathon site.

For the first time in the Russian Federation, a large-scale sporting event was dedicated to HIV. The President of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, was tested for HIV and called on all the marathon participants to follow his example. Gennady Onishchenko, Assistant to the Russian Prime Minister, Anna Popova, Head of Rospotrebnadzor, Sergey Kraevoi, Deputy Minister of Health, and Sergey Pospelov, Head of Rosmolodezh, came to Kazan from Moscow to support the event.

UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador Vera Brezhneva ran 3 kilometres of the marathon route together with other participants, including more than 50 people living with HIV. 

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UNAIDS has appointed CNN news anchor Alejandra Oraa as a UNAIDS Regional Goodwill Ambassador for Latin America and the Caribbean. The announcement was made on the occasion of World Health Day 2016.

In her new role, Ms Oraa will work towards promoting an integral approach to HIV based on human rights, as part of the health agenda for women and youth, and will raise public awareness and understanding of gender inequality.

During the coming year, Ms Oraa will visit several countries in the region, where she will have the opportunity to hear about best practices and lessons learned from the HIV response, especially with regard to women and girls.

Alejandra Oraa, born in Vargas, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is anchor of Café CNN, a morning news programme on CNN in Spanish broadcast from Atlanta, United States of America, and Destinos CNN, a weekly TV programme on the world’s most popular tourist destinations. 

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Ahead of a Fast-Track cities event to take place in June at the 2016 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS, the Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has committed the city to the UNAIDS Fast-Track approach to end the AIDS epidemic.

The Fast-Track cities event in New York, United States of America, on 6 June will highlight the leadership role of cities in the AIDS response and showcase urban innovations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, including the target of ending the AIDS epidemic.

There are around 223 000 people living with HIV in Ukraine, with about 14 000 new HIV infections in 2014. Around one in five adults living with HIV has access to antiretroviral therapy.

Participants at the event at which the commitment to the Fast-Track approach was made included Ukraine’s Minister of Health, Alexander Kvitashvili, the United States’ Ambassador, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, France’s Ambassador, Isabelle Dumont, and the Executive Director of the Kyiv Network of People Living with HIV, Lada Bulah.

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Since the start of the AIDS epidemic civil society has been at the forefront of the response to HIV—demanding access to treatment and HIV services, calling for the respect of human rights and supporting community-led HIV services.

Today the role of civil society remains more relevant than ever as the success of community efforts in providing HIV services, particularly to key populations, is becoming more widely recognized as essential to ending the AIDS epidemic.

Community efforts have proven critical in overcoming many of the major challenges in the AIDS response, including reaching people most affected by HIV with life-changing HIV services, providing support for adherence to treatment and other essential health services. Civil society engagement has also been critical in advocating for new resources, improving HIV programming, and moving progress forwards on human rights issues.

Despite the wide recognition of the important role communities play in responding effectively to HIV, community organizations are facing severe financial challenges and many are closing their doors.

A total of 40% of organizations responding to a recent UNAIDS survey reported that their funding had decreased since 2013. Two thirds expected flat or reduced funding in the future. The decline in funding is resulting in a decline in community services—89% of those who reported a decrease in funding also reported they had to scale down their services as a result.

Greater investment in civil society and community-based service delivery is critical to the Fast-Track approach. Outreach to key populations in low- and middle-income countries should grow to about 7.2% of total investments by 2020, and the estimated resource needs for community-based delivery of antiretroviral therapy should grow to about 3.8% of total investment.

By 2020, investment in community mobilization should increase three-fold to 3% of total resources in low- and middle-income countries to help civil society represent the interests of communities affected by HIV, and to drive ambition, financing and equity in the AIDS response. Social enablers—including advocacy, political mobilization, law and policy reform, human rights, public communications and stigma reduction—should reach 6% of total expenditure by 2020.

UNAIDS has issued two new reports highlighting the importance of investing in community action. Invest in Advocacy details important contributions by community based advocates and points to the need to increase investment to drive an accelerated and more equitable response to HIV. It also notes that a report from the UNAIDS-Lancet Commission on Ending the AIDS Epidemic described advocacy as a “global public good” deserving of support commensurate with its importance.

Stronger Together provides details of the evidence base for community-provided services achieving scale, delivering quality services, and producing results. The report notes guidance from the World Health Organization and others calling for increased engagement of communities to provide a range of HIV and other health-related services.*

In order for community-led services to continue it is essential that international organizations, development partners, governments, private funders and other partners increase investment in community advocacy and services in order to continue and scale up HIV services.

The crucial role of community responses will be among the issues highlighted at the Civil Society Hearing taking place on 6 April in New York. The Hearing is part of the lead up to the United Nations High Level Meeting on Ending AIDS which will take place from 8 to 10 June at the UN headquarters in New York. At the hearing, civil society representatives from around the world will speak to UN Member States about major issues in the AIDS response, including the need for increased financing, leaving no one behind, integration, innovation, and partnering between governments, the private sector and communities.

* The new reports build on other recent publications, Communities deliver and Community-based ART delivery which include more details on the success of community responses.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé and the President of the Russian Olympic Committee and First Deputy Chairman of the Russian State Duma, Alexander Zhukov, signed an agreement on 23 March to join forces to accelerate the global goal of ending the AIDS epidemic. The memorandum of understanding was signed on the sidelines of the fifth Eastern Europe and Central Asia AIDS Conference, being held in Moscow, Russian Federation.

The memorandum of understanding commits UNAIDS and the Russian Olympic Committee to work together to raise HIV awareness among athletes and sports fans, promote access to HIV treatment and reduce the health, social and economic impact of the AIDS epidemic. The programme will also involve addressing stigma and discrimination affecting people living with HIV, including athletes.

UNAIDS and the Russian Olympic Committee will exchange and share know-how and will involve athletes, sports associations and nongovernmental organizations in HIV prevention and awareness efforts at the national and community levels. They will also cooperate in running media campaigns and other HIV-related programmes with athletes, coaches and other opinion leaders from the sports community in the Russian Federation and internationally, particularly in eastern Europe and central Asia.

UNAIDS has been working in partnership with the International Olympic Committee on AIDS awareness and HIV prevention since 2004.

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