GENEVA, 13 December 2019—Winnie Byanyima, speaking at the first meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) since her appointment as the UNAIDS Executive Director, has outlined her priorities for 2020. Noting that, “The global response to HIV and the Joint Programme provide one of the strongest examples of the value of multilateralism and global solidarity,” she added that, “The year 2020 provides us with an opportunity to reflect upon how the Joint Programme can work even better.”

The Executive Director of UNAIDS said that UNAIDS would step up its work in four areas: women and girls in Africa; defending the human rights of everyone; putting science, innovation and technology in the hands of people; and financing the global AIDS response.

Ms Byanyima noted the enormous progress that has been made in the AIDS response, but told the meeting that, despite major progress by some countries and some regions, the world will overall not reach the target of a 75% reduction in new HIV infections by the end of 2020. The 45th meeting of the PCB, which concluded yesterday, underlined the importance of countries increasing investment in HIV prevention, with no less than one quarter of HIV spending to be invested in prevention programmes.

During the meeting, the PCB also requested a review of the UNAIDS 2016–2021 Strategy, its implementation and the results obtained. The results of the review will be considered in a wide-ranging consultation and will be presented at the next meeting of the PCB, in June 2020, as part of the development of the next UNAIDS strategy.

“The process for the development of the next strategy will be deeply data-driven and consultative, involving UNAIDS staff, our Cosponsors, civil society, people living with and affected by HIV, young people, faith institutions, ministers of health, finance and gender and parliamentarians, scientists, donors and the private sector,” said Ms Byanyima.

In her opening address to the PCB, Ms Byanyima spoke about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the less than 13 months until the end of 2020―when a set of HIV prevention, treatment and other targets should be reached―and the less than 11 years until 2030, the date by which the world has committed to end AIDS.

Ms Byanyima said that her priority would be UNAIDS’ greatest asset―its staff. “Much has been done, but there is still a long way to go. Work must continue to restore trust among staff and with external partners, and to change the culture so that UNAIDS never tolerates any kind of abuse of power, such as harassment, sexual misconduct or bullying, and UNAIDS encourages staff to feel safe and to speak up.”

The PCB, noting the recent Joint Inspection Unit review of the management and administration of UNAIDS, welcomed Ms Byanyima’s commitment to establish an annual PCB agenda item to cover internal and external audits, ethics and other topics on accountability.

In paying tribute to Gunilla Carlsson, the UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Management and Governance, who will be leaving UNAIDS in early 2020, Ms Byanyima thanked her for guiding UNAIDS through the recent reputational crisis and facilitating the leadership transition. Wishing Ms Carlsson well in her future endeavours, she praised Ms Carlsson for driving forward critical reforms in management and governance, ensuring protection and support for staff members who have suffered from harassment and abuse of authority and leading the implementation of the UNAIDS Gender Action Plan and the Management Action Plan.

The PCB’s nongovernmental organization delegation put forward a report on universal health coverage, highlighting the role of communities as critical partners and stakeholders in the design and implementation of universal health coverage, and a request was made by the PCB for UNAIDS to continue to support countries to ensure that comprehensive HIV services remain or become available and accessible under a universal health coverage programme.

The last day of the meeting was a full-day thematic session on reducing the impact of AIDS on children and youth, which raised alarm that progress in eliminating new HIV infections among infants and getting children from 0–14 years old living with HIV on effective HIV treatment and thriving has slowed worryingly. The PCB engaged with panels on the importance of youth leadership in shaping the HIV response towards holistic approaches.

Representatives of United Nations Member States, international organizations, civil society and nongovernmental organizations attended the three-day meeting, which was chaired by China, with the United States of America serving as Vice-Chair and Belarus as Rapporteur.

The PCB’s decisions can be found at https://www.unaids.org/en/whoweare/pcb/45.

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.

Board members also approve UNAIDS 2020-2021 budget and the establishment of an independent evaluation function

GENEVA, 28 June 2019—UNAIDS’ 44th Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) meeting has concluded in Geneva, Switzerland. The board, which met from 25-27 June 2019, was  presented with a short list of candidates for the position of Executive Director of UNAIDS and heard from the chair of the Search Committee who introduced the Committee’s report.

The Board commended the strong competencies of all short-listed candidates and provided comments on the short list and on the key competencies for the next Executive Director. Members of the Board recognized the integrity of the process and called for the continued protection of the confidentiality of the candidates. The PCB Chair will send the report of the Search Committee, chaired by Yury Ambrazevich, Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus to the United Nations in Geneva, and the recording of the discussions to the Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations, which will make its recommendation to the United Nations Secretary-General. The UN Secretary-General will make the final decision about the appointment of the next Executive Director of UNAIDS.

In her opening address, Gunilla Carlsson, Executive Director a.i. of UNAIDS reiterated the importance of partnerships and of galvanizing political leadership to reach the 2020 Fast-Track targets. “Continuing efforts to eliminate the stigma and discrimination, both HIV-related and more generally, that impedes our work to reach everyone will be necessary to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030,” she said. Ms. Carlsson also thanked the former Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, for his leadership over the last ten years.

Board members also welcomed UNAIDS efforts, through the Management Action Plan, to ensure that the UNAIDS Secretariat is a healthy, equitable and enabling workplace for all staff. Board members heard about the prevention of and the response to harassment from the PCB Working Group, which provided recommendations to the Board to more effectively monitor and guide the work of UNAIDS Secretariat in strengthening and further institutionalizing existing systems to tackle harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying and abuse of authority at the UNAIDS Secretariat. The working group presented their report to the PCB in which they welcomed the actions taken to date by the UNAIDS Secretariat––and the many still planned – to eliminate all forms of harassment from its workplace and to develop a fully enabling workplace environment.

Following on from the thematic segment on mental health and HIV at the 43^rd board meeting in December 2018, the board called on member states to implement evidence-based policies and programmes, grounded in human rights to promote mental health and quality of life for people living with and affected by HIV, including addressing stigma and discrimination. They also called on the UNAIDS joint programme to review and revise existing guidelines to ensure better integration between HIV and mental health services.

The Board approved UNAIDS 2020-2021 budget of US$ 484 million and the proposed allocation between the 11 cosponsors and the Secretariat. As part of efforts to strengthen accountability, transparency, organizational learning and change within the UNAIDS Secretariat, UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board has approved the establishment of an independent evaluation office which reports to the Board.

The Board meeting included a full-day thematic session on Delivering SDG 3: Strengthening and integrating comprehensive HIV responses into sustainable health systems for Universal Health Coverage. Presentations and statements encouraged Universal Health Coverage efforts to heed the lessons of the HIV response: inclusive health governance; community-based services; responsiveness to human rights principles and the needs of the most vulnerable; innovative health financing; and holistic efforts to address the social and structural determinants of health.

Representatives of United Nations Member States, international organizations, civil society and nongovernmental organizations attended the three-day meeting, which was chaired by China, with the United States of America serving as Vice-Chair and Belarus as Rapporteur.

The report to the Board by UNAIDS Executive Director a.i. and the Board’s decisions can be found at https://www.unaids.org/en/whoweare/pcb/44.

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.

UNAIDS extends its heartfelt thanks to the Executive Director of UNAIDS for his outstanding contribution to the global response to HIV

GENEVA, 8 May 2019—UNAIDS congratulates Michel Sidibé on his appointment as the Minister of Health and Social Affairs of Mali. Mr Sidibé served as the Executive Director of UNAIDS for more than 10 years after being appointed as the second Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations in January 2009.

A true champion for a people-centred approach to health and development and a strong advocate for social justice, Mr Sidibé has made a remarkable contribution to the AIDS response, helping to save and improve the lives of millions of people around the world.

Since Mr Sidibé took up his position as Executive Director of UNAIDS, there has been a 170% increase in the number of people accessing antiretroviral therapy, from 8 million in 2010 to 21.7 million in 2017. There has also been a 45% drop in AIDS-related deaths—from 1.7 million in 2008 to 940 000 in 2017—and new HIV infections have been reduced by 22%—from 2.3 million in 2008 to 1.8 million in 2017.

“It has been an honour for me to serve UNAIDS as its Executive Director and contribute to the global AIDS response,” said Mr Sidibé. “I would like to thank all UNAIDS partners and staff and especially community members affected by HIV, who have made our successes possible. With their steadfast commitment and resolve, we have been able to bring life-saving services to millions of people. If we stay the course and do the right thing, always—putting people first and delivering results for people—we will succeed in ending AIDS.”   

Mr Sidibé’s vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths, and his tireless advocacy to ensure that all people have access to health services, have kept HIV at the top of the global agenda. His calls for global solidarity and shared responsibility have seen resources for HIV increase by more than one third, from US$ 15.9 billion in 2010 to US$ 20.6 billion in 2017 in low- and middle-income countries. His advocacy for country ownership helped to ensure that 56% of HIV resources in low- and middle-income countries now come from domestic sources, promoting long-term sustainable responses to HIV.  

His commitment to the concept of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support meant that the goal of reaching 15 million people living with HIV with antiretroviral therapy by 2015 was achieved seven months ahead of schedule. His focus on the most vulnerable and marginalized has given a voice to the voiceless, including gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, people who inject drugs, prisoners and other incarcerated people, and people on the move.

A strong believer that no child should be born with HIV, his leadership in calling for the elimination of new HIV infections among children contributed to a 60% reduction in new paediatric HIV infections since 2009 in the 21 priority countries of the Global Plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive.

During his tenure, Mr Sidibé spearheaded two of the most successful United Nations General Assembly political declarations on HIV, which named key populations and included ambitious regional and global Fast-Track Targets. He has successfully advocated to take AIDS out of isolation, encouraging a holistic human-rights based approach to include HIV as part of sexual and reproductive health and integrate responses to interlinked diseases, including tuberculosis and cervical cancer.

“I would like to thank United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres for his long-standing support to UNAIDS,” said Mr Sidibé. “I am also grateful to the United Nations system for allowing me to develop my career, from when I started as a short-term junior professional in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the United Nations Children’s Fund in 1987 to becoming Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations some 20 years later—I am eternally thankful for the opportunities I have been given.”

The countries most affected by HIV have rallied behind Mr Sidibé’s call to reach the 90–90–90 targets, whereby 90% of people living with HIV know their status, 90% of people who know their status are accessing treatment and 90% of people on treatment have a suppressed viral load. Some 75% of all people living with HIV now know their HIV status, and focus has been increased on HIV testing and expanding antiretroviral therapy.

His call with partners to establish an HIV prevention coalition led to a new HIV Prevention 2020 Road Map to strengthen and sustain political commitment for primary HIV prevention and establish accountability for delivering services at scale in order to stop new HIV infections.

His commitment to improving the lives of women and girls galvanized action for Security Council resolution 1983 in 2011, which focused on ensuring access to HIV prevention and treatment for women and girls, on the prevention of, and response to, sexual violence related to conflict and on post-conflict peacebuilding.

Mr Sidibé’s strong belief in the power of communities has paved the way for community-led responses to HIV, which have proved to be a gamechanger in increasing the uptake of HIV services and in creating support networks to improve adherence to treatment and quality of life for people living with HIV.  

His undeterred commitment, dedication and passion has allowed Mr Sidibé to engage heads of state, people living with HIV, affected communities, donors, first ladies, parliamentarians, Mayors, civil society, scientists, young people and HIV programme leaders alike, bringing everyone around the same table to galvanize action to end AIDS by developing focused and sustainable solutions that leave no one behind.

Mr Sidibé has been an inspirational leader of UNAIDS and for the global response to HIV, and UNAIDS extends its heartfelt thanks for his years of dedicated service. Mr Sidibé will take on his new role as Minister of Health and Social Affairs of Mali with immediate effect and will be replaced ad interim by UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Management and Governance, Gunilla Carlsson.

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.

Ahead of its 43rd meeting in December, the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) conducted a four-day visit to South Africa between 15 and 18 October. During the visit, the delegates met with a wide range of national and development partners working on the AIDS response and conducted a number of site visits in order to experience the support of the Joint Programme to the national AIDS response in a high-burden country.

South Africa has the largest HIV epidemic in the world, with 7.2 million people living with HIV. In the past 10 years, it has made significant progress in its AIDS response, with 4.4 million people living with HIV on treatment. The country also invests heavily, with approximately 75% of the response funded by the government—just over US$ 2 billion in 2017. However, new HIV infections are high, at 270 000 in 2017.

The PCB delegation, led by the UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Gunilla Carlsson, and Danny Graymore, from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Chair of the PCB, comprised seven representatives of Member States, one civil society representative and a number of participants from the Joint Programme.

“The strength of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board is its unique multistakeholder representation, which includes civil society and United Nations cosponsoring organizations, in addition to Member States,” said Mr Graymore. “The United Kingdom has put a particular focus on prevention for 2019. Coming to South Africa, we wanted to see how to get better results on HIV prevention in the context of a conducive environment and a significant investment in the national response.”

During a meeting with the South African National AIDS Council’s (SANAC) civil society forum, Valeria Rachinska, a PCB delegate from civil society, encouraged members of civil society in South Africa to use their voice in the UNAIDS PCB through the two African region representatives.

“The UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board is unique in that civil society are members and our voice is heard. We can influence the global agenda in this way. I encourage you to get in touch with your African representatives and make your voices heard,” she said in response to concerns about the financing and sustainability of civil society organizations in South Africa.

During the visit, PCB delegates met with other representatives of SANAC, national and local government, civil society and the private sector and visited community-based initiatives in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng Provinces.

“I am delighted to visit South Africa with such a broad and knowledgeable Programme Coordinating Board delegation. It is clear that the support of the Joint Programme is appreciated and important. We need to focus more on HIV prevention and ensure that we reach people being left behind by the AIDS response and find ways to deliver effective prevention services for young women and adolescent girls,” said Ms Carlsson.

The 42nd meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 26 to 28 June.

At the opening, the UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, gave an update on the progress made in the AIDS response and outlined the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. He stressed that the progress made in the AIDS response is uneven and fragile and called for renewed focus and shared commitment to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

Mr Sidibé also emphasized the need for a transformative approach to the epidemic that will include reforming laws and policies to end discrimination, expand community-led, people-centred approaches to HIV service delivery, the use of timely location–population data to inform decision-making, close the funding gap to achieve the Fast-Track Targets and reinforce the linkages between ending AIDS and achieving universal health coverage.

PCB members were also informed about the proactive actions taken to stamp out sexual harassment, unethical workplace behaviour and all forms of abuse at UNAIDS. These actions include establishing an internal five-point plan to ensure that actions are taken rapidly and effectively against inappropriate behaviour and abuse of authority, but also engaging with external stakeholders, including civil society, to gather valuable inputs on how to strengthen UNAIDS’ work in this area.

Later in the day, the PCB received an update on the process of the establishment of the Independent Expert Panel on prevention of and response to harassment, including sexual harassment, bullying and abuse of power at the UNAIDS Secretariat.

The thematic segment of the meeting will take place on the last day and will focus on ending tuberculosis (TB) and AIDS. The participants will consider the challenges to addressing TB, HIV-associated TB and drug-resistant TB in the context of universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals. The participants will also discuss examples of good practice that demonstrate effective collaboration within national TB and HIV programmes and with communities to achieve integrated TB/HIV care and strengthen health systems.

The 42nd meeting of the PCB is being chaired by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with China acting as Vice-Chair and Algeria as Rapporteur.

Sitting across from the bustling main Geneva train station, the lime-green block structure called Quai 9 stands out. The building houses a supervised drug injection centre run by the non-governmental organisation,  Première Ligne. Quai 9 (track 9 in English) also provides primary health care services as part of its harm reduction drop-in centre to people who use drugs.

On the occasion of UNAIDS 41^st meeting mid-December of the Programme Coordinating Board, the Switzerland government organized a visit for UNAIDS board members.

The visit highlighted how addressing the needs of injecting drug users through a public health and human rights-based approach,  considerably reduces the risks of  HIV infection and links people to health care.

The Swiss Ambassador to the United Nations, Mr Valentin Zellweger recalled how in the 1980s and 1990s, Switzerland had one of the highest incidence of HIV in Europe among people who inject drugs. In response to the crisis, Switzerland, introduced a “four pillars” policy, which focused on prevention, treatment, harm reduction and law enforcement.

One of the outcomes was setting up drug injection centres and increasing collaboration between the police and health care clinics.

As a result, HIV infections among people who inject drugs in Switzerland dropped precipitously.

Earlier in the week, Ms Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland, Health minister and current chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, had addressed UNAIDS board members. Ms Dreifuss, who spearheaded the four pillars policy during her tenure, said the evidence that harm reduction and decriminalization of drug use spoke for itself. She urged member states to leave no one behind by ensuring that drug use is treated as a public health issue. That call was further emphasized by members of the NGO delegation. 

UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Luiz Loures commended Switzerland for its innovative, multi-sectoral approach to harm reduction. He said that UNAIDS would continue advocating for evidence-informed, human-rights based AIDS responses such as Quai 9.    

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The 41st meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 12 to 14 December.

At the opening, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé gave an update on the progress made in the AIDS response and outlined the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. He stressed that despite the progress made AIDS is not yet over and outlined the five key challenges that remain unaddressed—reaching the unreached, protecting young women and girls, ensuring that men have access to services, focusing on the regions that are lagging behind and addressing stigma, discrimination and criminalization.

During the opening session, Mr Sidibé also announced that Michel Kazatchkine will be the Special Adviser to UNAIDS on HIV, Tuberculosis and Hepatitis for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

The thematic segment of the PCB meeting will take place on the last day and will focus on accelerating action to end discrimination in health-care settings. The participants will review the evidence of the effects of discrimination in health-care settings on efforts to reach the global HIV prevention and treatment targets and will identify programmatic actions to end such discrimination.

The 41th meeting of the PCB is being chaired by Ghana, with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland acting as Vice-Chair and Japan as Rapporteur.

Discrimination in health-care settings is one of the major obstacles to ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. Evidence shows that discrimination in health-care settings is widespread across the world, seriously reduces the quality of life of people who experience it and impedes the use of health services, thus preventing people exercising their right to health.

In order to accelerate action to end discrimination in health-care settings, the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board—during its 41st meeting, which took place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 12 to 14 December—reviewed the available evidence of the effects of discrimination in health-care settings on the efforts to reach the global HIV prevention and treatment targets and identified programmatic actions to end such discrimination.

Often driven by stigma, discrimination in health-care settings may be manifested when an individual or group is denied access to health-care services that are otherwise available to others, or when care, treatment and/or medical procedures are refused or delayed on a discriminatory basis.

Evidence provided during the meeting shows that discrimination in health-care settings excludes or deters people from seeking health services for fear of stigma, judgemental attitudes or lack of confidentiality. It acts as a barrier to reaching the 90–90–90 targets and has negative impacts along the continuum of care, which encompasses HIV prevention, testing, treatment and sustained viral load suppression.

Where people cannot or will not access health services, they are less likely to be tested for HIV at all, let alone in a timely manner to ensure that they benefit from the early initiation of treatment. Similarly, where people living with HIV do initiate treatment, discrimination can lead to them being lost to follow-up and less likely to adhere to treatment.

Furthermore, health workers are also subject to the same drivers of discrimination as others, including negative attitudes towards people living with HIV, key populations and women and girls. Health-care provider surveys in Thailand reveal that attitudes about HIV among health facility staff may prevent them from adequately caring for people living with or affected by HIV. The attitudes include notions that HIV is a punishment for immoral behaviour, that most people living with HIV do not care if they infect other people and that it can be appropriate to sterilize a woman living with HIV, even without her consent. In some cases, health workers explicitly state that they would prefer not to provide services to members of key populations.

Solving these challenges and eliminating discrimination in health-care settings requires the implementation and scale-up of focused, coordinated, time-bound, evidence-informed, multisectoral actions.

The participants at the meeting agreed upon a set of programmatic approaches to reduce discrimination in health care, including the following:

• Programmes and other measures to eliminate discrimination in health-care settings must be based on the evidence. Discrimination must therefore be monitored, measured and tracked. In particular, it is important to gauge both the experiences of service users and the attitudes and practices of service providers, as well as to monitor the existence and implementation of national-, local- and facility-level non-discrimination policies.
• As part of a comprehensive strategy to eliminate discrimination in health-care settings, countries should provide pre-service and in-service education to the health workforce. This allows health workers to develop human rights and gender equality competencies and strengthens the understanding of medical ethics and workers’ rights, roles and responsibilities in relation to discrimination in health-care settings.
• Countries should review and strengthen laws to prohibit discrimination in the provision and distribution of health services and provide access to remedies for individuals whose rights have been violated, as well as penalties for the perpetrators. Eliminating formal discrimination rooted in laws and policies is one part of the solution. However, states must also put in place measures that protect people living with HIV and members of key populations in and beyond health-care settings.

The participants agreed that addressing stigma and discrimination, including in health-care settings, is a fundamental requirement for achieving the Fast-Track Targets set for 2020 and the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of leaving no one behind.

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