Red Ribbon Award—honouring the best in community support to people living with and affected by HIV
1 December 2015—On this year’s World AIDS Day, UNAIDS and civil society partners, in collaboration with the organizers of the 21st International AIDS Conference, jointly announce a global call for nominations for the 2016 Red Ribbon Award. The award, which will be presented at the 21st International AIDS Conference, to be held in July 2016 in Durban, South Africa, honours community-based organizations for their contributions to the response to AIDS.
Community-based organizations have been instrumental in achieving the progress made so far towards ending the AIDS epidemic, which has seen new HIV infections fall by 35% since 2000 and AIDS-related deaths fall by 42% since the 2004 peak. Moreover, 15.8 million people living with HIV now have access to antiretroviral treatment.
Winning a Red Ribbon Award is highly respected by community-based organizations around the world. In 2014, more than 1000 nominations were received. The award not only brings a deserved spotlight on the most inspiring and innovative community responses, it also highlights the crucial importance of the community response to HIV and helps communities advocate for their involvement in the AIDS response with local, national and global leaders and decision-makers.
The biennial award is given to 10 organizations that have shown outstanding community leadership and action on HIV. The five award categories are:
- Good health and well-being (Sustainable Development Goal 3).
- Reduced inequalities (Sustainable Development Goal 10).
- Gender equality (Sustainable Development Goal 5).
- Just, peaceful and inclusive societies (Sustainable Development Goal 16).
- Global partnerships (Sustainable Development Goal 17).
These categories highlight the key elements of the UNAIDS Fast-Track Strategy targets to be met by 2020 to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. Community-based organizations active in these categories have an important role to play in achieving the UNAIDS 90–90–90 treatment target by 2020 of 90% of people living with HIV knowing their status, 90% of people who know their HIV-positive are on treatment and 90% of people on treatment have suppressed viral loads.
Each winner of the award will receive US$ 10 000. Representatives of each winning body will present the work of their organization, their priorities, the challenges they face and their approaches to community engagement at the 21st International AIDS Conference.
Nominations will be accepted from 1 December 2015 to 14 February 2016. Nominations can be submitted online at www.redribbonaward.org, where further information can be found. Community-based organizations* working to halt and reverse the spread of HIV are encouraged to apply.
* Please note that only community-based organizations with an annual operating budget below US$ 200 000 should be nominated, and that organizations should have been established for more than one year at the time of nomination.
For more information, please visit www.redribbonaward.org.
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.
