GENEVA, 16 June 2022—In advance of the meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board taking place 21-24 June, UNAIDS is reporting publicly on the steps taken to date to strengthen accountability, counter harassment and build a safe, equal and empowering workplace. 

Human rights, equality and dignity are at the heart of UNAIDS mission and are fundamental to its operations. In 2018, an independent expert panel underscored the need to address the organizational systems and culture of the time that had failed to tackle unacceptable behaviour of some employees. UNAIDS put in motion a Management Action Plan and has continued  to work to ensure that sexual harassment and all other forms of abusive conduct are addressed, and that victims are provided with adequate support and effective complaint handling mechanisms.

“Ensuring that UNAIDS is a safe, equal and empowering workplace has been my top priority from my arrival,” said Executive Director Winnie Byanyima. “The independent expert panel report of 2018 showed that UNAIDS systems, culture and leadership had got it wrong. I have been determined that past failings are addressed by delivering justice in cases and by continuing to transform our systems and culture to ensure that UNAIDS reflects the values we espouse.”  

The process of transformation of systems and culture to ensure a safe, equal and empowering workplace has included: strengthening the UNAIDS Secretariat’s capacities and systems for accountability; ensuring the organization’s duty of care responsibilities to its staff are being met; and advancing feminist and anti-racist leadership principles in all UNAIDS work.

The set of actions that have been taken by UNAIDS include the following:

• The Culture Transformation Process, now in its third year, which has facilitated development of Feminist Principles for UNAIDS and an Anti-Racist and Intersectional Feminist organizational development framework. The positive change brought about through these actions has been recognised by staff, the Programme Coordinating Board, and by UNAIDS international partners. 
• The launch of a multi-year Respect Campaign to enhance awareness for prevention and early action to ensure zero tolerance against abusive conduct.
• The establishment of a staff well-being support service with a full-time counsellor for staff wellbeing and mental health and an externally sourced global service provider .
• The launch of the first benchmarked Global Staff Survey at the Secretariat in more than a decade, measuring UNAIDS against peer organizations and gathering real-time data about issues staff are facing and how staff experience the organization. Every unit develops and implements a follow-up action plan. 
• The strengthening of the independence of the UNAIDS ethics function, and the establishment of an Independent External Oversight Advisory Committee of the Board.
• The introduction of a strengthened and expanded policy on preventing and addressing harassment, sexual harassment and abuse, discrimination and other forms of abusive conduct, drawing on best practice in UN and other entities, and accompanied by mandatory training for all staff.
• The strengthening of the investigation function and ensuring that measures are taken to protect victims, whistleblowers and witnesses. UNAIDS signed a new Memorandum of Understanding with the WHO/IOS investigation service, which governs all UNAIDS investigations and includes provisions to ensure that investigations are carried out expeditiously.
• The placement of the Integrity Hotline on the UNAIDS website, including a QR code option, to facilitate complaints to be made by anyone using the online platform, email or phone.
• Enhancing transparency by presenting an annual report on disciplinary and other corrective action taken. The report contains case statistics, case summaries and information on specific actions taken.      

These steps forward are not the end of the journey. Further action to strengthen accountability and equality in systems and culture continues.

“Whilst we are moving in the right direction, we will not let up,” said Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, “We still have more to do. We will continue to take necessary measures to ensure a culture of zero tolerance of sexual harassment and abuse, and other forms of misconduct, such as bullying, racism and discrimination across all UNAIDS offices. Justice is what drives me as the leader of UNAIDS, and it is what drives the mission of UNAIDS. The MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements have shown the deep-seated inequalities and injustices within institutions. UNAIDS Global AIDS Strategy focuses on ending inequalities to end AIDS. To do this effectively, we will tackle head on the inequalities and injustices that exist within UNAIDS and the UN system. We will further strengthen our work both on organisational systems and on culture, to ensure safety, equality and empowerment for all.”

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.

HIV medicine manufacturer Viiv has announced that it is “actively negotiating” a voluntary license with the Medicines Patent Pool on long-acting Cabotegravir. 

The World Health Organization will soon issue updated global guidelines on the appropriate application of new long-acting HIV medicines. 

Responding to the announcement made by Viiv, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director a.i. Matt Kavanagh said:

“Last year there were 1.5 million new HIV infections, which shows the urgency of global access to new tools to overcome this pandemic. A successful global HIV response depends on the sharing of technologies. We are encouraged by ViiV’s announcement of negotiations with the Medicines Patent Pool, which has followed engagement by UN partners, financing agencies, civil society, and others. The announcement is an important sign of progress toward affordable global access to this technology for the HIV response; it now needs to be followed by rapid action, in order to translate promises into medicines. 

To have transformative impact as a tool for HIV prevention on the scale needed, it is vital that a license for this long-acting antiretroviral come quickly, with open non-exclusive terms for use and production across the world’s low- and middle-income countries. The licensing agreement should also be accompanied by an effective transfer of a technology package, to facilitate quality-assured manufacturers around the world to produce the medicines as soon as possible.  There is an urgent need for large-scale production to get underway in Africa, Asia, Latin America and beyond, as soon as possible, to minimize the further wait for affordable products where they are most needed. 

Because generic manufacturing will take time to get running, even once a license is agreed, it is also key that ViiV name an interim price that is affordable for low- and middle-income countries. 

Those who need new HIV prevention tools most are too often those who get access last — but this need not happen. 

We can, as promised, end AIDS as a public health crisis by 2030 – if leaders act boldly to address the inequalities which have driven it. Hoarding life-saving science hurts everyone; it perpetuates pandemics. Sharing life-saving science benefits everyone."

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.

GENEVA, 24 May 2022— At the seventy-fifth World Health Assembly, taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, UNAIDS has urged leaders to tackle the global inequalities that drive pandemics such as HIV and COVID-19. UNAIDS highlighted that respect for everyone’s human rights is essential for achieving health for all.

In her address to the World Health Assembly today, the UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima, urged leaders to urgently prioritize the investments needed to stop the AIDS pandemic as well as better prepare the world for future pandemics and ensure health security for everyone.

“The world remains dangerously unprepared to stop today’s pandemics or prevent those of the future because we lack effective plans to ensure access to health technologies and finance trusted community-led organizations for pandemic response,” said Ms Byanyima. “We can beat pandemics and we can protect the health of all if we are bold in tackling inequalities, if we place human rights at the centre of our response.”

Ms Byanyima’s speech touched on three main areas of pandemic preparedness: access, financing and communities.

Communities: to defeat pandemics and protect the health of all people, we need sufficiently financed community-led organizations providing services, doing outreach and providing trusted information as an integral part of the public health response. Communities, who know the situation on the ground best and have the essential relationships of trust, need to be given the resources and the space to lead.

Access: to end AIDS, beat COVID-19 and stop the pandemics of the future, global access to life-saving, pandemic-ending health technologies is critical. We need to replace intellectual property rules that restrict access to life-saving medicines for people in the Global South with those that require technology sharing. This would open up access to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments and to new emerging long-acting medicines for HIV prevention and treatment, as well as for medicines for other pandemics.

Financing: our collective health security, and the effectiveness of global pandemic responses, requires that we adequately finance them. This includes fully funding the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This means too that low- and middle-income countries need to be able to increase health investments through progressive domestic resource mobilization and international solidarity, not be shackled by debt or marginalized in the allocation of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights.

During the World Health Assembly, UNAIDS applauded the progress made in developing a new pandemic preparedness and response instrument and submitted that it should include the following essential substantive elements:

• Placing human rights at the core of pandemic responses.
• Putting communities at the centre, including participation in pandemic preparedness and response architecture at the national, regional and global levels.
• Ensuring access to health technologies and medical countermeasures as public health goods to allow equitable access by all those in need.
• Building people-focused data systems capable of highlighting inequalities.
• Supporting the health workforce, including community health workers on the pandemic front lines.

UNAIDS also warmly congratulated Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on his reconfirmation as Director-General of the World Health Organization during the World Health Assembly. “Congratulations my brother Tedros! We look forward to continuing our work together to ensure health for all,” said Ms Byanyima.

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.

GENEVA, 19 May 2022— Ahead of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima, has issued an urgent warning that economic recovery and health security plans that do not tackle inequality face catastrophic failure.    

Ms Byanyima brings a message from communities on the frontline that rules which exacerbate inequalities are jeopardising recovery, prolonging the AIDS and COVID pandemics, undermining public health, and endangering everyone. Ms Byanyima is calling on leaders to replace intellectual property rules which restrict access to life-saving medicines for HIV, COVID-19 and other pandemics for people in the Global South with ones that require technology sharing; and to replace debt repayment rules which force low- and middle-income countries to slash spending on education and health, hampering vital HIV prevention and treatment programmes, with ones that expand investments in times of crisis.   

Today’s unjust global rules have hit Africans hardest, and have also widened the gender inequality gap. Ms Byanyima is calling out their “racist and sexist effects”. During 2020, women were 1.4 times more likely to drop out of the labour force. Every week, 4,200 adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa acquire HIV. A year and half since the first doses of a COVID vaccine was delivered, 75% of people in high income countries are fully vaccinated, but under 13% of people in lower income countries are.    

“When COVID-19 hit, Africans were told to stand at the back of the queue while rich countries protected themselves with PPE, vaccines and treatment, told that pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t share their technologies because the vaccine was too ‘complicated’ for us to make,” said Ms Byanyima.    

Ms Byanyima’s comments came following a visit to Afrigen, a South African company, where scientists have developed a new COVID-19 vaccine using available information to create a vaccine similar to the Moderna vaccine which they plan to distribute at an affordable price across the continent: “I saw state of the art facilities, young scientists and passionate leaders building not just vaccines for COVID but also other diseases, other treatments to make Africa prepared so that we never again have to stand at the back of the queue,” said Ms Byanyima. Yet in spite of the huge profits made, western pharmaceutical companies continue to refuse to share their recipes and technologies for public good. In 2021, Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna were estimated to have made pre-tax profits of $34 billion.    

UNAIDS is warning that this pattern of exclusion looks set to be repeated in access to new “long acting” HIV medicines coming on stream. This new set of breakthrough HIV medicines (available for prevention now and set to be available for treatment in the near term) are taken every few months instead of every day, and could, if they are made available at scale as they are rolled out, help save many lives and help end the AIDS pandemic. But high prices and monopolies are set to keep many people in low- and middle-income countries locked out.    

There is an urgent need to reform rules on the protection of intellectual property that have failed the world in these pandemics, so that access to life-saving science is no longer dependent on the passport people hold or the money in their pocket. It is possible to end the AIDS pandemic, beat COVID-19, and stop the pandemics of the future, if biomedical breakthroughs get to all those who need them most. If leaders act on access to long-acting ARVs, many people who would otherwise have acquired HIV will not, people living with HIV who would otherwise have died of AIDS will not, and the well-being and dignity of people at risk of or living with HIV can be enhanced.    

Every minute a life is lost to AIDS. 1.5 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2020. People living with HIV who are active in the fight for equal access to medicines, for debt cancellation, and for health for all, insist that human rights are central to effective pandemic response and public health.     

Exclusionary policies hurt everyone, Ms Byanyima is warning: “When people in low- and middle- income countries are excluded from life-saving health technologies for HIV, COVID-19 or other pandemics, let’s be clear that this also causes deaths in rich countries, perpetuates pandemics, and undermines the global economy.”   

A successful economic recovery must be inclusive. Debt servicing for all the world’s poorest countries debt represented 171% of all spending on healthcare, education and social protection combined for low-income countries in 2021. Health, education and social protection needs require an urgent cancellation of debts. There is a need too for massive new IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) allocation dedicated to low- and middle-income countries, and a reallocation of resources from the 2021 SDR allocation.   

Through debt cancellation and a shift of IMF SDRs, low- and middle- income countries could upscale the investments in health and education that build more equal societies and stop pandemics like AIDS and COVID-19. Through new rules requiring pharmaceutical companies to share the rights and recipes for life-saving, pandemic-ending, medicines, it will be possible to protect the health of everyone. The steps needed to end AIDS and beat COVID-19 provide the pathway to pandemic preparedness. “The only realistic strategy for economic recovery, health security and pandemic preparedness is to be bold in fighting inequality,” says Ms Byanyima. 

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.

GENEVA, 22 May 2022—UNAIDS has expressed concern that some public reporting and commentary on Monkeypox has used language and imagery, particularly portrayals of LGBTI and African people, that reinforce homophobic and racist stereotypes and exacerbate stigma. Lessons from the AIDS response show that stigma and blame directed at certain groups of people can rapidly undermine outbreak response.

Since May 13, 2022, an outbreak of Monkeypox has been reported in multiple UN member states where cases are not usually reported. As of May 21, the World Health Organization received reports of 92 laboratory-confirmed cases and 28 suspected cases from 12 Member States not endemic for the disease. A significant portion of the cases have been identified among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, with some cases identified through sexual health clinics. Investigations are ongoing.  WHO notes that available evidence suggests that those who are most at risk are those who have had close physical contact with someone with monkeypox, and that risk is not limited to men who have sex with men.

UNAIDS urges media, governments, and communities to respond with a rights-based, evidence-based approach that avoids stigma.

“Stigma and blame undermine trust and capacity to respond effectively during outbreaks like this one,” said Matthew Kavanagh, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director a.i. “Experience shows that stigmatizing rhetoric can quickly disable evidence-based response by stoking cycles of fear, driving people away from health services, impeding efforts to identify cases, and encouraging ineffective, punitive measures. We appreciate the LGBTI community for having led the way on raising awareness – and we reiterate that this disease can affect anyone.”

The Monkeypox outbreak illustrates that communities will continue to face threats from viruses, and that international coordination and solidarity is essential for public health as viruses can only be overcome globally.

“This outbreak highlights the urgent need for leaders to strengthen pandemic prevention, including building stronger community-led capacity and human rights infrastructure to support effective and non-stigmatizing responses to outbreaks,” noted Dr. Kavanagh. “Stigma hurts everyone. Shared science and social solidarity help everyone.”

UNAIDS urges all media covering Monkeypox to follow the regular updates being issued by WHO.

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.

Urgent call issued for a dramatic upscaling of international support for the heroic efforts of civil society-led networks to reach people with life-saving HIV treatment 

GENEVA, 13 April 2022—The war in Ukraine has resulted in the destruction and disruption of health services and logistical supply chains that hundreds of thousands of people living with and affected by HIV depend on for survival. More than a quarter of a million Ukrainians are living with HIV, and lack of access to antiretroviral therapy and prevention services would mean a wave of deaths and risks a resurgence of Ukraine’s AIDS pandemic. The community-led networks which are vital to maintaining life-saving services need an urgent upscaling of international support.  

More than 40 health facilities that offered HIV treatment, prevention and care services before the war are now closed and there are various levels of service disruption at other sites. By 11 April, the World Health Organization (WHO) had verified more than 100 attacks on health facilities in Ukraine, while supply routes within the country have been thrown into disarray. The United Nations Children’s Fund reports that attacks on water system infrastructure and power outages have left an estimated 1.4 million people without access to water, while another 4.6 million have only limited access. Meanwhile, the World Bank has said it expects Ukraine’s economy to shrink by 45% this year, posing a dire threat to the maintenance of vital health and social programmes. 

An initial delivery of more than 18 million doses of life-saving antiretroviral medicine procured by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) that arrived in Lviv last week is now being distributed in partnership with the Public Health Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and 100% Life, the largest organization of people living with HIV in Ukraine. If they can be delivered to those in need, the medicines are sufficient to cover a six-month supply for all people living with HIV on first-line treatment. This first tranche is part of PEPFAR’s commitment to fund 12-month HIV treatment needs in Ukraine. UNAIDS estimates that 260 000 people were living with HIV in Ukraine before the war broke out, 152 000 of whom were taking daily medication for HIV.  

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) is also providing emergency funding to ensure the continuity of life-saving HIV and tuberculosis services. 

Attention is now on ensuring that the life-saving HIV medicines reach all people in need in time. Civil society organizations are mounting a heroic effort to deliver vital medical supplies and HIV services to people living with and affected by HIV, including to vulnerable populations. They are reaching people in extraordinary challenging locations, despite the huge obstacles. But the civil society organizations on which this delivery and care system depends need further international support to be able to continue their work.  

“The situation for people living with HIV in Ukraine is desperate. We are trying to deliver medicines, food and other emergency assistance to people in need, but the work is dangerous and volunteers are putting their lives at risk,” said Dmytro Sherembey, Head of the 100% Life Coordination Council. “If we don’t get more help, I am not sure how much longer we can continue, especially reaching people in the front-line zones.” 

UNAIDS, which has released an initial US$ 200 000 in emergency funds to address urgent humanitarian and programme demands in seven cities that have large HIV epidemics (Chernihiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kryvy Rih, Kyiv, Odesa and Poltava), has issued an urgent call to the international community for an additional US$ 2.42 million for civil society organizations providing HIV services in Ukraine and for those receiving refugees affected by HIV in other countries, as part of the wider upscaling needed.  

“Civil society organizations and communities of people living with and affected by HIV are the bedrock of the HIV response in Ukraine,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “They urgently require additional financial and logistical support to ensure the continuity of HIV treatment, care and prevention programmes. We urge all donors to be part of enabling this vital service to save lives and prevent a resurgence of the AIDS pandemic in Ukraine.”  

It is only because Ukraine’s pioneering response to HIV has been a partnership between public and community-led provision that it has been able to continue to provide for people even through the horrors of war. But the civil society networks, on whose creativity and courage the HIV services depend, require a boost in international support to ensure continued operations at the level required.  

Getting medical supplies and services to vulnerable groups of people remains extremely challenging and UNAIDS is working with humanitarian partners in Ukraine and internationally to advance urgent solutions to provide medical and humanitarian support to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians.  

The Alliance for Public Health is working to provide the emergency support needed during the conflict, using minibuses to meet pressing humanitarian needs, including the evacuation of vulnerable populations and the delivery of food and medicines. Communities on the front line of the response are making exceptional efforts to reach people. For example, mobile clinics have been deployed by the Alliance for Public Health to take opioid substitution therapy to people who use drugs in areas where facilities have been forced to close. UNAIDS is also working with the Global Fund and with a UNAIDS Cosponsor, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, to obtain additional supplies of opioid substitution therapy. 

The conflict has forced millions of Ukrainians to leave the country and thousands of Ukrainian women and children living with HIV are in need of support in host countries. Civil society networks supported by UNAIDS Cosponsors and partners are helping refugees access antiretroviral therapy in the Republic of Moldova and across the European Union.  

WHO has helped to broker a deal with the pharmaceutical company ViiV Healthcare to provide donations of HIV medicines to Czechia, Poland and other European Union countries receiving large numbers of Ukrainian refugees.  

UNAIDS is also urging the international community to help refugee accommodation centres strengthen their support for people facing the highest risks, by expanding psychosocial services, HIV treatment and prevention services, and services related to gender-based violence. A UNAIDS Cosponsor, UN Women, has said that reports of sexual abuse and human trafficking in Ukraine indicate a protection crisis. UNAIDS has warned of increased risks for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. 

Ms Byanyima reaffirmed the United Nation’s call for an end to the war. “The biggest need is for peace”, said Ms Byanyima. “The war in Ukraine must stop—now. Recovery requires an end to this war. And even when it ends there will be so much help needed. Ukrainians living with HIV have been put in grave danger by this war. The civil society-led responder networks for HIV services who risk their lives to save lives need every possible support.” 

HIV hotline number in Ukraine: 0800 500 451. 

More support for Ukrainian refugees living with HIV can be found on the ART Initiative for Ukrainians Abroad website, which was established in coordination with Ukraine’s Public Health Center. More precise data on the whereabouts and needs of people living with HIV in Ukraine and those forced to flee the country are being collected. 

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.

DUBLIN/GENEVA, 1 March 2022—Ireland has today announced that it is increasing its core funding for UNAIDS from €2.4 million in 2021 to €2.5 million in 2022. The announcement was made at a meeting in Dublin between Ireland’s Minister for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora, Colm Brophy, and the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima.

Ireland has been a partner and supporter of UNAIDS for more than 20 years. It has supported programmes that reduce the impact of HIV among some of the most-at-risk groups, including gay men and other men who have sex with men and young women and girls. In addition to the €2.4 million contribution in 2021, Ireland provided €1 million in support of UNAIDS’ zero discrimination agenda.

“Ireland is a strong leader in the global AIDS response and continues to be a steadfast ally to UNAIDS,” said Ms Byanyima. “This additional financial contribution from Irish Aid is an important signal at a time when the world must step up its efforts to remove laws that harm and instead create laws that empower so that people can receive life-saving and life-changing HIV services.”  

This year on Zero Discrimination Day, which is being held under the theme “Remove laws that harm, create laws that empower”, UNAIDS is highlighting the urgent need to take action against discriminatory laws. In many countries, laws result in people being treated differently, excluded from essential services or being subject to undue restrictions on how they live their lives, simply because of who they are, what they do or who they love. Such laws are discriminatory—they deny human rights and fundamental freedoms.

On Zero Discrimination Day, 1 March, we celebrate the right of everyone to live a full and productive life—and live it with dignity and free from discrimination.

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.

GENEVA, 19 January 2022—The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship has announced that the Director of Innovation at UNAIDS, Pradeep Kakkattil, has been awarded a 2022 Social Innovators of the Year award. Mr Kakkattil received the prestigious award for his work in creating the Health Innovation Exchange (HIEx), a platform that links innovators, governments and investors and finds solutions to global health-care problems, from COVID-19 diagnosis to the cost of medicines.

“Today, one in every two people around the world don’t have access to basic health care, which is why social innovations and technologies are so critical to scale up services and address the ever-widening inequalities in access to health care,” said Mr Kakkattil.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, innovators and communities have demonstrated the potential of human ingenuity in responding to health challenges. By bringing health system actors to work closely with innovators and communities, HIEx has been able to fast-track the adoption of innovations and facilitate investments for scaling up innovations that particularly address the needs of the most vulnerable.

“HIV and COVID-19 have shown the price the world has to pay if we ignore investing in resilient health systems,” added Mr Kakkattil. “HIEx contributes to build trust between the public and private sectors to help identify challenges and rapidly implement proven technologies and innovations to maximize health impact.”

The announcement was made on the second day of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda 2022, a virtual forum bringing global leaders together to focus on shaping solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. Mr Kakkattil was among 15 Social Innovators of the Year awardees, who included a Brazilian entrepreneur using hip-hop to turn favela youth away from crime, a Dutch nurse revolutionizing home health care and a park ranger turned tech founder using Minecraft to revive Australia’s indigenous culture.

“The Social Innovators of the Year 2022 represent a new ecosystem of leaders who are driving change and shifting organizations and systems towards a more just, inclusive, sustainable future,” said Hilde Schwab, co-founder and Chairperson of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

The foundation was created in 1998 by Klaus and Hilde Schwab to support a new model for social change, combining the values of mission, compassion and dedication with the best business principles to serve the most disadvantaged and build a better society. For the past 20 years, the foundation has supported the world’s leading social entrepreneurs in their efforts to create a more just, equitable and sustainable world.

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.

GENEVA, 14 December 2021—The 49th meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB), which commenced on 7 December 2021, closed on 10 December.

In her opening remarks to the meeting, the UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima, thanked the Honourable Dr. Kalumbi Shangula, Minister of Health of Namibia for Namibia’s leadership as PCB chair and reflected on the foundations that have been laid over the course of the year for the future HIV response. These include the Global AIDS Strategy 2021–2026: End Inequalities, End AIDS and the new United Nations Political Declaration on AIDS and its related targets as well the UNAIDS Unified Budget Results and Accountability Framework 2022-2026. “This year, we put in place the foundations we need to end AIDS by 2030. The challenge now is to deliver on that plan,” Ms Byanyima said.

Ms Byanyima also spoke about the recent Structured Funding Dialogue convened to deepen the understanding of UNAIDS’ work and role in global health in the light of the significant shortfalls in funding that UNAIDS is experiencing.

Ms Byanyima, who began by paying tribute to the efforts of staff during this exceptionally challenging year, updated the Board on the process of implementing an organizational alignment of the UNAIDS Secretariat to ensure that it is modernized and efficient. “The new structure will bring us closer to countries and to the communities we serve, as well enable us to deliver on the strategy and help realize the transformational agenda needed to end AIDS by 2030,” she said, committing that the process would be implemented in a fair and transparent manner with support provided to staff who may be affected.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the HIV response were set out by the Executive Director. She noted that COVID-19 continues to disrupt HIV prevention and treatment services, schooling, violence prevention programmes and more, but that UNAIDS was supporting countries and partners to simplify and adapt HIV services in ways that both serve the needs of people living with HIV better and reduce unnecessary burdens on the health system.

Ms Byanyima spoke about the need to scale up access to pre-exposure prophylaxis and other HIV prevention options, which are key elements in the Global AIDS Strategy 2021–2026.

The PCB representative of the nongovernmental organization delegation addressed the Board on the key importance of scaling up work on societal enablers in the HIV response, noting the central role that communities must play to end AIDS as public health threat by 2030.

South African public health medicine specialist, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, addressed the PCB in the Leadership in the AIDS Response session. He stressed the need to scale up HIV treatment for people living with HIV and ensure that they have access to COVID-19 vaccination, since COVID-19 infections among people who are immunocompromised could lead to mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. He also strongly argued against stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV and against blaming them for SARS-CoV-2 mutations. He stressed the importance of community engagement to end inequalities and urged participants to stay focused on ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

The PCB was given an update on HIV in prisons and other closed settings at which the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Ghada Fati Waly, spoke. The PCB called on countries to introduce and scale up evidence-based, gender-responsive and people-centred programmatic actions to ensure equal access for people in prisons and other closed settings to comprehensive and integrated HIV, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis prevention, diagnosis and treatment services.

Following on from the approval of the Unified Budget, Results and Accountability Framework (UBRAF) for 2022–2026 at a special session of the PCB in October 2021, the PCB received the outputs and indicators for the 2022–2026 UBRAF and a revised workplan for 2022–2023. Through the approval of the 2022-2023 workplan, the PCB provided the UNAIDS Joint Programme with a frame for scaling up its support to countries in implementing the Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026. Many delegations stressed the importance of fully funding of the core UBRAF at US$ 210 million to be commensurate with the level of ambition of the Global AIDS Strategy, and some spoke to recent decisions of increased funding for the Joint Programme.

The progress on actions to reduce stigma and discrimination in all its forms, provides evidence that HIV-related stigma and discrimination remain among the major obstacles blocking the path to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Stigma and discrimination violate the rights and dignity of people living with or affected by HIV and result in denying them access to HIV prevention, testing and treatment services. Even in countries and regions showing strong progress towards ending their AIDS epidemics, stigma and discrimination continue to impede equitable progress. The PCB made bold calls to urgently end stigma and discrimination.

The PCB concluded with a thematic segment entitled What Does the Regional and Country-Level Data Tell Us, Are We Listening and How Can We Better Leverage that Data and Related Technology to Meet our 2020 and 2030 Goals? The segment explored how data, the bedrock of the progress against the AIDS pandemic over the past two decades, can be better collected and better used in the HIV response.

The meeting was chaired by Minister of Health of Namibia with Thailand serving as the Vice-Chair and the United States of America as Rapporteur. The report to the Board by the UNAIDS Executive Director, the reports for each agenda item and the PCB’s decisions can be found at www.unaids.org/en/whoweare/pcb/49.

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.

With millions of lives on the line, UNAIDS and WHO World AIDS Day event saw global partners, including Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, urgently call for expanded access to health treatments and technologies and for human rights to be upheld

GENEVA, 1 December 2021—On the occasion of World AIDS Day 2021, UNAIDS, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners came together at a special event in Geneva, Switzerland, to highlight the urgent need to end the economic, social, cultural and legal inequalities that drive the AIDS pandemic and other pandemics around the world.

“We are issuing an urgent warning. Only by moving fast to end the inequalities that drive the AIDS pandemic can we overcome it,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “World leaders must work together urgently to tackle the challenges head-on. I urge you: be courageous in matching words with deeds. It is outrageous that every minute that passes, we lose a precious life to AIDS. We don’t have time to waste.”

The world is off track from delivering on the shared commitment to end AIDS by 2030. In 2020 there were 37.7 million people living with HIV, 1.5 million new HIV infections and 680 000 AIDS-related deaths. Around 65% of HIV infections globally were among key populations, including sex workers and their clients, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs and transgender people, and their sexual partners.

“Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many of the populations most at risk were not being reached with HIV testing, prevention and care services,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “The pandemic has made things worse, with the disruption of essential health services, and the increased vulnerability of people with HIV to COVID-19. Like COVID-19, we have all the tools to end the AIDS epidemic, if we use them well. This World AIDS Day, we renew our call on all countries to use every tool in the toolbox to narrow inequalities, prevent HIV infections, save lives and end the AIDS epidemic.”

If the world does not tackle discrimination and inequalities, UNAIDS and WHO warn that the next decade could see 7.7 million AIDS-related deaths.

A powerful video narrated by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and Ms Byanyima was screened at the event demonstrating the disturbing parallels between access to HIV treatment and access to COVID-19 vaccines. Between 1997 and 2006, it is estimated that 12 million people died of AIDS-related illnesses in low- and middle-income countries as the price of medicines rendered them out of reach for many of the countries most affected by HIV. Today, 10 million people around the world still do not have access to the life-saving HIV medicines. The Duke of Sussex urged the world to learn from the history of AIDS and overcome the inequitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and to ensure that new HIV medicines and technologies are available to all.

A letter from the Duke of Sussex to WHO and UNAIDS was read out, in which he commemorated the 40 years of AIDS and expressed his gratitude for the work accomplished to date. In the letter he stressed the need for COVID-19 vaccine equity, drawing from the lessons learned from HIV.

Speakers highlighted the impact of HIV on young people. “Young people continue to be stigmatized, especially those in key populations, and inequalities continue to compromise the quality of our lives,” said Joyce Ouma, from the Global Network of Young People Living with HIV.

“Young people are the future of nations and the cornerstone of the global AIDS response,” said Anutin Charnvirakul, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health, Thailand. “Eradicating all kinds of stigma must be our full global commitment with immediate action.”

During the event, the participants commemorated the lives of the 36 million people who have died from AIDS since the start of the pandemic and highlighted the urgent need to do more for the people most affected by HIV.

The Ambassador of Namibia, Julia Imene-Chanduru, representing the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board Chair, said, “AIDS remains an emergency that we must not forget in our response to COVID-19.”

Speakers urged all countries, partners and civil society to be bold in taking forward the commitment made in the Political Declaration on AIDS adopted at the 2021 United Nations High-Level Meeting on AIDS and in the Global AIDS Strategy 2021–2026: End Inequalities, End AIDS, both having ending inequalities at their core.

“We can see the importance of UNAIDS’ strategy, with an emphasis on ending inequalities,” said Stephanie Seydoux, French Ambassador for Global Health. “This is what allows us to make progress in the fight against this pandemic, and to ensure health for everyone.”

“We know how to beat AIDS and we know how to beat pandemics,” added Ms Byanyima. “The policies to address the inequalities standing in the way of progress can be implemented, but they require leaders to step up and be bold.”

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.