The 2011 NGO Report is now available. This year’s report focuses on legal environments and HIV responses.
Go to our special Report page to download the full report and navigate through key findings and information from the report in seven languages.
The Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) is the governing body of UNAIDS and it is made up of Member States, UN agencies and NGO Delegates. Our mission as the PCB NGO Delegation is to ensure that the priorities and interests of affected people, constituencies and communities are considered in UNAIDS decisions and policies.
Call for Nominations for Civil Society Member on the AIDS 2014 & 2016 Conference Coordinating Committee
February 1, 2012
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Call for Nominations for one new CIVIL SOCIETY member on the Conference Coordinating Committee of the International AIDS Conference in 2014 and 2016
(read below for further information or download the complete Call and nomination form)
This is a Call for Nominations for a new civil society member organization to join the Conference Coordinating Committee (CCC) of the International AIDS Conference (IAC) for the next two conferences (AIDS 2014 – to be held in Melbourne, Australia – and AIDS 2016 – location to be determined). The deadline for submission of a nomination is 30 March 2012.
The Conference Coordinating Committee (CCC) is the highest governing body for the International AIDS Conference and is ultimately responsible for the theme, vision, policies, budget guidelines and overall programme of the conference. This available seat on the CCC is to be filled by a regional civil society organization with HIV as a major activity. This new CCC member will replace the existing (AIDS 2010 and AIDS 2012) civil society member, the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC). Other civil society partners for AIDS 2014 are the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+) / International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) and Sidaction.
The organization chosen to fill this seat on the CCC will also become a formal partner to the conference and will be required to designate a representative to serve on the CCC. It is expected that this representative remains the same during tenure of the seat in order to preserve institutional memory within the CCC and within the civil society partner. Organizational support for this representative is critical in carrying out this conference co-organizer role.
This Call for Nominations is published on the websites and networks of the international partners of the International AIDS Conferences, and through selected listservs.
Publication: UNAIDS Guidance for Partnerships with Civil Society, including PLHIV & Key Populations
January 31, 2012
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The UNAIDS PCB NGO Delegation welcomes the publication of the much anticipated UNAIDS guidance for partnerships with civil society, including people living with HIV and key populations (pdf). The creation of this document was based on a decision point from the conclusions of the Second Independent Evaluation (SIE) of UNAIDS at the 25th PCB meeting in December 2009, which requested that:
…the UNAIDS Secretariat to work with Cosponsors to develop an overarching partnership strategy with clear and measurable objectives with distinct strategies for working with both civil society and people living with HIV, and for working with global health initiatives such as the Global Fund, PEPFAR and other bilateral and development partners. Subsidiary recommendations are to:
- develop a shared vision of the potential and expected benefits from civil society and People Living with HIV involvement, a clear set of objectives and a more systematic approach to documenting outcomes;
- develop a common approach across the secretariat and cosponsors to engagement with and capacity-building support for civil society and organizations of People Living with HIV;
- increase support at global and country levels for empowerment and participation of key populations; and
- strengthen efforts to engage with the private sector, including addressing the respective roles of the secretariat and ILO
With UNAIDS’ increasing engagement with civil society through advocacy of representation, capacity-building, and facilitation of resource mobilization, the Joint Programme still needed to increase its investment and inclusiveness in its outreach and to evaluate the impacts of its work. The intent was also to look at how Cosponsors and the Secretariat engage with civil society coherently. You can read the SIE report summary prepared by the NGO Delegation here and the Delegation’s response.
Formal discussions were held at the beginning of 2011; the Delegation, throughout the writing process, tried to ensure that the document properly addressed engagement at all levels and across Cosponsors and included capacity-building and a commitment to PLHIV and key populations. A decision point proposed by the Delegation at the June 2011 28th PCB meeting, guaranteed that the guidance document would be completed by December 2011. The Delegation also successfully advocated that UNAIDS’ Unified Budget, Results and Accountability Framework (UBRAF) make funding to civil society more explicit through indicators; the UBRAF includes a simplified accountability and monitoring framework to show how the Secretariat and Cosponsors carry out the agreed UNAIDS strategy at the global, regional and country levels and so it is the place to monitor all areas of work.
The UNAIDS PCB NGO Delegation welcomes the development of the guidance for partnerships with civil society and looks forward to its implementation in the context of the UNAIDS Strategy 2011–2015, supported by the UBRAF as well as other key UNAIDS programming and budgeting documents which will allow UNAIDS to meet the intent of the original decision point to have a coherent, measurable way of working with civil society.
Statement: The Global Fund and the Crisis of HIV funding
January 30, 2012
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Access the full statement and recommendations in English, French, Spanish and Russian.
Press release ( FR | RU | SP )
UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights Releases Statement and Recommendations on The Global Fund and the Crisis of HIV Funding
Geneva, 30 January 2012 – The November 2011 announcement of the cancellation of the 11th round of funding of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria because of the Fund’s financial difficulties presents the international community with both a health and a human rights crisis. Since its first round of funding in 2002, the Global Fund has played an indispensable role in advancing the health and human rights goals of the global HIV response.
The Global Fund’s financial difficulties are part of a broader global HIV funding crisis. This funding crisis is the most important human rights issue in the HIV response at this time. Paradoxically, funding is being flat-lined or reduced just as science, medicine and programmes are providing the tools for success against HIV.
In the view of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights, the reduction of, or failure to honour, pledged support to the Global Fund by donor governments must be understood for what it is – an abrogation of legally grounded human rights obligations. The Reference Group also believes that, while the Global Fund and other multi and bi-lateral efforts are necessary to ensure that sufficient resources are available to fulfill the right to health, governments of many low- and middle-income countries are not meeting human rights obligations to their people by failing to budget adequately for health. The Global Fund and other forms of international assistance are indispensible, but are not an excuse for developing countries to underfund health generally and HIV specifically.
In this context, the Reference Group makes a number of recommendations, including:
- States should reaffirm their shared responsibility to realize the human rights to health by adequately funding the HIV response. The massive gains in access to HIV prevention, treatment and care services made possible through the Global Fund will be jeopardized if high-income governments fail to live up to their pledges, delay payment of the pledges, and/or fail to commit to increased funding for the Global Fund. Recipient governments must likewise increase their own domestic spending for HIV programmes and honour their commitments to increase general health spending.
- The UNAIDS Executive Director and the staff of the Joint Programme, in the Secretariat and Co-sponsors, should be strong, vocal and consistent advocates for the restoration and increase of financial support to the global AIDS response, including to the Global Fund as one of its main financing mechanisms.
The full text of the Reference Group statement and recommendations can be accessed in English, French, Spanish and Russian, via the website of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board NGO Delegation.
The UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights was established in 2002 to advise the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS on all matters relating to HIV and human rights. The Reference Group speaks with an independent voice; thus, its views do not necessarily reflect the views of the UNAIDS Secretariat or any of the UNAIDS Cosponsors.
The Reference Group thanks Michel Kazatchkine for his leadership and, in particular, for his strong support of human rights during his years at the Global Fund. It urges the incoming, new management to approach the funding crisis as a human rights issue and looks forward to working with it , in particular to ensure full funding of the Global Fund and to support the timely implementation of the human rights components of the new Global Fund strategy.
For additional information about the Reference Group or its statement and recommendations, contact Ralf Jürgens, Reference Group Secretariat, at rjurgens@sympatico.ca.
New Interactive Grants Management Toolkit in Spanish for Global Fund Sub-Recipients
January 30, 2012
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The International HIV/AIDS Alliance and the Secretariat of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria has launched a new interactive grants management toolkit for Global Fund subrecipients in Spanish.
In partnership with Friends of the Global Fund LAC and Fundacion Huesped, the toolkit aims to increase knowledge concerning grants management among implementing organizations working on Global Fund grants.
Copies of the toolkit in DVD format have been sent to all Global Fund Country Coordinating Mechanisms, Principal Recipients and Sub-Recipients throughout the Spanish-speaking region, but it is also available online at http://www.herramientasubreceptor.org.
View the full press release in English and Spanish.
