UNAIDS held a multi-stakeholder consultation on the findings and the recommendations made by the Global Review Panel that looked into the future operating model of the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). The consultation covered three critical areas of the report – financing and accountability, joint working, and governance – that must be addressed so that UNAIDS can fulfill its role in reaching the 90-90-90 targets by 2020 and ending AIDS by 2030.
On this International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia (IDAHOT), the NGO Delegation to the UNAIDS PCB celebrates the sexual and gender diversities of our communities. It commemorates those who have suffered or lost their lives due to violence against sexual and gender minorities.
I was requested by Co-Chairs Ambassador Lennarth Hjelmåker of Sweden and Health Minister Awa Coll-Seck of the Republic of Senegal to present the recommendations of the Global Review Panel (GRP) on the third pillar, which is on Governance, at the multi-stakeholder consultation that happened on April 28, 2017.
The NGO Delegation congratulates Erika Castellanos and the Board of Directors of GATE on Ms. Castellanos’ recent appointment as director of programs. Founded in 2009, the Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE) is an organization that promotes and supports transgender and intersex rights.
We join the global community in congratulating Laurel D. Sprague, Ph.D., on her recent appointment as the incoming executive director of GNP+. Dr. Sprague, who served as the North American NGO delegate from the United States from 2014 to 2016, will now move to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, to oversee the largest global network of people living with HIV as the international community seeks to end HIV/AIDS by 2030.
In keeping with the 39th PCB Decision Point 6.4, the PCB requested UNAIDS to establish a Global Review Panel to review the ‘fit for purpose’ and relevance of the UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS. This was intended to respond to the budget crisis facing UNAIDS, with the aim to make the Joint Programme more efficient.
Lucy Wanjiku, leader of Sauti Sikika, an adolescent wing within All In! Kenya, supported by NEPHAK, was recommended by the NGO Delegation to speak at the Thematic Segment of the 38th meeting of the UNAIDS PCB in Geneva last June. Lucy shared what she understood as the role of young people (as part of the broader community most affected by HIV) in ending AIDS by 2030: to be listened to and engaged by committed leaders
According to the “Health for the World’s Adolescents” report in 2014 released by the World Health Organization, AIDS is now the second most common cause of death among adolescents aged 10-19 globally. This does not mean that we have to isolate HIV as an issue. The All-In to End Adolescent AIDS Launch Report by UNICEF early this year shows that adolescent girls are disproportionately affected because of gender-based inequality, age-disparate sex, and intimate partner violence.
One year ago, after two years of organizing by civil society, New York State’s Governor Andrew Cuomo committed to end AIDS as an epidemic in the State of New York by 2020. If achieved, this would make New York the first high HIV incidence jurisdiction in the world to end the epidemic.