The NGO Delegation’s Summary Bulletin for the 51st UNAIDS PCB Meeting contains the following sections: Report of the Executive Director; Report by the NGO Representative; Follow-up to the thematic segment from the 50th PCB meeting; Final Report on community-led AIDS responses based on the recommendations of the Multistakeholder Task Team to the UNAIDS 51st PCB; Update on the Global Partnership to eliminate all forms of HIV-related stigma and discrimination; Report of the PCB Bureau to provide recommendations to the Bureau on UNAIDS funding situation (immediate and sustainable); Evaluation and Management Response to the Annual Evaluation Report; Next PCB Meetings; Election of Officers; and Thematic Segment.
Introduction
Xavier Biggs, incoming Latin America and the Caribbean Delegate
The 51st PCB meeting took place from 13 to 16 December in Chiang Mai and was the first in 14 years to happen outside of Geneva. It was hosted by the Government of Thailand in their capacity as the current chair of the PCB. Ahead of the formal meeting, the Thai Government invited the PCB members to participate in a number of field visits to HIV programmes and facilities in and around Chiang Mai.
The meeting itself was in a hybrid format and stretched out over 4 half days. It could only be attended in person by members of the PCB and their delegations. Observer Member States and NGO Observers could only participate virtually through a secured platform. Therefore direct contact between the Delegation and NGO Observers during and after meetings was difficult.
The 51st PCB meeting focused primarily on the need to close major identified gaps in HIV programming, the UNAIDS funding crisis and the need for a fully funded UBRAF if we are to actively advance the cause of ending the AIDS epidemic.
Seven key agenda items were posited and the NGO delegation made interventions for each one in a bid to ensure that the voice for key and marginalised communities was aptly represented.
The chair called on the Member States to arrive at consensus on the way forward and to give their commitments to increased (or continued) funding as needed and to improve the situations of those affected by HIV.
You can read the rest of the bulletin by downloading it in all six official UN languages.