In 2008, approximately 33.4 million people were living with HIV (PLHIV) globally, of whom an estimated 2.1 million were children under 15, there were 2.7 million new infections and 2 million people died of AIDS-related causes. While HIV knows no socioeconomic boundaries, it may further compound existing inequalities given the vast majority of PLHIV in the world live in low- and middle-income countries. Approximately 1 billion people globally are undernourished (i.e. they do not have access to enough food to meet their energy needs), 195 million children under 5 are stunted and an estimated 26 million are wasted, and the HIV epidemic overlaps with populations already experiencing low dietary quality and quantity, which has a particularly serious impact on the most vulnerable groups, including children and pregnant and lactating women. In addition, more than 97% of new infections are in low- and middle-income countries. Most notably, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where more than 40% of the population lives on less than one US dollar per day, accounts for more than two thirds (67%) of all PLHIV and for nearly three quarters (72%) of AIDS-related deaths in 2008.

The board adopted the new UNAIDS Strategy with the support of the NGO Delegation. Despite the removal of the word criminalization from the last version of the document, the strategy addresses the removal of punitive laws and upholds strong human rights language. As well, the board reviewed UNAIDS’ progress in implementing the recommendations of the Second Independent Evaluation (SIE) of UNAIDS. The NGO Delegation, as well as other board members, asked UNAIDS to more fully respond to several aspects of the evaluation recommendations, looking for more impact rather than simply a report back on activities. The board reviewed the progress report on the Agenda for Action for Women and Girls, which has been found to be lacking in detail on country level roll out, and ensured that future activities and costing would be reflected in the next UNAIDS budget (called the Unified Budget and Accountability Framework or UBAF). The universal access agenda item did not include the analytical discussions that the NGO Delegation had requested and rather focused on the process of getting to the review meeting in June.