. This welcome attention places a new emphasis upon the need for strong ownership, better coordination and the need to enhance and strengthen capacity building and accountability in the delivery of technical support. This is in the context of the identified need to base national responses more clearly on a “know your epidemic and response” analysis that results in shifting resources and programmes to more equitably and effectively address the populations most at risk and/or affected by it, whether they be women, young people, men who have sex with men, drug users, migrants, sex workers and their clients and other vulnerable groups.

The UNAIDS PCB NGO Delegation, supported by a record number of civil society observers, influenced numerous important agenda items including: prevention among drug users, the gender-sensitivity of the AIDS response, people on the move and a new support facility for African Member States. Building on this year’s NGO report, the NGO Delegation also focused on stigma and discrimination as a key barrier to achieving universal access and has succeeded in bringing this issue as an agenda item for a 2010 board meeting, as well as establishing non-discrimination as a core principle of UNAIDS. Below is an overview of the main outcomes of the meeting.