48th PCB Meeting Documents

Thursday, May 27, 2021 by Admin   Filed in: PCB Meeting

Here are the documents related to the 48th PCB Meeting (29 June - 2 July 2021):

Decisions

Documents of the meeting:

Conference Room Papers


Documents are updated as they are uploaded to the UNAIDS 48th PCB website. (updated 12 June 2021, 11:30 CEST)

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Letter to Merkel and von der Leyen: UN HLM on HIV political leadership and strong language on TRIPS flexibilities more important than ever!

Wednesday, May 26, 2021 by Admin   Filed in: Notice

Included in the link below is an open letter to the President of the European Union Ursula von der Leyen and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel with some requests regarding the ongoing negotiations at the United Nations General Assembly on the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS. In light of the current global health emergency situation, we highlight the importance of the Trips flexibilities, global solidarity (not only in words but in financial contributions) and political leadership.

We look mainly for NGOs from the EU region and Germany (international NGOs can of course sign too). Deadline is Thursday, May 27, 1 PM CET (Brussels time). The letter will be sent to Merkel and von der Leyen you will receive a copy with all signatures afterwards. Please excuse the short deadline.
Please spread this call in your networks and use the following link for your support: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TyfUISsrZ2Zf7H5HKWTupBNMTVrOYmXomRm5bxvqD08/edit?usp=sharing

To be included into the list of supporting NGOs the name of your NGO, Country and your E- mail address (for further correspondence) is needed.
Should you have problems with the link, you can as well send your support to: info@aids-kampagne.de. Please use the headline: “Letter Merkel + von der Leyen”
With best regards and thanks for your support!

Action against AIDS, Germany

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​Asia-Pacific Regional Civil Society Statement for the 2021 High-Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS

Tuesday, May 25, 2021 by Admin   Filed in: Notice

The Asia-Pacific region was home to an estimated 5.8 million people living with HIV in 2019. The HIV epidemic in Asia and the Pacific is largely concentrated and spreading within key population groups. Sex workers and sexual partners of key populations, people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, transgender people, migrants, people in prisons and other closed settings, and young key populations aged 10-24 years are among those most affected.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought inequalities to the forefront and exposed the fragility of the gains the region has made so far. Challenges include limited or lack of government support for key populations who are experiencing loss of income and household, increased gender-based violence (GBV), stigma and discrimination, disruption to HIV and other health services, criminalisation of key populations, shrinking space for civil society, cuts in HIV funding and shifting funding priorities.

Ahead of the 2021 UN High-Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS, regional and national key population networks, and organisations and groups in Asia and the Pacific came together to develop this collective statement to highlight the key issues and concerns affecting our communities.

We call on the Member States to adopt the recommendations presented in this statement and commit to guaranteeing the fundamental human rights of all people, including the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.

Below are the key issues we jointly want to recommend.

1. Access to HIV prevention and treatment services

Access to HIV prevention and treatment services need to be urgently strengthened in Asia and the Pacific, where there are clear signs of a second wave of HIV epidemics.

The region is falling short on prevention programming, and key populations and their partners are not accessing the HIV services they need. The vast majority of new HIV infections in the region are among people from key populations and their partners or clients (98%, compared with the global estimate of 62%). In particular, young people are falling behind. In 2019, around a quarter of total new infections occurred among people aged 15–24 years, with 99% of all new HIV infections among young people from key populations and their partners.

An increased focus on HIV prevention is critical in this region because, if countries lower their guard in the HIV response, it will be difficult to keep the HIV epidemic under control. There is an urgent need to prioritise and scale-upinnovations and proven prevention methods, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), self-testing, harm reduction and comprehensive sexuality education in and out of school.

Furthermore, service delivery needs to be modernised, with increased national investments to improve coordination and managerial capacity to transfer domestic funding to community-led and civil society organisations directly and integrate key population-led service delivery into the health system. There must be a greater focus on differentiated care to cater to the needs of all key populations, including young people.

Urgent call to action

● Member States need to refocus their efforts on intensifying prevention and improving the quality of treatment and care. This includes the scale-up of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), self-testing, same-day antiretroviral therapy, updating treatment literacy, hepatitis testing and treatment, multi-month dispensing of ARVs, telemedicine, comprehensive sexuality education in and out of school, and adequate mental health support.

● Member States must ensure access to combination HIV prevention for gay men and men who have sex with men, transgender people, sex workers, people who use drugs and other key populations.

● Member States must implement and support comprehensive harm reduction services— including needle– syringe programmes, opioid substitution therapy, naloxone and safe consumption rooms—on a scale that can be easily, voluntarily and confidentially accessed by all people who use drugs.

● Member States must ensure that HIV programmes, including HIV prevention, are mainstreamed into Universal Health Care schemes, fully funded and sustainable.

● Member States need to strengthen partnerships with civil society and community-based organisations to expand the reach of service delivery.

● Member States must use social contracting modalities and simplify eligibility requirements for engaging civil society and community-led organisations for the delivery of community-led services.

● Member States need to institutionalise community capacities to provide a differentiated approach across prevention, treatment, and care cascade for key populations.

● There is a need for differentiated service delivery models for transgender people, including integrating gender-affirming care services (e.g. gender-affirming hormone therapy or GAHT and transition-related counseling).

● Differentiated and youth-friendly HIV services must be integrated into sexual and reproductive health services.

2. Uphold and protect human rights of key populations and vulnerable groups

Stigma and discrimination and hostile legal and political environments in several countries continue to hinder access to HIV services among key populations and young people. Key populations are deterred from accessing HIV services out of fear of being recognised, discriminated against, judged and arrested.

In the region, 37 countries criminalise sex work, 11 have compulsory detention centres for people who use drugs, 15 have the death penalty for drug-related offences, and 16 criminalises same-sex relations (UNAIDS Data Hub, 2020). In 10 countries, transgender people are criminalized due to their gender identity and/or expression, using so-called ‘cross-dressing’, ‘impersonation’ and ‘disguise’ laws (Human Dignity Trust). In 31 countries, young people under 18 still need parental consent to access HIV testing and treatment (UNFPA, 2020).

The criminalisation of people who use drugs in many Asian countries has led to the downfall of the harm reduction approach leading to several challenges in the service delivery response towards HIV, hepatitis and TB.

Urgent call to action:

● Member States must remove punitive and discriminatory laws, including the criminalization of drug use, sex work, and same-sex relations, and gender identity and/or expression.

● Member States must stop harmful practices and protect the right of women and girls to make informed decisions about their bodies and their sexual and reproductive health.

● Member States must close all compulsory detention and rehabilitation centres, where people suspected of using drugs or engaging in sex work are detained, in the name of voluntary treatment or rehabilitation.

● Member States must remove travel restrictions for people living with HIV.

● Member States must guarantee an enabling environment in which key populations and people living with HIV can live a life without fear, in freedom, free from discrimination, and to be enabled to reach their full potential.

● Member States need to urgently implement lines of action designed to sustain and ensure the continuity of the work of civil society and human rights defenders – the capacities existing within this sector must not be put in peril.

● Member States must ensure that available health services comply with human rights standards. All forms of violence, discrimination, and coercive practices towards transgender people, other key populations, people living with HIV, and women and girls in healthcare settings must end.

● Member States should use a human-rights-based approach to ensure that law enforcement officers focus on increasing safety rather than arrests, violence, surveillance or other coercive measures.

3. Address and prevent gender-based violence

Pervasive gender inequality, patriarchy and discrimination undermine the progress in the HIV response and gender based violence continues to be a global epidemic.

Quarantine and lockdowns during COVID-19 have seen communities limited to the confines of their homes and other places where they reside, which in some cases are unsafe or unsupportive. Emerging data suggest that sexual and/or physical violence perpetrated by an intimate partner or relatives has intensified cases of abuse targeting women and girls, as well as rape and harassment targeting LGBTIQ+ people.

Gender-based violence undermines a person’s agency and well-being, their ability to access health services, psychological and mental health services, seek employment, and have financial autonomy. Gender-based violence also applies to the LGBTIQ+ community, who continue to experience discrimination and acts of abuse and violence on the basis of sexual orientation, and gender identity and/or expression.

Urgent call to action:

● Member States must reaffirm their commitment to end gender-based violence and address harmful gender norms and toxic masculinities.

● Member States should scale up, resource and sustain as essential services the support systems and mechanisms for reporting and responding to all forms of violence against women and girls, LGBTIQ+ people, key populations, domestic and intimate partner violence and gender-based violence.

● Member States must ensure safe housing, shelter and support for survivors to be separated and protected from perpetrators. In addition, laws protecting women and members of the LGBTIQ community from GBV should be in place and enforced, including legal means of redress and holding perpetrators accountable.

● Member States must use gender desegregated data and research to inform policies and advocacy for gender equity and equitable justice.

4. Responding to COVID-19 and ensuring social protection for all

In the region COVID-19 is colliding with the ongoing HIV epidemic, resulting in disruptions in the continuity of HIVservices in many places. COVID has not only undermined access to health services but has also exacerbated socio economic inequalities.

This has been the case with sex workers, women who use drugs, women living with HIV and transgender people who did not have access to emergency social protection schemes in several countries to ease the financial burden of COVID-19. Key population groups and communities continue to be denied equal rights or not capable of accessing social protection.

Social safety nets are meant to provide those in need with the universal fundamental rights of health, shelter and food, and support so that individuals can eventually provide for themselves. Therefore, enabling social protection schemes and their accessibility is imperative.

Urgent call to action:

● Member States should remove legal and policy barriers that impede the provision of discrimination-free social protections. Member states should take immediate action, grounded in human rights principles, to protect the health and rights of all vulnerable and marginalised groups, including key populations and people living with HIV.

● Member States should include access to national social protection schemes for all, including vulnerable and marginalised populations, such as income support schemes and emergency social protection measures.

● Member States must put necessary legal, policy and programmatic measures in place to ensure legal gender recognition and address barriers on securing national identification cards to access social protection programmes.

● People of SOGI must have equal access to health, legal, financial services and social protection schemes free from stigma and discrimination.

5. Funding, sustainability and the meaningful engagement of civil society in the HIV response

Current investments in the HIV response in the region reflect inadequate HIV financing,

particularly for key population programming. Domestic investments are often hampered by punitive laws against key populations, pervasive stigma and discrimination, lack of understanding of the most effective HIV epidemic control strategies, and financing systems that limit access to funding for key populations from the national budget.

In this context, many organisations that serve and address the needs of key populations in Asia and the Pacific are struggling to survive because their country is no longer eligible for grants from the Global Fund or has de-prioritised the fight against AIDS.

Urgent call to action:

● Member States should ensure key population groups, including young key populations, are engaged at all levels of decision making to ensure an effective HIV response.

● Member states must agree to establish mechanisms and funding channels for civil society to access domestic resources for a sustained and effective HIV response.

● Member States should increase allocation and/or set a target allocation from their national healthbudgets to be coursed through civil society and community-led organisations.

● Member States must establish supportive mechanisms to strengthen community voices in decision making bodies, such as the CCM and national AIDS councils and committees.

● Member States must ensure TRIPS flexibility by providing opportunities for low-and middle-income countries to expand access to low-cost, assured quality pharmaceutical products that sustain affordable treatment.

Key language on CSO and KP for the political declaration

Based on the points made above, we strongly implore member states to include the following language in the new political declaration on HIV and AIDS.

● Acknowledgement of the role that communities and key populations have and continue to play in ensuring a successful response to the HIV epidemic.

● Acknowledge that key population groups and their sexual partners disproportionately account for new HIV infections. Key populations include sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender persons, people in prisons and other closed settings.

● Acknowledge that young people are not a homogenous group and young key populations is a term for those most vulnerable to HIV infection.

● Acknowledge that adolescents and young women in all their diversity are a priority population.

● Acknowledge that evidence shows that people living with HIV who maintain an undetectable viral load cannot transmit the HIV virus to their sexual partners and promote U=U campaigns and messages.

● Acknowledge that treatment for HIV is more than antiretroviral therapy, and includes treatment for other health concerns including co-morbidities, mental health, and aged care so that people living with HIV can have the highest quality of life.

● Acknowledge that evidence shows that PrEP is understood to be almost 100% effective at preventing HIV transmission when taken correctly and consistently and is an important component of combination prevention efforts.

● Acknowledge that the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates that global political will can be mobilised to address a public health crisis; that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic drew from lessons of the HIV epidemic, including community leadership.

● Acknowledge the importance of integrating HIV responses into broader health service and social protection, including the key role of primary care and universal health care.


You may endorse the statement through this online form.


This statement has been developed by the Regional Key Populations Networks from Asia and the Pacific. 21 May 2021

Regional Key Population Networks leading on the development of this statement:

Other regional and national CSO and KP networks endorsing the statement:




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​Political Positioning of Civil Society and Communities in Latin America on the High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS – HLM 2021

Tuesday, May 18, 2021 by Admin   Filed in: Notice

Latin America has failed to achieve all the HIV-related goals that its governments have committed to. It is also the most unequal and inequitable region in the world. This significantly affects the universal access to comprehensive health services in general, and particularly those related to HIV/AIDS: health promotion, combination prevention, including timely HIV and STI testing, access to treatment for people living with HIV, and economic and social protection measures for the most vulnerable.
Our region is characterized by an epidemic concentrated among key and vulnerable populations. We are the most stigmatized, discriminated against, and criminalized groups. At the same time, we are populations with high rates of poverty, social exclusion, and unemployment.
The number of new HIV infections has not declined in the region, representing thousands of new persons diagnosed per year. Furthermore, poor strategic information management thwarts our efforts to improve our understanding of the epidemic, and we are not able to optimise the allocation of limited resources in more effective, efficient, and timely interventions for those who need them most.
High levels of stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV force us out of treatment cascades before we are able to achieve viral suppression, and our social vulnerability increases daily due to the high levels of exclusion in the labour and education sectors. In Latin America, living with HIV is not only a life-threatening condition, but also represent a high current and future deficit in economic, social, and educational aspects.
In Latin America, we face a dangerous and insidious growth of religious, fundamentalist, and anti rights groups, which have strongly influenced our countries’ executive, legislative, and judicial bodies. As a result, the dangerously symbiotic relationship between the government and several religions has increased. This jeopardizes our decades-long achievements in ensuring people’s rights. We recognize that despite the progress so far, there are significant policy gaps for the protection of our human rights.
It is estimated that in Latin America, there are eight hundred indigenous peoples, the original owners of the lands, who are subject to systemic discrimination and social abandonment, with a lack of programmes that integrate health with cultural relevance. This makes them vulnerable to HIV, as well as to food and education insecurity.
Many of our governments have delegated their responsibility to manage externally funded projects, such as grants from the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria or PEPFAR, without assuming their commitment to increase national investment in health and, in particular, in HIV programmes.
Latin American countries are not prioritised in donor agendas and are severely threatened by a trend in reduced funding, which will further thwart our community systems. This is evident in countries where donors have withdrawn investments in health, resulting in the loss of comprehensive services for populations, as well as the extinction of decades-old civil society organisations and their ability to monitor and report low investments, questionable management, and corruption.
For over a year, Latin American countries have been facing the COVID-19 pandemic without having solved a previous pandemic: HIV. At best, our governments and their ministries have devoted all their resources to the response of the COVID-19 crisis, neglecting or suspending programmes related to HIV/AIDS, STI, Tuberculosis, Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights, Viral Hepatitis, among others, while leaving many key and vulnerable populations facing an unprecedented health and social emergency. This will have a high cost in morbidity and mortality. Even so, the new pandemic strikes Latin American countries with disparate health responses. We look with dismay at how COVID-19 vaccines, promising technologies for controlling this novel coronavirus, are stored in rich countries’ warehouses. The concentration of about 80 percent of vaccines in developed countries shows that international health solidarity is only a rhetorical stance.
Inequalities, stigma, discrimination, and criminalization have increased structural barriers to a timely access to health and a lack of access to sustainable and predictable financial resources for a comprehensive response to HIV. Latin America is preparing for the new High-Level Meeting without having achieved the goals agreed upon in the previous HLM, in 2016. Thistrajectory would have been evident with or without the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the region, we have never seen such a significant number of countries facing deep democratic, political, and institutional crises, poor governance, poor management, the intervention of religious fundamentalists, the loss of guarantees and human rights, and high levels of corruption. This has led to the loss of government leadership in the HIV response. We face a severe risk of losing health benefits and the realisation of rights.
Because of this, we demand from the governments of the region:
1. A genuine commitment to the goals of the Global AIDS Strategy and ensuring that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic is not used as an excuse to neglect the response to the HIV pandemic.
2. Introduce changes in legislative and policy frameworks, eliminate punitive laws that violate the rights of people living with HIV, key populations, and communities vulnerable to HIV. Governments and parliaments must protect people’s rights, respond to people’s needs, and honour the definition of a secular state, away from the influences of churches and creeds.
3. Implement specific actions to ensure that ministries of health, education, social protection, and security, among others, and their programmes regain their leadership in the government’s response to HIV. None of the goals will be achieved without a State committed to the service of all citizens.
4. Develop comprehensive social care programmes for people living with HIV (addressing adverse effects, other comorbidities, and premature aging) and key and vulnerable populations that ensure access to quality food and education. There is an urgent need for a state commitment to reduce the inequalities that mortgage the future of part of our population, particularly those related to HIV.
5. Urgently address the need for improved access and management of strategic information on HIV, STI, Tuberculosis, viral hepatitis, and other associated diseases to enable knowledge and scientific evidence-based decisions.
6. Ensure that the Political Declaration of the High-Level Meeting includes key populations by their name: gays and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, drug users, and persons deprived of liberty, as well as naming vulnerable populations: young people, women, girls, boys, indigenous communities, ethnic minority populations, persons with disabilities, and migrant populations or people displaced by political and humanitarian crises.
7. Implement programmes and actions for women and young people to access integrated HIV and sexual and reproductive health services and timely HIV diagnosis to eradicate the vertical transmission of HIV and other STIs, including women and girl empowerment programmes. Moreover, there is an urgent need to integrate services to prevent and eliminate gender
based abuse and violence, closing the gap in the access to education and work. We call for the inclusion of Comprehensive Sexual Education in all educational levels, educational plans, and other areas outside the educational system.
8. Implement combination prevention programmes in all our countries, with population differentiated actions and interventions to significantly reduce the number of new infections, timely access to diagnostic tests, and HIV treatment to achieve sustained viral suppression, thus stopping the circulation of HIV in the community (undetectable equals non transmissible). An increase in the availability of condoms – male and female – lubricants, HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, HIV testing, and self-testing, among others.
9. Guarantee universal and sustained coverage of optimal antiretroviral treatment, including antiretroviral drugs in paediatric formulation, as well as supplies needed for infection monitoring, such as CD4 and viral load tests.
10. Universalize the access to the prevention and treatment of (sensitive and resistant) tuberculosis among people living with HIV, being that this is still the leading cause of death.
11. Take the necessary actions to increase the meaningful participation of individuals, organisations, communities, and groups in designing, implementing, and monitoring HIV related programmes and interventions. Provide organisations and networks with the necessary resources to provide quality community services and enable groups and NGOs to be strengthened and sustained.
12. Strengthen measures to curb the progress of the COVID-19 pandemic with interventions that consider human rights and the intersection between both pandemics. Health and social protection systems and services in the region are not resilient and have been affected by the response to the recent pandemic, to the detriment of the HIV responses. Even so, the most vulnerable populations, including people living with HIV and affected by tuberculosis, must be prioritised in vaccination plans and access to economic and social assistance during this crisis. We demand a thorough review of the human rights violations that occurred in the health emergency context.
We urge the International Health Organisations, the United Nations System, and donor communities to:
1. Stop the systemic financial underfunding of our region due to a political decision justified by World Bank estimates that do not describe the reality of the so-called middle- and high income countries.
2. Significantly increase their presence in our countries and the quality of technical advice to the Ministries and Programmes from all countries to ensure that the 2025 Targets are reached.
3. Implement a roadmap with the specific allocation of financial resources/investments to fulfil the new goals of the Global AIDS Plan.
4. Intervene in the abusive actions of the pharmaceutical industry and those who provide other health supplies or technologies for the treatment, care, and follow-up of people living with HIV. Patents and improper exercise of the right to intellectual property financially repress many countries in the region. We urge the vital adoption of the safeguards of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and intraregional assistance for the development and manufacture of medicines and medical supplies.
5. Provide access to sustained external financing without restrictions that allow civil society, communities, and organisations to fulfil their control, monitoring, and political advocacy roles.
The individuals, organisations, and communities supporting this regional statement support the goals and targets of the Global AIDS Strategy and urge member states to adopt them as a commitment in the 2021 Political Declaration of the High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS. We also demand compliance with international agreements and commitments related to a comprehensive and rights-based response to HIV, including the goals and objectives proposed in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
We request a mid-term review, not later than 2023, to weigh the progress and delays, and hold Member States accountable for meeting the goals of the global strategy. The actions or omissions of our governments in the coming years will make the difference between ending, or not, the AIDS epidemic by 2030, even more so in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Ending AIDS will only be possible if inequalities are eradicated.”
To subscribe to this statement in a personal or institutional name, please leave your information in this online form: http://bit.ly/FirmaPosPolHLM

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Call for submission of country case studies on “COVID-19 and HIV: sustaining HIV gains and building back better and fairer HIV responses” for the Thematic Segment of the 48th UNAIDS PCB

Wednesday, May 12, 2021 by Admin   Filed in: Notice

In the Philippines, civil society organizations partnered with UNAIDS country office and the private sector to develop a mechanism to ensure people living with HIV's access to antiretroviral medications during COVID-19 lockdowns


At its 47th meeting, the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) agreed that the theme for its 48th meeting will be “COVID-19 and HIV: sustaining HIV gains and building back better and fairer HIV responses”. The thematic day will take place on 2 July 2021.

UNAIDS is seeking examples of good practices to inform the thematic segment background note and the discussions during the segment.

1. Scope of submissions

UNAIDS is seeking examples of relevant good practices to inform the thematic segment background note and the discussions during the thematic day of the PCB meeting on 2 July 2021.

Specifically, UNAIDS is seeking examples of policies, programmes, services and other actions in the following areas (but not limited to):

  1. Concrete contributions of the HIV multisectoral response model to the COVID-19 response
  2. Examples of policies /service delivery changes introduced during COVID-19 that have been formalized and enable improvements on performance of both HIV and systems for health at large/pandemic preparedness, including community-led approaches and/or differentiated service delivery models that respond to people’s needs and context
  3. Examples of the use of the HIV infrastructure (laboratory, data) ecosystems and leadership to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic
  4. Examples of leveraging HIV investments (funding, human resources capacities) for responding to COVID-19
  5. Best practices of addressing stigma and discrimination and other human rights issues in the context of the colliding epidemics of HIV and COVID-19
  6. Examples of innovations in HIV service delivery using technology advancements especially with regards to securing uninterrupted access to services for key and vulnerable populations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

2. Background to the thematic segment:

The thematic segment will provide an opportunity to:


  1. Review the context, data and information (different epidemiological contexts) on the colliding HIV and COVID-19 pandemics, in particular on how people living with HIV, key populations, women and girls, people on the move and other communities most impacted by HIV are often also particularly affected by COVID-19 and its societal impacts.
  2. Explore and highlight how HIV and the COVID-19 pandemics impact on all sectors of society and provide examples and lessons learnt from countries on multisectoral and rights-based responses to the colliding epidemics.
  3. Analyse what we have learned with regards to the role that the HIV response investments, infrastructure, ecosystems, multisectorality and leadership had in mounting a comprehensive and rapid response to Covid and its many impacts.
  4. Explore and show examples of the importance of addressing inequalities as a determinant of ill health – as a founding principle of not only HIV responses but epidemic preparedness and systems for health at large, building on COVID-19 impacts and related responses.
  5. Examine how Governments and funding partners have been making reprogramming decisions in the HIV response since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting challenges and opportunities to multi-sectoral collaboration.
  6. Explore to what extent the HIV community was prepared compared to other communities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic/protect programmes on HIV. Was there any difference in their engagement and acknowledgment in the HIV responses vs COVID-19 planning and response? What can we learn from this for the future responses to new pandemics?
  7. Review the future role of National AIDS coordination bodies drawing on the Global HIV Prevention Coalition external review and the lessons learnt from the engagement of national AIDS authorities during COVID-19 response, recognizing the need for multisectoral and integrated responses to accelerate HIV prevention while responding to COVID-19.
  8. Examine the role of the Joint Programme in working with Governments and partners on coordination, monitoring and accountability of the HIV response in the context of COVID-19.

Who can submit?

UNAIDS welcomes submissions from national AIDS programmes; Ministries of Health or other relevant Ministries, civil society organisations, particularly those representing affected communities, academic institutions, National Human Rights Institutions, United Nations system organizations and other inter-governmental organization; and other national or local entities implementing joint programmes addressing COVID-19 and HIV.

How will your submission be used?

The submissions will be used to inform the background note to the UNAIDS 48th PCB Thematic Segment. Some submissions may also be selected to be presented during the Thematic Day on 2 July 2021. Finally, all the submissions will be compiled in a document on good practices on COVID-19 and HIV: sustaining HIV gains and building back better and fairer HIV responses which will be posted on the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board website.

Submissions are accepted in English and French.

The submissions must be made through the electronic submission form: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=m8_hwrbh60SAIUKMKS0-tZrEqMw3YtpApvq6-h1rH-xUMkgzQU9QVkU4TFlEUUcwNEhJUFpIVDdKOC4u by COB Monday, 24 May 2021.

For more information on the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board, please see https://www.unaids.org/en/whoweare/pcb

For questions on this call for submissions of good practices, please contact Nertila Tavanxhi at tavanxhin@unaids.org, copying Adriana Hewson at hewsona@unaids.org.

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