The Board also approved measures for greater internal efficiency and effectiveness and examined issues such as gender-sensitivity of AIDS responses, ‘AIDS, security and humanitarian responses’ and ‘food and nutrition security and HIV’.
GENEVA, 8 December 2010—The governing body of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Programme Coordinating Board (PCB), has adopted a new UNAIDS strategy to advance global progress in achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services and to halt and reverse the spread of HIV.
The strategy, for the period 2011-2015, was endorsed during the 27th Board meeting, which took place in Geneva from 6-8 December. The AIDS response is a long term investment and the strategy aims to revolutionize HIV prevention, catalyse the next phase of treatment, care and support, and advance human rights and gender equality.
Priority areas highlighted in the strategy include: stopping new HIV infections; integrating the AIDS response into other health and development efforts; setting goals to end stigma and discrimination; promoting new and innovative partnerships; and focusing on accountability and country ownership of national responses.
In his report to the Board, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé said: “Now more than ever, the AIDS response must deliver value for money. This strategy has been designed to produce high-quality, high value results far into the future.”
The UNAIDS strategy is a roadmap for the Joint Programme with concrete goals marking milestones on the path to achieving UNAIDS’ vision of “Zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination. Zero AIDS-related deaths.”
The strategy will also be used as a reference in the lead up to the High Level Meeting on HIV in June2011. United Nations Member States will come together next year to review progress made since the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and commit to actions in taking the response forward.
In putting the strategy into operation, UNAIDS will focus on value for money in the effective and efficient delivery of business practices. It will also ensure that resources are focused for results and guided by the Unified Budget and AccountabilityFramework.
At the PCB meeting, Board members strongly supported the decision to move to a single administrative system for the UNAIDS Secretariat. It encouraged ongoing efforts to use the most effective administrative policies and to minimize administrative costs by seeking the most cost-effective provision of services.
During the meeting, the Board was presented with a comprehensive report on UNAIDS’ activities in relation to gender and HIV. This included a review of the action framework and implementation of UNAIDS’ operational plan for women and girls. The links between sexual and reproductive health and HIV were also covered.
Dr Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Co-Chair of the UNAIDS High Level Commission on HIV Prevention and Nobel Prize laureate for Medicine in 2008 for her role in the discovery of HIV, addressed the PCB as its keynote speaker. The Board also held a thematic session, led by UNAIDS Cosponsor the World Food Programme, focused on food and nutrition security and HIV.
More than 300 participants and observers from UN Member States, international organizations, civil society and non-governmental organizations attended the meeting, which was chaired by the Netherlands with El Salvador acting as vice chair and Japan as special rapporteur. In 2011, El Salvador will assume the role of chair, and the Board elected Poland as vice chair and Egypt as special rapporteur.
The UNAIDS Executive Director’s report to the Board, the decisions, recommendations and conclusions, and an overview of all documents presented at the 27th PCB can be found at: http://www.unaids.org/en/AboutUNAIDS/Governance/27_PCB_Meeting.asp