UNAids

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé regularly meets with representatives from governments, civil society and other international organizations to advance the response to AIDS.

UNAIDS was the first United Nations programme to have formal civil society representation on its governing body. The position of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) is critical for the effective inclusion of community voices in the key global policy forum for AIDS. Five NGOs, three from developing countries and two from developed countries or countries with economies in transition, represent the perspectives of civil society, including people living with HIV to the UNAIDS board. They can serve for up to three years and have non-voting status. The 5 organisations have one representative each and they are supported by 5 other NGO organisations, which stand as alternate members. The NGO representatives actively seek input from their respective communities on key issues related to UNAIDS policies and programs, and advocate with Members States (governments) and Cosponsoring organizations (the ten United Nations organizations that make up the UNAIDS Joint Programme) for meaningful improvements in the implementation and evaluation of AIDS policies and programmes. NGO delegation to the PCB 2013 Africa: Ms Nadia Rafif, Association de Lutte Contre le Sida (ALCS), Morocco Mr Joel Gustave Nana, African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHeR), South Africa Asia Pacific: Ms Jane Bruning, Positive Women Incorporated / Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APN+), New Zealand Mr Manoj Pardeshi, International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), India Europe: Ms Daria (Dasha) Ocheret, Eurasian Harm Reduction Network, Lithuania Mr Bryan Teixeira, European AIDS Treatment Group, UK Latin America and the Caribbean: Dr Mabel Bianco, Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer (FEIM), Argentina Ms Alessandra Nilo, Gestos – HIV+, Communication and Gender, Brazil North America: Mr Charles King, Housing Works, United States Ms Ebony Johnson, International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), United States

Oussama Tawil

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé joined Swaziland’s Minster of Health, Benedict Xaba to launch a new National Framework to stop new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keep their mothers alive.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé

This week Swaziland played host to a powerful delegation of health leaders and experts committed to ending the duel epidemics of TB and HIV across the region. Convened by the Ministers of Health of both Swaziland and South Africa, supported by the Stop TB Partnership the meeting brought together brilliant minds and solid expertise to find ways of accelerating action to end the TB and TB/HIV co-epidemics in the countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) welcomes the announcement made by the Rt Hon George Osborne, MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, that the United Kingdom will meet its target of spending 0.7% of gross national income on international development this year.

More than 400 women dedicated to guarantee the respect of the fundamental rights of women, their access to school and education, gender equality or the representation of women in politics gathered in Paris on 20 March for the first global forum of francophone women.

Every day more than 1000 people living with HIV die of tuberculosis. This is unacceptable. Today we have the knowledge and the power to stop HIV and TB in their tracks. By integrating HIV and TB services and systems, we can save millions of lives and millions of dollars.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé joined health leaders from Africa and other international organizations to support a new push to accelerate progress against tuberculosis and HIV. The initiative was unveiled at a press briefing in Johannesburg, South Africa on 20 March and will be formerly launched on 21 March in Mbabane, Swaziland.

Renate Ehmer

The world is changing rapidly with developing nations spearheading global economic growth, impressive poverty reduction and the rise of a healthier, better educated middle class, says the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development Report 2013.

“I give my warm wishes to Pope Francis as he assumes the papacy. His unwavering commitment to serve people most in need is an inspiration to us all,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “I look forward to working with His Holiness so that the Catholic Church can advance the AIDS response and ensure the dignity of people most affected by HIV.”

South Africa - National Commitments and Policies Instrument (NCPI) 2012

The Japanese Government announced on 13 March that it was awarding the Second Hideyo Noguchi Africa prize to Dr Peter Piot, Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, U.K. and former UNAIDS Executive Director and Dr Alex Godwin Coutinho, Executive Director of the Infectious Disease Institute, Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

In wide-ranging opening remarks to the current session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Yury Fedotov placed HIV and drug use at the heart of the global agenda.

How much progress has the global AIDS response made in ensuring that women and girls live their lives free from violence? What are the next steps needed to strengthen the challenge to gender-based violence and its links to HIV? These critical questions dominated a high level consultation which took place in New York on 9 March during the 57th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

To help measure progress on gender equality and HIV, a global indicator on “prevalence of recent intimate partner violence” has been added to the core indicators for country reporting on the progress in the AIDS response, with 52 countries having reported on the indicator. The UNAIDS family would like to reiterate its readiness to work with all partners to eliminate violence against women and girls and work towards the vision of Zero new HIV infections, Zero AIDS-related deaths, and Zero discrimination.

Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma stressed his commitment to increasing women’s participation in his government during an event on 8 March, celebrating International Women’s Day in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He said that the many appointments of women to high positions his government has sent “a clear message that discrimination against women no longer has a place in Sierra Leone.”