Publications

Unitaid's Strategy for 2017-2021 is firmly grounded in its Constitution, which states that Unitaid aims to "contribute to scale up access to treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis for the people in developing countries by leveraging price reductions of quality drugs and diagnostics, which currently are unaffordable for most developing countries, and to accelerate the pace at which they are made available".

Healthy women, children and adolescents whose rights are protected are the very heart of sustainable development. Their inherent right to the highest attainable standard of health is enshrined in the constitution of the World Health Organization and international human rights law. When their right to health is upheld, their access to all other human rights is also enhanced, triggering a cascade of transformative change. Survive, thrive AND transform: that is the clarion call of the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016–2030). If rights to health and through health are upheld, delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will indeed leave no one behind.  Recognizing this, one year ago, the World Health Organization and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights announced the formation of a High-Level Working Group on the Health and Human Rights of Women, Children and Adolescents. The Group was tasked with securing political support for the implementation of the human rights-related measures contained in the SDGs and the Global Strategy. The High-Level Working Group is convinced that committed leadership for collective action is urgently needed to safeguard the full exercise of women’s, children’s and adolescents’ human rights for their health and for the health of their communities.

This report focuses on selected normative and operational activities initiated by UN-Habitat with its partners to support governments at various levels in planning and designing appropriate national urban policies and building institutional and human capacities for sustainable urbanization. In particular, the Global Activities Report 2017 pays tribute to the partnerships established in support of the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals to pursue a better urban future for all. This report is subdivided into two major parts. Part I of the document highlights some of the global initiatives and partnerships that were developed or expanded in 2015-2016 to illustrate the range of thematic areas covered by UN-Habitat within its mandate, and in the execution of its focal point role in the area of housing and sustainable urban development. Further, as the large majority of UN-Habitat's work is delivered at the national and local levels, Part II of this report sheds light on its regional commitments and strategic partnerships.

This annual report marks not only another exciting year of the Global Financing Facility in support of Every Woman Every Child (GFF), but the end of its first phase. In this report from the GFF secretariat, we want to share with you what we have learned from countries that makes us excited and confident in the GFF as a pathfinder for a new way of financing development. In 2017, we are in a changing global environment with finite resources for development assistance, where many global health and nutrition initiatives are competing for limited donor resources and where financiers—public and private—want the assurance of significant returns on the investments they make. This is also a time when the challenges that countries face—from fragility and climate change to changing disease patterns and health profiles across the life cycle—call for new thinking while poor communities in all countries also face the unfinished agenda of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and nutrition (RMNCAH-N).

This review of HIV and rights-based programmes for men who have sex with men and transgender people was undertaken in Thimphu, Bhutan through a partnership between the Ministry of Health, the Royal Government of Bhutan and the United Nations Development Programme. Regional and global research demonstrates that HIV risk and vulnerability can be exacerbated by the mobility of populations and changing social norms in urban settings. The need for increased information and research in the cities of Bhutan is imperative given the steady rate of urbanization in the country. With the increasing trend of ruralurban migration, there is a need for health interventions to be prioritized, considering the growing vulnerabilities and increasing risk to HIV among men who have sex with men and transgender people. The Ministry of Health, Royal Government of Bhutan is committed to continuing our efforts in the design and implementation of appropriate health and rights-based interventions on HIV, and to promote universal access to prevention, care and support for the affected and vulnerable sections of our population — including men who have sex with men, transgender people and all those living with HIV.

Families, communities, cities and countries have witnessed a transformation, with access to HIV treatment accelerating in the past three years. A record 19.5 million people are accessing antiretroviral therapy, and for the first time more than half of all people living with HIV are on treatment. More countries are paying for HIV treatment themselves. More people living with HIV are employed, more girls are in school, there are fewer orphans, there is less ill health and less poverty. Families and communities are feeling more secure. This report demonstrates the power of the 90–90–90 targets and what can be achieved in a short time. It shows that innovations are possible at every level—from communities to research laboratories, from villages to cities. It illustrates the power of political leadership to make the impossible possible.

Adolescents living with HIV are in urgent need of improved approaches to address their specific health needs. Evidence indicates higher rates of loss to follow up, and poor adherence, as well as increased needs for psychosocial support. This population group continues to be underserved by current HIV services and have significantly worse access to and coverage of ART. Despite a rapidly growing area of HIV research, a considerable amount of effort is still needed to inform the understanding of what works for this population. Improving outcomes for adolescents and reaching global targets for an AIDS FREE generation by 2030 will require evidence-based interventions and policies. These should take into consideration the developmental stage of adolescence while comprehensively addressing the multiple needs of adolescents living with HIV and actively engaging them in their own healthcare.  To overcome these barriers and challenges in a context of increasing funding constraints, targeted research is urgently required to bridge identified research gaps and inform policy on adolescent HIV.

Media engagement was one of the key elements of the 20-month project, Increasing Access To Justice For LGBTI Communities In Indonesia, that OutRight Action International coordinated in 2015 and 2016. Given the impact of unbalanced media reporting on LGBTI communities, including incitement to violent discrimination, one of OutRight's Indonesian partners, Kemitraan, a national organization on good governance and government reform did a media mapping to show how mainstream media, community media and social media portrayed LGBTI issues and LGBTI people. The findings show that biased negative reporting bias spread intolerance. False media stories about LGBTI people increased the Indonesian public's fears about LGBTI people as a national security threat and a danger to society.

A new effort is urgently needed to reinvigorate primary HIV prevention. It needs to build on lessons learned from previous prevention initiatives and other successful initiatives, such as the Global plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015 and keeping their mothers alive, which successfully galvanized efforts to reduce new child infections. The overarching goal of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition will be to strengthen and sustain political commitment for primary prevention by setting a common agenda among key policy-makers, funders and programme implementers. It also will seek to establish accountability for delivering services at scale. Success requires country ownership and commitment plus global and national actions. The Prevention Coalition will launch the Prevention2020 Road Map, engage stakeholders and leaders in its effective implementation, monitoring, and annual reporting on progress.

The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2017 reviews progress made towards the 17 Goals in the second year of implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The report is based on the latest available data. It highlights both gains and challenges as the international community moves towards full realization of the ambitions and principles espoused in the 2030 Agenda. While considerable progress has been made over the past decade across all areas of development, the pace of progress observed in previous years is insufficient to fully meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and targets by 2030. Time is therefore of the essence. Moreover, as the following pages show, progress has not always been equitable. Advancements have been uneven across regions, between the sexes, and among people of different ages, wealth and locales, including urban and rural dwellers. Faster and more inclusive progress is needed to accomplish the bold vision articulated in the 2030 Agenda.