Publications

The military component of peacekeeping operations can play a vital role in the protection of women and children as part of its mandated task of protecting civilians. This means not only protecting women from the violence itself, but also supporting individual social and economic recovery afterwards. In support of these goals, we aspire to recruit more women in uniform to help provide this critical aspect of security in peacekeeping operations, and to ensure that all of our personnel understand that enhancing women's safety enhances mission success. The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations Office of Military Affairs (OMA) has been actively engaged in this work, and has participated in assessment missions, with technical and financial support from UNIFEM, to areas where sexual violence has been a prominent feature of the conflict and its aftermath.

Indonesia is facing a progressing HIV epidemic. Despite 20 years of increasingly concerted effort, largely downstream, to prevent the spread of the epidemic, new cases of HIV infection continue to rise. Estimation shows that by the end of 2009 there were 333,200 people living with HIV (PLHIV) in Indonesia. The number of reported cumulative AIDS cases has risen sharply from 2,682 cases in 2004 to 19,973 by December 2009. Among the cases 25% are women. Outside the protective cover of the family, the education sector, theoretically, provides the best prospects to prevent maturing youth from engaging in behaviors that compromise their long term well-being. The HIV epidemic is clearly a social and behavioral problem where certain conducts in some social-cultural contexts, put the individual at risk of being infected with the inconspicuous virus. This assessment is about how the education sector in Indonesia prepares students to acquire knowledge and related life skills that will help them prevent HIV infections. Systemic internal review of policies, activities, and related studies were conducted.

This report describes the achievement of program implementation on HIV/AIDS and STI prevention, care, support and treatment during the 2nd quarter of year 2010. The report is intended to aggregate data and information collected from all OI/ART, VCCT, Family Health Clinics, HBC, and PMTCT sites from the whole country to be represented as the National Comprehensive Report for the health sector response to HIV/AIDS and STI in Cambodia. The following sections reported the main three program areas implemented for this period that are including: I) Programme management and implementation; II) Results from health service deliveries; and III) Financial Report for descript the financial disbursements against the second quarterly budget plan.

This paper assesses the extent of the financial burden due to out-of-pocket payments for health care incurred by people living with HIV (PLHIV) and the effect of this burden on their financial capacity. Data were collected in a cross-sectional survey of 353 PLHIV from three cities in Indonesia (Jakarta, Jogjakarta and Merauke). Respondents in Jakarta were sampled from one hospital and one non-governmental organization working with PLHIV. The results of this study confirm previous findings that providing subsidized ART drugs alone does not ensure financial accessibility to HIV care. Thus, the government of Indonesia at central and local levels should consider covering HIV care additional to providing antiretroviral drugs free of charge. Social health insurance should also be encouraged.

The India AIDS Initiative (Avahan) project is involved in rapid scale-up of HIV-prevention interventions in high-risk populations. This study examines the cost variation of 107 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) implementing targeted interventions, over the start up (defined as period from project inception until services to the key population commenced) and first 2 years of intervention.

As part of efforts to tackle the HIV epidemic, the Government of Papua New Guinea (GoPNG) has endorsed a National Strategic Plan (NSP) for HIV and AIDS, 2006-2010. A planning exercise for the implementation of this plan is undertaken each year which aims to bring stakeholders together with the goal of developing an approved GoPNG HIV Development Budget and Plan for the coming year, containing details of funded activities to support NSP implementation. This report begins with a review of the NSP Annual Plan for 2010, followed by an appraisal of progress, future planning and gaps and omissions in each NSP Focus Area. Where relevant, reference is made to ongoing work to develop the National HIV and AIDS Strategy (NHS) 2011-15, both with respect to the process of development and the contents of this strategy. Finally, the IRG has highlighted a number of key priorities for the coming year, both to build upon work already completed and to facilitate easy transition from the NSP to the NHS.

As part of monitoring and evaluation of the Avahan programmes, quantitative Special Behavioural Surveys (SBS) and Integrated Behavioural And Biological Assessment (IBBA) surveys were conducted with FSWs to examine sex work characteristics, condom use and sexual behaviours with regular partners and clients, alcohol and drug use, and knowledge and use of the HIV prevention programme services. This quantitative Special Behavioural Survey (SBS) study was conducted with female sex workers (FSWs) in urban Bellary district from December 2005 to July 2006.

TB and HIV co-epidemic is a major public health problem in many parts of the world, particularly in developing counties. We aimed to summarize the prevalence of TB and HIV co-infection in mainland China, using meta-analysis based on systematic review of published articles. Our analyses indicated that the prevalence of HIV/TB co-infection in China deserves special attention, screening of TB among HIV/AIDS populations should be attached more importance, which would be much more helpful for treatment of both diseases.

Since 1992, the National AIDS Programme has been carrying out the yearly HIV Sentinel Sero-surveillance (HSS) among selected sentinel groups on different (8) sentinel groups. In fact, HIV Sentinel Sero-surveillance (HSS) is the systematic and regular collection of information on the occurrence, distribution and trends of HIV infection and factors associated with the infection for use in Public Health Action.

A significant number of men having sex with men in the Asia Pacific region do not have access to HIV prevention and care services as HIV prevalence has reached alarming levels in many countries. If countries fail to address the legal context of the epidemic, this already critical situation is likely to become worse. The implementation of effective, human rights-based national HIV responses requires governments to consider the effect of laws and law enforcement practices on the health of men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender persons. The report's findings and follow up discussion showed that 19 of 48 countries in the Asia Pacific region criminalize male to male sex, and these laws often taken on the force of vigilantism, often leading to abuse and human rights violations. Even in the absence of criminalization, other provisions of law often violate the rights of MSM and transgender persons along with arbitrary and inappropriate enforcement, thereby obstructing HIV interventions, advocacy and outreach, and service delivery. This very debate was at the heart of the recent landmark ruling by the Delhi High Court that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code unfairly discriminates against men who have sex with men and consenting adults in general.