Publications

The handbook has been written for criminal justice officials, non-governmental organizations, and members of the community who are working to reduce over-reliance on imprisonment; to improve the delivery of justice, including rehabilitation and reintegration; and to integrate international human rights-based standards and norms into local policies and practices.

Although there have been many notable successes in both the prevention and treatment of HIV, stigma and discrimination have been intractable problems associated with the AIDS epidemic throughout the world. Stigma certainly has well-established individual consequences: it has been shown to delay HIV testing, restrict utilization of preventative programs, and hinder the adoption of preventative behaviours like condom use and HIV status disclosure (Brooks et al., 2005). Stigma may also have consequences for individual economic well-being as well as broader socioeconomic development (beyond the impact of HIV disease alone). In Asia, where the epidemic arrived relatively late, HIV is spreading with rapid speed. In 2005, the number of AIDS cases in Asia topped 8 million; this is compared to approximately 3 million people just 10 years prior (UNAIDS, 2006). Determinants and consequences of stigma and discrimination on socioeconomic development in Asia have yet to be empirically assessed. In this context, this review is aimed at generating informed discussion among key stakeholders including academia, policy makers, governments, donors and people living with HIV on the phenomenon of stigma and discrimination, with a particular focus on its human development context and impact. The paper also seeks to set a research agenda to foster compelling and disaggregated enquiries into stigma and discrimination.

Maldives has so far experienced a low level HIV epidemic. A recent situation analysis "The HIV/AIDS Situation in the Republic of the Maldives in 2006" has pointed out several factors that demonstrate vulnerability to an increasing epidemic: increasing drug use, increasing injecting drug use and the presence of hidden populations of commercial sex and men who have sex with men in the archipelago. The population of the Republic is young, the age of marriage is increasing, serial monogamy is common, condom use is limited, non-emergency blood transfusions are common and men often spend extended periods away from their home islands. Surveillance of sexually transmitted infections has not so far been undertaken in a manner that enables establishment of proper trends.

The survey has been conducted as part of the third round of MICS surveys (MICS3), carried out around the world in more than 50 countries, in 2005-2006, following the first two rounds of MICS surveys that were conducted in 1995 and the year 2000. Survey tools are based on the models and standards developed by the global MICS project, designed to collect information on the situation of children and women in countries around the world. Additional information on the global MICS project may be obtained from www.childinfo.org.

The global commitment to Universal Access to comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010 will remain hollow without extraordinary steps to strengthen the health system. Fostering linkages within the health sector — for a start — brings all service delivery points to bear to better detect and treat HIV and AIDS among population of men, women and children who may be at high risk but are unaware of their status. Buttressing the linkage of a set of services, each with a constituency of users who may be exposed to HIV, is a systematic scale up of services with a vast scope for expansion. Such linkages utilize the strength of each channel — through sexually transmitted infections, reproductive health, adolescent, maternal, newborn and child health services — to bolster the health system’s overall response to one of 21st century’s most harrowing epidemics.

The project will contribute to the national development goals of the Interim Afghanistan National Development Strategy (I-ANDs) o f maintaining Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevalence below 0.5 percent in the general population and below 5 percent among vulnerable groups at high risk o f infection. The project’s development objectives are to slow down the spread o f HIV and build up the national capacity to respond to the epidemic. This will be accomplished by: (a) behavior change among vulnerable groups at high risk; and (b) improving knowledge of HIV prevention and reducing stigma related to HIV and (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) AIDS in the general population.

The National STD/AIDS Control Programme (NSACP) of Sri Lanka has been annually conducting HIV Sentinel sero-surveillance since 1993. This survey was initially designed on the guidelines prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1989. The purpose of HIV sentinel survey is to track HIV infection levels through ‘watch post’ institutions.

The 2006-07 Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) was carried out by the National Institute of Population Studies (NIPS) from early September 2006 to late-February 2007. The PDHS is one of the largest household-based surveys ever conducted in Pakistan. Teams visited 972 sample points across Pakistan and collected data from a nationally representative sample of over 95,000 households. Unlike the standard DHS design, the PDHS was designed with the objective of obtaining data related to maternal and neonatal health, especially to obtain an accurate measure of the maternal mortality ratio, as well as to obtain data on the causes of deaths to women and children. Consequently, all households were interviewed with a questionnaire that elicited information on recent births and deaths to household members. Recent deaths to adult women and children under five were followed with a more detailed interview on symptoms and characteristics of the deceased.

The Cambodian Demographic Health Survey (CDHS), conducted in 2005, included assessment of HIV infection status. The results of the survey, which was based on a household sampling methodology, were formally released by the National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, in April 2007. The estimated national prevalence of HIV infection among adults aged 15-49 was 0.6%, and was identical in males and females.

The 2006 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) is the seventh in a series of demographic surveys conducted in the country and is the third survey conducted as part of the worldwide Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program. The 2006 NDHS includes topics related to fertility levels and determinants, family planning, fertility preferences, infant, child, adult and maternal mortality, maternal and child health, nutrition, knowledge of HIV/AIDS and women’s empowerment. The 2006 NDHS for the first time also includes anemia testing among women age 15-49 and children age 6-59 months. As well as providing national estimates, the survey also provides disaggregated data at the level of various domains such as ecological region, development region, as well as for urban and rural areas. This being the third survey of its kind, there is considerable trend information on reproductive and health care over the past 10 years.