Publications

Rights in a Pandemic outlines 10 immediate areas for action for governments towards building effective, rights-based COVID-19 responses. These include taking proactive measures to ensure that people, particularly people in vulnerable groups, can access HIV treatment and prevention services, designating and supporting essential workers, including community-led organizations, and implementing measures to prevent and address gender-based violence. The report builds on Rights in the time of COVID-19, released by UNAIDS in March 2020, which urged countries to take a human rights approach in responding to COVID-19, in line with best practices from 40 years of responding to HIV.

The snapshot does not intend to be an analysis of issues for women and girls relating to COVID-19. Rather it is an account of the responses of courageous human rights workers from nine national human rights institutions in the Asia Pacific Region, who have highlighted some of the issues that women and girls are facing in their countries and how they, and their institutions, are responding to these issues. It is hoped that, by sharing these case studies, the challenges, tools and strategies for responding to, and supporting recovery from COVID-19, may also be shared.

UNAIDS calls on governments to live up to their commitment to develop nationally owned and led social protection systems for all, including floors; and scale up and progressively enhance coverage, adequacy and comprehensiveness, thereby improving the responsiveness and quality of interventions to address the needs and vulnerabilities of people living with HIV.

This brief explores how the gender dimensions of COVID-19 overlap with and undermine HIV prevention, treatment and care. It outlines what actions are needed to ensure that the responses to COVID-19 are gender-just – that is, promoting gender equity and equal rights for all – and HIV-sensitive: responsive to the priorities of communities most affected by HIV.

UNICEF is releasing our Annual Report 2019 against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic represents a shared global struggle against an invisible enemy. Not only are children and young people contracting COVID-19, they are also among its most severely impacted victims. Unless we address the pandemic’s impacts on children, the echoes of COVID-19 will permanently damage our shared future.

WFP has led the development and finalization of a key document for integrating HIV within the Cluster Response, along with UNHCR and UNAIDS support. The guidance key consideration that affect the HIV response in humanitarian settings, as well as provides key actions that are required for a minimum initial response. Covering health, protection, nutrition, and food security, the guidance document is a comprehensive tool for those working in humanitarian response and fragile contexts.

The ‘Last Mile’ road map draws on the latest scientific research and programmatic evidence to describe and recommend strategies to achieve the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (EMTCT). It includes a synthesis of evidence and country experiences for reaching EMTCT and recommends clear strategies that can improve the coverage, effectiveness and quality of national programmes for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). The goal of this document is to provide guidelines for coordinated action so that national programmes address local priority areas to achieve EMTCT in an effective, people-centred, efficient and directed manner.

This technical brief describes how interventions for people who use drugs are to be incorporated into funding requests to the Global Fund. The Global Fund is the major source of international funding in low-and middle-income countries for harm reduction, and it supports evidence-based interventions aimed at ensuring access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support for all key populations, including people who use drugs. According to Global Fund policy, lower-middle and upper-middle income countries applying for funding must focus 100% of budget on key populations and 50% of budget on underserved populations, as well as on the highest-impact interventions. Low-income countries are also strongly encouraged to target resources to those at highest risk. It is therefore strongly recommended that all countries with evidence of HIV transmission among people who use drugs include in their proposals harm reduction programs for people who use drugs, both in the general community and in prison and other closed settings.

This technical brief describes how HIV and TB interventions for people in prison and other closed settings can be incorporated into funding requests to the Global Fund. The Global Fund supports evidence-and rights-based interventions aimed at ensuring access to HIV and TB prevention, treatment, care, and support for key populations, including people in prison.

The 63rd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND or Commission) took place in Vienna between 4 and 6 March 2020. Incredible as it now seems, held during the early phases of the current global health pandemic, only the precautionary absence of a few full delegations and warnings regarding healthcare counter measures made it feel any different from previous ‘normal’ sessions. Indeed, since this year’s meeting followed on from the Commission’s 2019 Ministerial Segment and multilateral agreement on the associated Ministerial Declaration expectations were relatively low. Indicative of this was the tabling of only five resolutions, around half the number seen in previous years. Nonetheless, as has been increasingly the case the twin issues of complexity and tension were identifiable throughout the week. Put simply, with intricacy, fluidity and dynamism continuing to characterize illicit drug markets has come growing variations in national policy approaches designed to deal with them and attendant inter-state and state-UN system tensions at the international level.