What's New

The HIV, Health and Development Strategy 2016-2021: Connecting the Dots elaborates UNDP's work on HIV and health in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UNDP has an important role in supporting health outcomes by helping countries to address the social, cultural and economic determinants of HIV and health, in partnership with UN entities and other organizations. This is done through UNDP’s core work in reducing inequalities and social exclusion that drive HIV and poor health, promoting effective and inclusive governance for health, and building resilient and sustainable systems for health. UNDP also contributes through its coordinating and convening role in bringing together multiple partners and resources at national and local levels.

The manual provides many case studies of the work of NHRIs on human rights issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. Some are short examples of activities undertaken. Others are longer descriptions of comprehensive programs. The case studies provide information on past and present activities of individual NHRIs and offer inspiration to all NHRIs for future projects. They assist NHRIs to learn from each other.

The research aimed to provide data on how stigma and discrimination create barriers to accessing services and how they impede the scaling-up of delivery of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Papua New Guinea. Another aim was to detail the levels of stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV (PLHIV) in the different provinces and regions. There are differing experiences of PLHIV based on gender, sexuality or gender identity. The research aimed to determine and understand the contributing factors to stigma and discrimination faced by PLHIV through a research project that valued differences across gender and sexuality and generated information about those different experiences. The international Stigma Index was the tool used to identify those situations that created heightened risks for PLHIV.

The strategy, once adopted, and its implementation will contribute to a radical decline in new sexually transmitted infections and in deaths related to such infections (including still births and cervical cancer), while improving individual health, men’s and women’s sexual health, and the well-being of all people. It will guide efforts to: accelerate and focus comprehensive prevention efforts through scaling up evidence-based combined behavioural, biomedical and structural approaches; facilitate people’s access to information on their sexually transmitted infection status; improve access to treatment and comprehensive long-term care when needed; and challenge pervasive stigmatization and discrimination. The strategy promotes a people-centred approach, grounded in principles of human rights, gender equality and health equity.

This is the first global health sector strategy on viral hepatitis, a strategy that contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It covers the first six years of the post-2015 health agenda, 2016–2021, building on the Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis Infection: Framework for Global Action, and on two resolutions on viral hepatitis adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2010 and in 2014. The strategy addresses all five hepatitis viruses (hepatitis A, B, C, D and E), with a particular focus on hepatitis B and C, owing to the relative public health burden they represent.

The international community has committed to ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030 – an ambitious target of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. Interim targets have been established for 2020. The strategy promotes a people-centred approach, grounded in principles of human rights and health equity. It will contribute to a radical decline in new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths, while also improving the health and well-being of all people living with HIV. It will guide efforts to accelerate and focus HIV prevention, enable people to know their HIV status, provide antiretroviral therapy and comprehensive long-term care to all people living with HIV, and challenge pervasive HIV-related stigmatization and discrimination.

In June 2016, there were 841 new HIV antibody sero-positive individuals reported to the HIV/AIDS & ART Registry of the Philippines (HARP) [Table 1]. This was 9% higher compared to the same period last year (772). This was the highest number of cases ever reported since 1984. Eighty-eight percent were asymptomatic at the time of reporting. Most (95%) were male. The median age was 28 years old (age range: 1 year-66 years). More than half belong to the 25-34 year age group while 27% were youth aged 15-24 years.

Countries experiencing concentrated epidemics of HIV need the size of key populations (KPs) to guide the national response on HIV and AIDS. Conducting a robust method to estimate the size of KPs is quite challenging as most of them are hidden and do not want to disclose their identity due to stigma and discrimination associated with their behaviour. KPs in Bangladesh include female sex workers, people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men including transgender/Hijra and sex workers, and clients of sex workers in the country or abroad. 

The Economic and Fiscal Update is a “Supplement to the 2016-2017 Budget Address”. It provides the general outlook for Fiji's economic and financial performance and outlines Government's fiscal strategy for the medium term. The information contained in the Economic and Fiscal Update is as of June 2016. This report was compiled by the Ministry of Economy with contributions from Government ministries, the Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority and the Reserve Bank of Fiji.

This is the first round of the IBBS survey conducted among men who have sex with men (MSM) and Transgender (TG) population in the selected eight districts of Terai Highway regions of Nepal. The objectives of the first round of the IBBS survey was to:

• Determine the prevalence of HIV Syphilis, Chlamydia Trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria Gonorrhea (NG) and associated risk behaviors among MSM/ TG  
• Collect information related to socio-demographic characteristics
• Explore the association between the risk behaviors and HIV and other specific STIs among the MSM and TG population.

Fieldwork for data collection was conducted from 5th June to 15th June 2016.