Campaigns

The Chinese news agency Xinhua and UNAIDS have renewed their partnership for the AIDS response through a two-year extension of their memorandum of understanding. The agreement was signed during a meeting between UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé and Xinhua’s President Cai Mingzhao at UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on 18 March.

Mr Sidibé thanked Xinhua for its support of UNAIDS and highlighted the importance of strong public-private partnerships to reach millions of people with life-saving information.

Working together is key, said Mr Cai, who reiterated Xinhua’s commitment to raising awareness and advocating around key issues related to ending the AIDS epidemic in China and globally. 

The UNAIDS–Xinhua memorandum of understanding was first signed in September 2011. Efforts carried out during the past years include global media campaigns to promote public awareness of HIV and support for World AIDS Day activities. The current agreement includes showcasing UNAIDS during the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS in June on a giant electronic screen in Times Square, New York, United States of America. In addition, Xinhua will work with UNAIDS to publish and distribute a children’s book in China.

Xinhua is the world’s largest news agency, with more than 170 offices overseas and 31 domestic bureaus.

GENEVA, 8 March 2016—UNAIDS and telecommunications operator Orange have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on a new project to strengthen links between health-care providers and people living with and affected by HIV through the use of mobile technology.

Mobile technology will be used to improve HIV services to ensure patient retention in care and treatment adherence and to help break down stigma and discrimination. Data will be collected and analyzed, gaps in services identified and action taken to improve the quality of health care for people living with and affected by HIV. The information collected will be anonymous and full confidentiality will be maintained.

“To achieve UNAIDS’ ambitious Fast-Track Targets by 2020, countries need to innovate,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “This partnership with Orange will allow countries to benefit from state-of-the-art technology that is cost-effective and simple to use, to ensure they can provide the highest quality of services for people living with and affected by HIV.”  

UNAIDS and partners will use Orange Mobile Training EveryWhere (M-Tew), a web-based platform that has been designed to be fully integrated into health systems and implemented on a large scale. The M-Tew platform will enable health workers to communicate with people enrolled in care through text messages or by phone and voice messages. Health professionals will be able to send messages, conduct text or voice surveys to evaluate user perceptions on quality of services and answer questions through a virtual call centre.

The technology is simple to use and people enrolled in the project will only need a basic mobile phone and a 2G connection to send and receive messages, with no application to download and no Internet connection needed.

A four-month pilot phase will begin at the end of March 2016 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, which will involve 1000 people living with HIV who are enrolled in HIV treatment programmes. Participants in the pilot study will include people most affected by HIV, including 300 sex workers and men who have sex with men.

“President Alassane Ouattara has called for a reduction in HIV prevalence in Côte d’Ivoire to below 1% by 2020,” said Raymonde Goudou-Coffie, Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Côte d’Ivoire. “We are committed to achieving this target and the new platform will help us Fast-Track our efforts to ensure we reach this ambitious goal.”

UNAIDS will collaborate on the project with the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene of Côte d’Ivoire, the Autonomous District of Abidjan, Orange Côte d’Ivoire and civil society partners, including organizations of people living with HIV. After the pilot phase, the project will be rolled out more widely in health facilities across Abidjan, with plans to expand to other priority countries in the region. 

The partnership will advance efforts to Fast-Track the response to HIV towards ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. To do this will require new innovations, front-loading investments over the next five years, reaching the UNAIDS 90–90–90 treatment target, expanding access to HIV prevention services and ensuring zero discrimination. 

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé and UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador Victoria Beckham have completed a joint visit to Ethiopia to increase awareness about HIV and to underline the need to accelerate the international response to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

At the start of their visit, Mr Sidibé and Ms Beckham went to the Alem Children Support Organization, a privately run centre that provides assistance to orphans and underprivileged children affected by HIV, enabling them to access health-care services and attend school.

On the second day, they travelled to the ALERT hospital in Addis Ababa and met mothers, babies and children affected by HIV. During the visit, they also attended a youth group meeting, at which young people come together to lend each other mutual support.

Later, Mr Sidibé and Ms Beckham spent the afternoon at Entoto Beth Artisan, a local business that employs around 120 women living with HIV to make leather goods and traditional jewellery.

A multimedia campaign led by the MTV Staying Alive Foundation in conjunction with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PEPFAR, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, UNICEF and UNFPA has prompted more than 47 000 young people to seek HIV testing and counselling services in Nigeria.

An educational initiative, On Tour with MTV Shuga—created around the award-winning drama series MTV Shuga—trained 160 Nigerian peer educators to facilitate HIV testing and to spread information and positive messaging based on the show in their communities. Of the more than 47 000 young Nigerians who were tested for HIV, 688 were found to be HIV-positive and were referred for HIV treatment.

Since its launch in 2009, MTV Shuga—a modern day drama about love, sex and relationships among Nigerian youth—has reached up to 550 million people worldwide, while 40 million people have been reached via social media. A total of 122 broadcasters are currently lined up to air the new season IV of the show. Among the topics covered in the new season are first sex, grooming of adolescent girls, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, disclosure of HIV status, sexual assault within a relationship, stigma, mentoring and the use of helplines.

Brazil’s biggest television network, Globo Television, has partnered with UNAIDS to stop new HIV infections among young people.

As part of the Live Better campaign, Globo, the second largest television network in the world, will broadcast a 30-second public service announcement promoting HIV prevention three times a day throughout September. The campaign was launched during the Saturday night show Altas Horas, which is widely watched by young people in Brazil, and will feature on its various entertainment and news shows.

The public service announcement calls on young people to open their eyes to HIV testing. It encourages young people to test for HIV and to start treatment early if necessary.

According to government estimates, the number of people newly infected with HIV increased by 11% between 2005 and 2013 in Brazil. Over the past decade, the country has seen a 50% increase in the number of new HIV infections among boys aged between 15 and 19 years.

UNAIDS Brazil Goodwill Ambassador Mateus Solano and Brazilian singer and UNAIDS supporter Wanessa Camargo are supporting the campaign through social media, on live shows and in videos.

The public service announcement will become part of the network’s film bank and will be available for use on national and local advertisement windows after September.

At the 16th FINA World Championships in aquatics, visitors, athletes and volunteers are learning more about HIV.  The event, being held from 24 July to 9 August in Kazan, Russia, is promoting Dive safely!, an initiative to raise awareness about HIV and encourage people to learn their HIV status. 

Located in the Dive safely! pavilion in the FINA Water World park, the initiative provides HIV prevention materials and offers free, confidential HIV tests to its visitors during the two week championship.

Opening the pavilion, the President of FINA, Dr Julio Maglioni said, "It is an unexpected gift for me to be here today. The AIDS response is very important for the health of our world. It is very important now to unite in order to stop this disease in the name of sport.”

Alexander Zhukov, President of the Russian Olympic Committee, invited all young people at the FINA World Championship to visit the Dive safely! pavilion and take an HIV test. “Every young person should know about HIV and know their status," said Mr Zhukov.

Alexander Zhukov confirmed that the Russian Olympic Committee will soon increase its cooperation on HIV prevention through a new agreement with UNAIDS, and will expand its HIV prevention projects during upcoming international sporting events in Russia, such as the World Football Championship in 2018. 

A social media campaign for the FINA World Championships led by the UNAIDS Regional Youth Red Ribbon Team—a group of young celebrities from Eastern Europe and Central Asia—was launched on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, encouraging people to learn about HIV and to post photos and messages with the hashtag #divesafely.

Since the pavilion was opened, more than 500 people have visited every day, with more than 200 people being tested onsite each day for HIV. The tests are carried out by doctors from the Republican AIDS Center of Tatarstan and any positive results are referred to the AIDS Center in Kazan.

Dilyara Vagapova, spokesperson for the #divesafely campaign, called on people to know their HIV status. "Together we can end AIDS in our countries. To be fashionable means to know your HIV status!"

Dive safely! (Легкой воды! in Russian) is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Executive Directorate for Sports Projects, the local non-governmental organization New Century (“Novyi Vek”),  the Tatarstan Republican AIDS Centre and UNAIDS.

On 1 May, Workers’ Day, UNAIDS joined up with the International Labour Organization’s VCT@WORK initiative to scale up voluntary counselling and HIV testing in Nigeria.

The VCT@WORK initiative aims to increase access to HIV testing services in the workplace and refer people living with HIV to HIV treatment, care and support services. It also aims to empower workers by providing them with information about HIV and encouraging them to find out their HIV status.

As part of the initiative, the Nigeria Labour Congress organized events throughout the country’s 36 states, bringing together workers, professionals, students and members of civil society organizations. Nearly 6000 Nigerian workers—including 1300 young people—took an HIV test. People who tested positive for HIV were referred to appropriate health services for follow-up.  

In Abuja in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), service providers linked to the National Agency for the Control of AIDS provided free multidisease screening, which included HIV testing and measurement of blood pressure, blood sugar and body mass index. This multidisease screening approach has proved to be effective in increasing the uptake of HIV tests and offers more value to workers who come to test. The FCT was selected since it is one of the 13 states that account for 70% of people living with HIV in Nigeria.

The VCT@WORK initiative of the International Labour Organization and the UNAIDS ProTest HIV initiative are joining forces to expand the reach of HIV testing to workers and young people worldwide. Both initiatives aim at demystifying and normalizing HIV testing and are exploring ways in which this can be achieved.