Feature story

UNGASS 2008: Country progress reports

04 February 2008


In compliance with the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS signed by UN member states in June 2001, 122 countries have submitted their country progress reports to UNAIDS. The reports, submitted every two years, reflect the progress made by countries in their response to the AIDS epidemic.

The deadline for submission of the country progress reports for 2008 to UNAIDS was the 31st of January. These have been published on the UNAIDS web site as they were received and without any alteration.

In 2007 there have been substantial efforts in many countries to increase the engagement of civil society in national reporting processes. UNAIDS engaged the services of a consortium of civil society organizations led by the International Council of AIDS Service Organisations and the International Women's Health Coalition (ICASO and IWHC) to provide support through their regional networks to civil society organizations in national reporting. As a result, shadow reports were produced by civil society organizations which are available on the consortium’s web site.

The public sharing of the country reports enables open discussion and assessment of progress between the governments, civil society and other key stakeholders engaged in the national AIDS responses.

“The 2008 UNGASS reporting process is a dramatic step forward in international and country level collaborations and it is the most coordinated effort to date. It is also very exciting that civil society has become part of the process in so many countries," said Dr Deborah Rugg, Chief Monitoring and Evaluation Division, UNAIDS.

The 2008 reports mark an important time point in assessing progress towards the Universal Access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, and the targets set in the 2001 Declaration of Commitment. Countries were requested to report on 25 core indicators ranging from AIDS spending and Government AIDS policies to the number of people receiving anti-retroviral drugs or the percentage of most-at-risk populations reached by HIV prevention programmes.

UNAIDS will now prepare a compilation report based on the reports received which will assess the state of the global AIDS epidemic in preparation for the United Nations High-level meeting on AIDS that will take place in June in New York.

The country progress reports will also be used to inform the 2008 UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic that will be launched at the upcoming International AIDS conference in Mexico.