UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Mr
Michel Sidibe (left) with the Minister of
Health of Brazil, Mr. José Gomes
Temporão (right) after signing the
cooperation agreement. 21st May 2008,
Geneva.UNAIDS and the government of Brazil signed an agreement on Wednesday 21st of May, 2008 to continue their cooperation on providing technical support to countries in strengthening and scaling-up national responses to AIDS through the International Centre for Technical Cooperation on HIV/AIDS (ICTC).
In 2005, Brazil with support from UNAIDS established the International Centre for Technical Cooperation on HIV/AIDS (ICTC) which has been playing a lead role in promoting technical cooperation on AIDS. The centre has established a network of AIDS service organization and experts in the region who are available to countries in developing and strengthening national responses. The centre has also managed a number of regional and international training programmes to build capacities in low and middle income countries ranging from human rights to the clinical management of HIV infection.
Some of the technical cooperation activities undertaken by the ICTC include strengthening national policies in areas such as HIV prevention and care, epidemiology, monitoring and evaluation, human rights, and the strengthening of civil society. To that end, UNAIDS has supported initiatives such as the organization of a workshop to harmonize public policies for sexual education and prevention of AIDS and drugs in the school environment of six Latin American countries, a workshop on AIDS spending assessment in Latin America, and conducting a meeting to identify the needs for technical cooperation in Latin America.
ICTC has received support from DFID, GTZ, UNFPA, the World Bank and other international partners and the current agreement with UNAIDS will enable the centre to scale up its operations and strengthen the quality and scope of the support it provides.
ICTC's work is based on the principle of horizontality, which recognizes that considerable variation exists among countries in terms of epidemiological profile, country response, organization of health and social services, culture, legal and political systems, and levels of economic, social and technological development. In view of this, ICTC's projects are elaborated jointly with countries and tailored to the specific requirements and resources of each, in accordance with the principles of the 'Three Ones.'
