J.V.R. Prasada Rao, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for AIDS in Asia and in the Pacific

J.V.R.Prasada Rao, a national of India, has been appointed as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for AIDS in Asia Pacific from July 2012.

Prasada Rao became Director of India’s National AIDS Control Organization in 1997. Later he became India’s Permanent Secretary for Health and Family Welfare

Mr Rao played an instrumental role in implementing a comprehensive and decentralized national AIDS control programme in India which has enabled the country to be well on its way to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 6.

Prasada Rao served as Member Secretary of two independent commissions on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific and is currently a Commissioner of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law.

During his work with the Government of India and later with UNAIDS, Mr Rao has always advocated for the empowerment of vulnerable communities and people living with HIV as an essential requirement to achieve an HIV-free society in Asia and the Pacific.