Western Central Europe

AIDS is not over and it’s time to remove the barriers around access to HIV testing, treatment, care and support once and for all—these were the messages from an event hosted by Sentebale and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on 10 July.

Sentebale, which is Sesotho for “Forget me not”, supports young people living with and affected by HIV by making sure that they are not forgotten. Sentebale was co-founded by Prince Harry, who attended the event, entitled Let Youth Lead.

The event, chaired by the Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Peter Piot, was held in London, United Kingdom, and brought together global and regional decision-makers in the AIDS response to discuss the barriers that prevent young people in southern Africa from getting tested for HIV.

UNAIDS is working with countries to achieve the commitment in the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS of ensuring that 90% of young people have the skills, knowledge and capacity to protect themselves from HIV and have access to sexual and reproductive health services by 2020, in order to reduce the number of new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women to below 100 000 per year.

The UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, has addressed the 43rd Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie on the centrality of the Francophonie in making progress towards the end of AIDS.

The assembly, which brings Francophone parliamentarians together annually to exchange views, learn about good practices and take a position on cross-cutting issues affecting the French-speaking world, met on 10 July in Luxembourg.

Nearly 600 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie and more than 20 presidents of parliamentary assemblies gathered for the event, which was held under the theme of “Linguistic diversity, cultural diversity, identities”.

The Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, emphasized the importance of cities in ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 during a speech to the Council of Paris on 4 July, highlighting that cities can use their HIV responses as a transformative force for society.

In his address, Mr Sidibé also spoke of the challenges faced in western and central Africa, where three out of four people living with HIV do not have access to HIV treatment. The African Union has endorsed an emergency catch-up for western and central Africa that sets a target of an additional 1.2 million people on treatment over the next 18 months. The emergency plan places a focus on cities and challenges mayors to take the lead. Mr Sidibé noted that support from Paris can assist western and central African countries to bridge the gaps and reach their goals.

Mr Sidibé finished his address with a call for unity across city borders and country boundaries. “Let us tackle inequalities together. We must not lose focus. Rather, let us continue to fully fund the response in Paris, but also support partners in Africa to tackle inequalities and fragilities.”

Following his address, the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, invited Mr Sidibé to join the Let’s Make Paris the City of Love without AIDS! (#FaisonslAmour) campaign. #FaisonslAmour channels the spirit of Paris, uniting Parisians around the target of ending AIDS while raising awareness around the HIV treatment and prevention options available. #FaisonslAmour aims to inform people about the need to know their HIV status and seek treatment early, and to raise awareness about the availability of pre-exposure prophylaxis.

Six Parisians are profiled in the campaign, who reflect the reality of the epidemic within an inclusive city, proud of its diversity. One of the profiles highlights the efficacy of treatment as prevention. The campaign is the first in France to state that a person living with HIV adhering to an effective antiretroviral regime will not pass on the virus. Speaking about the radical campaign, Ms Hidalgo said, “Together, we must mobilize and be vigilant, but, above all, we must act to prevent new infections by delivering just and appropriate messages.”

The #FaisonslAmour campaign is a significant step towards ending AIDS in Paris and demonstrates that Paris is providing leadership in the response to HIV. The campaign is co-chaired by the City of Paris and the Vers Paris sans SIDA association, with the support of the MAC AIDS Fund, and produced by Agence Australie. The posters will be displayed across Paris from 28 June to 25 July.

GENEVA, 27 June 2017—The Government of Germany has announced that it will double its funding to UNAIDS in 2017-2018, to €5 million per year. Germany made the announcement at the 40th Meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board, being held in Geneva, Switzerland.

“With Germany, we have a common goal of ending AIDS and a shared commitment to strengthen health systems and improve the health and well-being of people across the world,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “We warmly welcome Germany’s support and its recognition of the important role that UNAIDS plays in ending AIDS and in broader global health and development efforts.”

“UNAIDS is an important partner for Germany’s health and development agenda, particularly in Africa. Increased investment in UNAIDS and the AIDS response will have a multiplier effect on the wider Sustainable Development Goal agenda,” highlighted Gerd Müller, Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany.

Germany has prioritized health on the global development agenda and under its current Presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20) held the first ever G20 health ministers meeting in May 2017.

“Ending AIDS is a historic goal and I firmly believe we can reach it. We have to increase our joint efforts and UNAIDS is central to that work,” said Hermann Gröhe, Federal Minister of Health, Germany.

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.

In the finale to the Cyprus 2017 cricket spring season, in May, the Cyprus Cricket Association, in partnership with Cricket without Boundaries and UNAIDS, held a series of events to raise awareness about HIV in Cyprus.

Two hundred schoolchildren from six schools took part in a festival of cricket, at which they played in knock-out competitions and learned about AIDS. Lee Booth, from Cricket without Boundaries, a British nongovernment organization that uses cricket to deliver health and social messages, engaged the children and raised awareness about how they can protect themselves against HIV.

Budding coaches and young people from the local cricket academy also learned about HIV in special events as part of the campaign, which drew upon the World AIDS Day theme, “Hands up for #HIVprevention”.

The final day of events was targeted at adult cricketers, as members of the two finalist teams of the Cyprus Cricket Association #MoneyGram Spring T20 competition learned about HIV prevention and how to stand together against HIV-related discrimination.

In all the events, information on HIV prevention and testing supplied by UNAIDS was made available.

Cricket has a longstanding role in the response to HIV, with THINK WISE, a partnership between the International Cricket Council, UNAIDS and the United Nations Children’s Fund, using the spirit of cricket to support global efforts to end the AIDS epidemic at the Cricket World Cup and beyond.

Partners from across the United Nations system came together on 30 May in UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss how behavioural, institutional and cultural change can accelerate progress for gender equality.

In her keynote speech, Jan Beagle, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, emphasized that if change management is undertaken in a gender-responsive manner, barriers to gender equality in the workplace can be addressed and overcome. She shared the progress that UNAIDS has made in gender equality, including near gender parity among staff, 40% of UNAIDS country directors being female and 100% compliance with the performance indicators of the United Nations System-Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. She also underlined the need to shift organizational cultures to empower staff everywhere. UNAIDS is taking gender out of isolation and mainstreaming equality and inclusion throughout the Secretariat.

Julian Braithwaite, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva, who delivered the other keynote speech, reaffirmed the commitment of the United Kingdom to empowering women and girls, while emphasizing the importance of creating organizational cultures that uphold gender equality. He reflected on the potential of Geneva as an international hub for human rights, trade and humanitarian work that brings together the collective power of the United Nations and its Member States.

The participants represented the broad array of United Nations entities in Geneva, including senior advisers on human resources, change management and gender. The meeting was organized by the International Gender Champions Geneva, UNAIDS and the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva.

The workshop is the first of a series of initiatives to be undertaken by UNAIDS and the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom, who Co-Chair the International Gender Champions change management impact group. Through the impact group, the Co-Chairs seek to identify and overcome institutional barriers that prevent women’s influence and advancement in Geneva-based international organizations.

The mayors of the Portuguese cities of Cascais, Lisbon and Porto have signed the Paris Declaration on ending the AIDS epidemic in cities—the first time that three cities in the same country have signed the declaration together.

In signing the Paris Declaration, mayors commit to putting their cities on the Fast-Track to ending the AIDS epidemic. The three mayors committed to achieving the 90–90–90 targets by 2020, whereby 90% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90% of people who know their HIV-positive status are accessing treatment and 90% of people on treatment have suppressed viral loads. They also committed to eliminating all forms of discrimination and developing a people-centred approach to the AIDS response, leaving no one behind.

During the signing ceremony, which took place on 29 May in Lisbon, Portugal, the Minister of Health of Portugal, Adalberto Campos Fernandes, reaffirmed the political commitment at the highest level to the response to HIV and highlighted that the 90–90–90 targets have a new impetus in the country.

The three cities will establish local strategies to remove barriers to accessing HIV services, eliminate discrimination and close the gaps to reaching the targets in the Paris Declaration. To that end, the Government of Portugal has put together a group of experts from government bodies, civil society and academia, who will identify and recommend concrete actions in the next 90 to 120 days.

During the event, the Director of the national AIDS programme, Isabel Aldir, presented the results of the national programme for HIV and tuberculosis for 2017. Ms Aldir said that in 2016, there were 841 new HIV infections in the country, the lowest for 15 years. Nonetheless, the plan for 2017 will focus on increasing the number of rapid tests by 15% and developing clinical guidance standards for the effective provision of pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis. The plan will also include preparing an evaluation report on a pilot project for dispensing HIV treatment in community pharmacies and promoting the implementation of the Fast-Track cities commitments.

Increased access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HIV testing, together with the elimination of discrimination, are key to reducing new HIV infections in Portugal, representatives of civil society told UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Luiz Loures in Lisbon, Portugal.

On 29 May, Mr Loures visited CheckpointLX, a community-based centre in Lisbon for men who have sex with men that offers rapid, confidential and free screening for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, as well as counselling and referral to health care. During the visit, he discussed the challenges faced by civil society organizations in the response to HIV in the country.

The civil society representatives noted the progressive health policies that Portugal has regarding drug use, which are regarded as best practices in reducing new HIV infections among injecting drug users around the world. They also highlighted the importance of the current enabling legislation that is, for example, providing access to health services, including for HIV, to migrant populations regardless of their legal status, which puts Portugal at the forefront of the AIDS response in Europe.

The government’s political commitment to end AIDS by putting people at the centre of the response was further embodied by the Ministry of Health’s announcement on 29 May of the provision through the national health system of PrEP for key populations at higher risk of HIV infection, including gay men and other men who have sex with men and people who inject drugs, and for serodiscordant couples.

Nonetheless, challenges remain. Despite Portugal’s enabling legislation, the civil society representatives stressed the need to ease access to HIV prevention, diagnosis and treatment for migrant populations, given the raising HIV prevalence among migrants. The need to take a holistic approach in the provision of services, including screening for hepatitis, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections, was stressed. The representatives also noted that eliminating all forms of discrimination will be paramount to increasing access to services and to ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.

UNAIDS is working with countries to achieve the commitment in the 2016 United Nations Political Declaration on Ending AIDS of ensuring access to combination prevention options, including pre-exposure prophylaxis, voluntary medical male circumcision, harm reduction and condoms, to at least 90% of people by 2020.