Ten community-based organizations, which have shown exceptional and inspiring action on AIDS were honoured with the 2012 Red Ribbon Award in a special session of the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) on Wednesday. The Red Ribbon Award is the world's leading award for innovative and outstanding community work in the response to the AIDS epidemic.

Speaking at a satellite session today at the XIX International AIDS Conference, Ambassador Eric Goosby, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, and Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), commended countries and their international partners for recent progress in preventing new HIV infections among children and saving mothers’ lives.

UNAIDS together with United States Senators and Congress representatives hosted a Congressional breakfast to discuss investing smartly in the response to AIDS. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), Congresswomen Kay Granger (Rep-Texas)and Nita Lowey (D-New York) joined UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibé, to share insights into the role of global solidarity and country ownership in getting to zero.

After more than two decades, the International AIDS Conference has returned to the United States, representing the renewed commitment for the global HIV response. The XIX International AIDS Conference opened on 22 July in Washington, DC, under the theme “Turning the Tide Together.”

On the eve of the first International AIDS Conference in the United States in two decades, Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), joined US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and others to launch Youth Score—a series of events to mobilize young people to lead the way to an AIDS-free generation.

On the eve of the opening of the International AIDS Conference, a stellar cast of artists, political leaders, and community activists came to Washington, D.C. to mark more than three decades of the global AIDS response. The event, held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, united some of the leading voices in the global effort to achieve an AIDS-free generation. The event kicked off the weeklong AIDS 2012 conference, being held in the U.S. for the first time in more than two decades.

A new report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) shows that domestic funding for HIV has exceeded international investments. The report, Together we will end AIDS, states that low- and middle- income countries invested US$ 8.6 billion for the response in 2011, an increase of 11% over 2010. International funding however remained flat at 2008 levels (US$ 8.2 billion).

Ahead of the 19th African Union Summit, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé participated in a series of meetings with Heads of State and other high-level African dignitaries on 14 July in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé met with Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang as part of a two-day official visit to China. Mr Sidibé also met with Chinese Minister of Health, Dr Chen Zhu and presented a UNAIDS “Leaders and Innovators Award” to the President of Xinhua News Agency, Mr Li Congjun.

In July 2012 the International AIDS Conference will return to the United States of America. Ahead of the Conference, the UNAIDS Executive Director made a special visit to the San Francisco Bay Area, an area which has been particularly affected by AIDS, and which has subsequently become an important centre of AIDS activism.