Monitoring the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS needs champions—and nurses and midwives need recognition—for providing care and support to people living with IV/AIDS, their families and communities. This publication describes nursing and midwifery champions in HIV/AIDS care in Southern Africa, who, with singular commitment and resourcefulness, are delivering good-quality care in spite of innumerable obstacles and constraints. They carry a heavy burden, and they know the meaning of the expression, “where there’s a will there’s a way”. UNAIDS and the SADC AIDS Network of Nurses and Midwives (SANNAM) celebrate just a few of the many thousands of champions who are on the front lines of care and treatment, many times feeling the sadness, shame and anger of having so little to offer. In describing the work of a few, the intention is to pay tribute to all who are doing a caring, committed job in the face of great odds, and to share the valuable lessons they have learned from experience. In addition to being of value to nurses and midwives, this report is also aimed at all those with an interest in improving the quality of care and support of people living with HIV/AIDS—especially those responsible for training, managing and supervising nursing and midwifery staff, and policy-makers within health-care services.

Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, said in a speech in June 2001: ‘‘It is high time we tapped the strengths of the business sector to the full. AIDS affects business. The spread of the pandemic has caused business costs to expand, and markets to shrink. As both the current balance sheet and future indicators show, the business community needs to get involved to protect its bottom line…”

This report provides a snapshot of the action being taken across the African continent in response to the challenge of AIDS. It highlights governments working with all their ministries to deliver a full-scale response. It demonstrates progress in closing the gaps in the provision of HIV prevention and treatment. It shows the value of partnership between government, communities and businesses. It showcases the determination of African women to throw off the disproportionate burden that AIDS represents for them. And it makes manifest the voice of hope, in the many successful responses by young people in fighting the epidemic.

This is the first of a series of case studies on AIDS and uniformed services, Eritrea was selected by UNAIDS because it represents a unique environment where the important role of national and international uniformed services in the fight against AIDS can be demonstrated.

This paper is a desk review of policies and programmes being undertaken to address AIDS among the uniformed services around the world. It provides an overview of the actions taken by the UNAIDS Office on AIDS, Security and Humanitarian Response (SHR) to support countries in meeting their commitments.

This report contains important new data about why young people are key to defeating the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, including results from more than 60 new national surveys. It reaffirms that we must accord top priority to making investments in the well-being of young people and to engaging them in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Implementing HIV/AIDS/STI peer education

The number of infants born with HIV infection increases every day. The vast majority of these children are infected through their mothers. Given the vital importance of breastfeeding to a child’s health, and the risk of HIV transmission through breastfeeding, the development of policies on HIV infection and infant feeding is crucial. This document provides policy-makers with key elements for the creation of the aforementioned policies, such as promoting and supporting breastfeeding, improving access to HIV counselling and testing, and preventing commercial pressures for artificial feeding. It also highlights the prevention of HIV infection in women through the promotion of safer sex and the adequate treatment of sexually transmitted infections

This document is an operational tool that has been developed by the Country and Regional Support Department (CRD) in order to pursue actions recommended by the PCB. The document provides a comprehensive framework for strategic management. It includes a listing of strategic objectives of the Department, 13 key results to be achieved, priority countries, major activities, monitoring and reporting indicators and the budget of the Department. The overall goal of CRD is to scale up national responses to HIV/AIDS. This document offers a road map for the future directions of CRD in its efforts to achieve that goal.