The 2023 checklist and reference list is an updated version of the UNAIDS’s 2020 version Checklist and reference list for developing and reviewing a national strategic plan for HIV and is intended to serve as a helpful tool for developing and revising countries’ national strategic plans for HIV. The checklist is in line with the Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026 priority strategic and results areas and the 2025 global HIV targets. It complements and builds on the most recent normative and technical guidance developed by UNAIDS, the UNAIDS cosponsors and The Global Fund’s Secretariat. It includes hyperlinks for such guidance, technical recommendations and other references for easy reference.

This checklist, including the YES, PARTIAL and NO response choices and justification, is not intended to be submitted to UNAIDS but rather is a self-assessment tool to help with the NSP review or development to understand relevant options and make evidence-informed decisions for the country to produce a meaningful, useful and impact-oriented NSP. The checklist has two parts for NSP self-assessment: high-level cross-cutting content (Part A) and specific programme content (Part B).

Part A applies to all countries and contains analyses of situations and responses to inform NSP development, the key principles of NSP development process, the goal, targets and priority-setting, and the principles of human rights, equity and sustainability. Part B contains the policy and programme requirements for HIV prevention, testing and diagnosis, treatment and care, addressing comorbidities and co-infections, enabling implementation and scaling up of integrated people-centred strategies, systems and interventions, social protection, health systems, community engagement and community-led responses, human rights and gender equity, efficiency and effectiveness, governance, management and accountability, HIV in humanitarian crises, and pandemic preparedness and response. Countries need to select the relevant elements of Part B depending on context and consultations with wider groups of stakeholders.

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection, and two types of HPV (16 and 18) cause nearly 50% of high-grade cervical pre-cancers. HIV and cervical cancer are inextricably linked. Women living with HIV are six times more likely to develop cervical cancer, which is one of the AIDS-defining illnesses and the most common cancer among women living with HIV globally. Cervical cancer is a preventable, curable disease and can be eliminated as a public health problem with primary and secondary prevention, treatment, and care of cervical cancer, in combination with addressing social, health and other inequalities and integrated approaches. This document is also available in Arabic

An end to AIDS in children, achieved through a strong, strategic, and action-oriented alliance of multisectoral stakeholders at national, regional, and global levels that works with women children and adolescents living with HIV, national governments, and partners to mobilize leadership, funding, and action to end AIDS in children by 2030.

This technical guidance outlines best practices regarding the appropriate use of HIV recency assays for surveillance purposes within population-based surveys for estimating HIV incidence; and Programme data from HIV testing services for population- or programme-level monitoring.