Global meetings agree on need to prioritise HIV needs of gay and other men who have sex with men in developing countries

28 November 2005

As part of the Alliance’s commitment to strengthening our work with gay men and men who have sex with men (MSM) and to increasing interest in and commitment to this work among other stakeholders, the Alliance hosted a series of high level global meetings in both Geneva and Brighton in November. The meetings are the beginning of a process of exploring how we can better support increased funding for HIV prevention and impact mitigation among gay and other men who have sex with men in developing countries.

A meeting for donors and policy makers was jointly organised by the Alliance and UNAIDS and held in Geneva, Switzerland on November 14. This meeting was aimed at increasing donors’ and policy makers’ interest in and commitment to HIV prevention and impact mitigation among men who have sex with men in developing countries, and was attended by 35 key players from civil society, government and the international donor and policy making community.

The meeting helped situate MSM programming within the global epidemic, sharing the latest thinking on issues which are critical to the success of programming with gay and other men who have sex with men, and profiling work being carried out by civil society organisations with the support of international donors in developing countries.

Participants from community organisations in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and South and South East Asia shared their experiences and insights with donors and policy makers.

The initiative was taken as part of the Alliance’s Frontiers Prevention Project’s global policy and advocacy work. Frontiers is a multi-country HIV prevention focused initiative working with key populations, including gay and other men who have sex with men in India, Cambodia, Ecuador, Morocco and Madagascar.

“The need to encourage governments and other stakeholders to increase and reinforce existing prevention efforts among populations at increased risk of HIV/AIDS is critical to effective responses to the epidemic,” said Dr Alvaro Bermejo, Executive Director of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.

“This is particularly true of efforts to prevent transmission among men who have sex with men, whose rights and interests have often featured less prominently in strategies to reach populations key to the epidemic in developing countries.”

In recognition of the implications of many of the issues raised for the Alliance’s own programming and policy work, a number of the participants visited the Alliance Secretariat in Brighton to share their experiences with staff.

An overview of critical issues and case studies from the field is being developed and will be launched at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Canada in 2006. In the meantime a brief overview together with presentations given at the meetings and other key documents are now available.

For more information contact Joseph O’Reilly, Global Policy Adviser, Frontiers Prevention Project.