Civil society participation vital to universal access
24 May 2006
In many developing countries, communities already play a major role in the provision of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment services. In others, increasing community involvement in service delivery is necessary if access to prevention and treatment is to be increased. However, communities also need to be involved in the process by which international, national and local plans for how and when scale up occurs are agreed, according to the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
“Community action on AIDS must span the range of activities directed at effectively responding to the epidemic, from policy formulation and resource allocation to service delivery,” said Alliance Executive Director, Dr Alvaro Bermejo.
The Alliance has been involved at various levels in supporting community participation in the development of the universal access agenda.
A document identifying what universal access means for civil society was developed by the Alliance following a global consultation with its partners in 25 countries. Alliance linking organisations, country offices and partners all fed into the document, sharing their experiences and insights on the opportunities and barriers to realising access to prevention, care and treatment in their countries.
These consultations helped identify Alliance policy and advocacy priorities for the meeting which include pressing for a global treatment target of 10 million by 2010, establishing stronger national targets, and arguing for the creation of a global HIV and human rights action plan.
A Global Steering Committee, co-chaired by UNAIDS and the UK’s Department for International Development, was established to explore solutions to the common obstacles to achieving universal access. The Alliance was represented on the committee by Anandi Yuvaraj from Alliance India, who participated in the meetings along with the support of other Alliance staff.
Anandi Yuvaraj is also a civil society representative on the Indian delegation to UNGASS. Civil society organisations in India met with MPs this week to brief them on the barriers to universal access in India. Anandi highlighted the importance of a global target of 10 million on treatment by 2010 to achieve universal access. The report of this meeting describes some of the barriers to achieving universal access in India.
The Alliance in Brighton plays an active part in a UK-based coalition of civil society organisations responding to AIDS - the Stop AIDS Campaign. The Stop AIDS Campaign organised an event at the UK parliament on 22 May to brief UK members of parliament on overcoming barriers to universal access. Susie McLean, Senior Policy Advisor at the Alliance, spoke at the event alongside MPs and activists from Uganda and Zimbabwe.
The Stop AIDS Campaign has produced two policy papers on achieving universal access by 2010 – Universal access by 2010: the UK Government's role in making it happen and Access to essential medicines for HIV – to influence UK members of parliament prior to both UNGASS and this year's G8 meeting in Russia.
Alliance partners from a number of countries will be attending the High Level Meeting including a delegation from the Alliance’s linking organisations in Senegal, Ecuador, Ukraine and India, together with a number of staff from the Alliance’s international secretariat.[1]
[1] Alliance delegates at UNGASS include, Magatt Mbodj, ANCS Senegal; Andry Klepikov, Alliance Ukraine; Anandi Yuvaraj, Alliance India; Fareed Abdullah, Abdelkader Bacha, Mandeep Dhaliwal, Javier Hourcade Bellocq and Joseph O’Reilly, Alliance Secretariat.
