Alliance at the XVII International AIDS Conference, Mexico City
28 August 2008
Members of the Alliance from 20 countries around the world joined over 22,000 delegates at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, 3-8 August 2008.
Throughout the week Alliance members ran workshops, gave poster presentations and organised and spoke at numerous events.
Prevention, prevention, prevention
Increasing HIV prevention efforts was the main message from this year’s conference. With nearly 3 million people now receiving anti-retroviral treatment it is now acknowledged that prevention efforts need to be scaled up. According to UNAIDS 2.7 million people were newly infected with HIV last year. Treatment and prevention efforts need to work in tandem.
The Alliance presented the results from the Frontiers Prevention Project in India in a satellite session that discussed how to reach vulnerable and marginalised groups like sex workers and men who have sex with men (MSM). Results from the project showed a massive increase in condom use by MSM with their last male partner from 58% to 91% and for female sex workers their use of condoms with their last client increased from 70% to 98%.
Male circumcision was another hot topic. The Alliance's Executive Director Alvaro Bermejo chaired and presented at Male circumcision: to cut or not to cut. Speaking to a packed room of hundreds Bermejo acknowledged the many controversies surrounding the procedure but highlighted that circumcision needs to be considered as another HIV prevention method.
Civil society is key to the HIV response
This was the second time that the outstanding contribution of civil society in tackling HIV was recognised at the conference through the UNAIDS Red Ribbon awards. Juan Jacobo Hernandez, General Director, from Alliance’s Mexican partner Colectivo Sol, introduced the winners and outlined the importance of civil society work to a crowd of thousands at the conference’s opening ceremony.
Alliance partner Fortaleciendo la Diversidad (FID) from Mexico was one of five the finalists specially recognised for their work providing HIV prevention programmes and services.
But civil society and communities are still too often fighting for a place at the table in the HIV response. Working together with scientists, governments and international agencies is the only way to continue the progress in tackling HIV. There was a call to change the research paradigm and include the valuable information that comes from communities.
The need to build partnerships for universal access was highlighted in an important satellite event organised by the Alliance with UNAIDS and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The discussion focussed on building on case studies of country successes and the Johannesburg meeting on civil society and HIV in Africa.
Twenty-five years into the epidemic and key populations are still underserved and under-represented
The Alliance also shared lessons from work in concentrated epidemics in Latin America and Caribbean as well as other regions. A strong message was delivered about the importance of marginalised and vulnerable groups such as men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers leading in the HIV response.
It was the first time that the conference had given specific space to hear about the issues facing transgender people.
The Alliance received global press coverage on the issue that transgender people faced disproportionately high rates of HIV and are unable to access HIV services. (The Hidden HIV Epidemic: Transgender Women in Latin America and Asia: full report, English fact sheet, Spanish fact sheet)
At an Alliance press conference Laxmi Narayan Tripathi from ASTITVA which works for sexual minorities in India and Marcela Romero, regional coordinator of the Latin American & Caribbean Transgender Network spoke eloquently about the challenges facing transgender people and what is being done to overcome them. They called on the press to "do your job" and report on trans issues.
The idea of establishing an international federation of transgender people to empower and support transgender people was raised.
It was another first when Elena Reyanaga, Secretary General of REDTRASEX, an Alliance partner, made a powerful presentation in the plenary session calling for better rights for commercial sex workers. It was the first time sex workers had a voice at the plenary session at an international AIDS conference.
Financing for HIV and health systems to achieve universal access
In a special plenary session, Global financial architecture, Alvaro Bermejo shared the platform with senior representatives from WHO, UNAIDS, the Global Fund, World Bank, PEPFAR and government representatives from the UK, Ethiopia, Botswana and the Netherlands. The session explored the challenges posed by the current global AIDS funding architecture.
Abdelkader Bacha, Associate Director: Global Alliance Services, summed up this year’s conference.
“Despite the fact that Mexico didn’t present a major breakthrough in research on treatment or prevention technologies, the conference offered a great opportunity to further recognise the role of civil society and develop stronger partnerships with governments and other stakeholders, particularly through the Global Fund's commitment to dual track financing and community system strengthening.
“On the policy side, Mexico focused more interest on the meaningful involvement of key populations and marginalised groups than ever.
For the Alliance family it was a great opportunity to meet together in solidarity and contribute to global debates.”
