KCteam

Health & Development Networks (HDN) Key Correspondents (KCs) are citizen journalists writing about health and development issues, particularly about HIV/AIDS and TB. KCs come from around the globe. HDN in Chiang Mai, Thailand, facilitates the team with the aim of developing and supporting their reporting skills, while KCs write about issues at the grassroots level. Learn more...

Background

The Commission on AIDS in Asia (CAA) was an independent body established in July 2006. It brought together nine of the region’s leading development economists, epidemiologists, policy-makers and civil society representatives working on the AIDS epidemic. Over a period of 18 months, the Commission conducted a thorough analysis of the developmental consequences of the AIDS epidemic in the region, and its medium to long term implications on the socio-economic environment. These findings were summarized in a report, Report of the Commission on AIDS in Asia, Redefining AIDS in Asia: Crafting an Effective Response, presented to the UN Secretary General in March 2008, with recommendations for a set of measures designed to mobilize leaders to adequately respond to the epidemic in the region. This process coincided with other global and regional processes.

The Civil Society Representative (Frika Iskandar) of the CAA aimed to help ensure that civil society opinion and input from the region was fully incorporated into the work it was mandated to accomplish. It was recognized that the voices of wider community were necessary to influence the development of the CAA recommendations and to ensure that civil society’s key AIDS priorities were clearly represented in the final recommendations and supported by a body of evidence from a broad range of stakeholders. The CAA recommendations could ultimately change how governments develop and make decisions about national AIDS policies and programmes. An open, realistic, unbiased, and practical strategy for civil society consultation was used to reach out to as many different AIDS stakeholders as possible in the Asia region.

As a result, civil society has been a driving force in using the CAA recommendations for their advocacy work in the region, increase communities’ awareness of the report and working UNAIDS and governments.

Towards A More Effective Response

Regional HIV/AIDS networks organising the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) Community Forums will use the CAA recommendations as a common thread to guide and link their discussions, which in turn will inform the development of the Community Statement given during the ICAAP opening ceremony. Communities will also be using the CAA report as a framework to develop programme strategies and key messages on how best to support the community in the AIDS response, as prioritised by Key Affected Populations’ perspectives.

Your articles will provide important contributions to the community debate in the run up to the conference and will be used to determine if the ICAAP conference content adequately reflects community priorities and recommendations.

The Assignment

Your thoughts and experience of the CAA report and its recommendations
Please write a feature article based on your own experience and country context.
You can use the questions below to help frame your story.

• How familiar are you with the CAA report and its recommendations? What do you think about the recommendations?

• What do communities need to know about them? What are communities’/civil society’s response to the CAA recommendations?

• How have the CAA report and/or recommendations been used in your country? Are they relevant? What impact have they had in the AIDS response? Are governments and other policy makers listening? What needs to be done?

• How do the CAA recommendations benefit/endanger the key affected populations in your country?

Please submit your 800 word feature article by the 31st July 2009 by posting it on www.healthdev.net with one of the keywords as ‘ICAAP2009’.

If you would like us to review your article before submitting to HealthDev.net, you are welcome to email your article as an attachment to Taline Haytayan (thaytayan@aidsalliance.org).

Please feel free to contact us if you’d like advice or support on your assignment.


Resources

Please find below some useful resources to assist you in developing your articles.
Related KC Articles on HealthDev.net, filtered on ‘Commission on AIDS in Asia’: http://healthdev.net/site/index.php?g=27&k=299&kc=0&d=0&contacts=0&unique=0

Redefining AIDS in Asia: Report of the Commission on AIDS in Asia (March 2008)
http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2008/20080326_report_commission_aids_en.pdf

Commission on AIDS in Asia: UNAIDS website
http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/FeatureStories/archive/2008/20080326_asia_commission.asp

Related KC Article on Healthdev.net
What should the Commission on AIDS in Asia recommend?

Recommendations of the CAA Report

The following list refers to the Recommendations of the CAA report and we’ve included some related KC articles for your reference.

1. Leadership

Are governments and business leaders assuming a more proactive role in the HIV response in your country? If so, how? If not, why not? What are the challenges?

What is the role of the National AIDS Commission in your country? Do they have the mandate, leadership and technical expertise for decentralised decision-making?

Do Country Coordinating Mechanisms (Global Fund) operate in a democratic and transparent manner, encouraging more meaningful involvement by civil society partners? Are there any linkages between the CCMs and the National AIDS Commissions? If so, how are these working in your country?


2. Criminalisation & Human Rights

Are governments working towards removing legislative, policy and other barriers to strengthen access to treatment and healthcare services by those most at risk? Are there any laws being put in place to facilitate the provision of HIV-related services to people most at risk?

What examples are there of HIV related stigma and discrimination in healthcare settings and in the wider society?

3. Communtiy Involvement

Local responses to the epidemic in all stages of policy, programme design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation – resource availability - effective participation

What systems and structures are in place to support effective participation and ensure accountability – representation in CCMs and NACs on the basis of an open and transparent selection process.

4. Prevention
Integrated, comprehensive harm reduction programmes: needle exchange, drug substitution, referral services (for HIV testing and ART)

Sex work interventions based on peer education: accessibility and use of condoms by SWs and their clients; use of female condoms and education campaigns on condom use; interventions that focus on clients of sex workers.

MSM and Transgender comprehensive programming including peer education, provision of condoms and lubricants, access to services for managing STIs, local advocacy and self-organisation.

Women: wives of MSM, IDUs, SWs; Access to reproductive health services (as well as other health care) as an entry point to increase women’s access to HIV prevention, testing and referral services.

Youth & Children: local responses, resource availability, and the role of stakeholders in supporting children and young people affected by HIV, such as faith groups & NGOs

5. Treatment and Care

HIV testing and couselling: individual rights to privacy, confidentiality and choice; access to ARVs – affordability and reduced drug prices, invoke compulsory licensing for second-line drugs; availability of first and second line ARV drugs; equitable access to ARVs, laboratory test and related treatment services; adherence to treatment regimens

Linkages between HIB and TB diagnosis and treatment

6. Impact Mitigation

Impact mitigation programmes an essential component fo national HIV responses, with a focus on poor households, affected women and children i.e. income generation, livelihood security, cash transfers and education subsidies.