GENEVA, 30 October 2015—At its 37th meeting, the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board adopted a new strategy to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. The UNAIDS 2016–2021 Strategy is one of the first in the United Nations system to be aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals, which set the framework for global development policy over the next 15 years, including ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. 

With a universal agenda, firmly grounded in evidence and rights-based approaches, the strategy maps out the UNAIDS Fast-Track approach to accelerate the AIDS response over the next five years to reach critical HIV prevention and treatment targets and achieve zero discrimination. Members of the Board from across all regions called the strategy bold, ambitious, yet achievable, and praised the highly inclusive and consultative process to develop it.

In his opening address, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, described the strategy as an urgent call to front-load investment, to close the testing gap, to increase focus and financing for HIV prevention and to protect the health of the 22 million people living with HIV who are not yet accessing treatment. He said that the strategy would be an instrument for social justice and dignity.

“Our transformative strategy pushes us to cover more ground than ever before,” said Mr Sidibé. “It obliges us to address the critical linkages between health, injustice, inequality, poverty and conflict.”   

The Board also approved UNAIDS’ operational framework and the Unified Budget, Results and Accountability Framework (UBRAF) for 2016–2021, which will translate the strategy into action at the national, regional and global levels. The strategy and UBRAF are powerful tools to accelerate the global AIDS response and guide the work of the Joint Programme.

The Board underlined the importance of innovation and partnership in tackling complex interconnected development and health challenges and stressed that the space the strategy and UNAIDS provides for discussion is unique.

During the dedicated thematic day, the Board discussed the importance of shared responsibility and global solidarity for an effective, equitable and sustainable HIV response. It was agreed that the most critical next step for achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals will be to have clarity on the means of implementation. Participants emphasized that multisectorality and equitable, transparent and inclusive governance are central bases for effective shared responsibility and global solidarity, and that the AIDS response—and in particular UNAIDS—provides an important model to be replicated for other health, development, gender and rights outcomes.

Representatives of Member States, international organizations, civil society and nongovernmental organizations attended the meeting, which was chaired by David Parirenyatwa, Minister of Health and Child Care of Zimbabwe. Switzerland served as Vice-Chair and Ukraine as Rapporteur. At the meeting, Switzerland was elected as the 2016 Chair, Ghana as Vice-Chair and Ecuador as Rapporteur.

The UNAIDS Executive Director’s report to the Board and the Board’s decisions can be found at unaids.org.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

In 2013, UNAIDS launched the Daily Development blog to explore, in the run up to the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global development and the people behind it. The blog covered the whole range of development issues to be addressed by the SDGs—health, human rights, innovation, the arts, education, economics, the environment and more.

Both high-level policy-makers and people working on the ground in some of the world’s most difficult conditions were asked to give their stories. Erna Solberg, the Prime Minister of Norway, spoke about her passion for ensuring that girls are educated. Edward Tommy, a journalist from Freetown in Sierra Leone, describes his experience of working at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak in mid-2014. And Aidan McQuade, Director of Anti-Slavery International, wrote about why there is still a need for an anti-slavery organization in the modern world. What unites those authors, and the dozens of other people we spoke to, is their commitment towards improving the lives of others—they were working towards achieving the 17 SDGs even before they were formulated.

Daily Development was founded as both a blog and a book project. With the adoption of the SDGs in New York in September the blog published its last post, but as the culmination of the project UNAIDS has published a book, telling the stories of all who we spoke to over the past two years.

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Countries adopt an ambitious new development agenda that will leave no one behind

NEW YORK/GENEVA, 25 September 2015—UNAIDS has welcomed the adoption by world leaders of the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which set the framework for global development policy over the next 15 years. The ambitious agenda outlines 17 goals ranging from ending poverty and hunger, to achieving gender equality and combatting climate change.

“Today marks a historic opportunity for the world to unite for a healthier planet and a healthier future for all,” said Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. “Commitment, action and implementation will allow for truly sustainable results for people everywhere.”

The agenda builds on the achievements of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals which were set in 2000 and included a commitment to halt and reverse the AIDS epidemic. Since then, there has been massive scale up of the response to HIV which enabled the world to not only achieve, but actually exceed the AIDS targets of Millennium Development Goal 6. UNAIDS has now set a firm course to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the new Sustainable Development Goals.

To achieve this UNAIDS has developed a Fast-Track approach to reach a set of time-bound targets by 2020. The targets include reducing new HIV infections by 75%, ensuring 90% of all people living with HIV know their HIV status, ensuring 90% of people who know their status have access to treatment and that 90% of people on treatment have supressed viral loads, keeping them healthy and reducing the risk of transmission.

The response to HIV spans many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and is included under Sustainable Goal 3, to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. UNAIDS looks forward to working closely with all partners to ensure a healthier, more equitable future which leaves no one behind.

“The targets set out in the Sustainable Development Goals provide us with a road map to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges,” said Mr Sidibé. “This international framework has the potential to save millions of lives and to achieve fairer and more just outcomes for people everywhere.”

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

UNAIDS is holding a second and final virtual consultation to review its 2016-2021 Strategy. The draft of the Strategy is available online for review and comment until 21^st August. This consultation follows eight months of discussions at global and regional levels. UNAIDS hosted its first virtual consultation in March 2015, receiving 280 inputs from 50 countries in five languages. Young people, people living with and affected by HIV and representatives from civil society represented a large proportion of the respondents.

By engaging with stakeholders at all levels, UNAIDS aims to generate a widely shared understanding on the future direction of UNAIDS’ response to HIV. At its 36^th session in June, the Programme Coordinating Board expressed satisfaction with the process, praising its inclusiveness and transparency.

This draft of the Strategy builds on the priorities expressed at these consultations and guidance received form the Board. Stakeholders are encouraged to provide comments on to the draft or can post their comments directly on the website. Following the consultation, UNAIDS will revise the draft and submit a final version to the Board for adoption in October. The new Strategy is expected to set ambitious programmatic and resource targets to be met by 2020 which will set a course to ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030, a target which is reflected in the sustainable development goals.

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GENEVA, 6 July 2015—The 36th meeting of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board has concluded its three-day meeting in Geneva. The Board’s discussions focused on strengthening the AIDS response in the post-2015 development agenda and advancing the development of the updated and extended UNAIDS Strategy 2016–2021.

The Board stressed the value of lessons learned from the global AIDS response, including those learned from the approach of UNAIDS as the only joint cosponsored programme of the Unites Nations system, for the transition from the Millennium Development Goals to the post-2015 development agenda and the sustainable development goals. The Board also welcomed the advances made towards updating and extending the current UNAIDS Strategy to accelerate investment and results in the next five years with a view to ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

During the meeting, held from 30 June to 2 July, Board members recognized the need for stronger action to address transmission of HIV among people who inject drugs. In preparation for the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem, the Board adopted bold decisions and called on states to develop and implement comprehensive drug policies that respect human rights, promote public health outcomes and are informed by harm reduction programmes related to HIV and people who inject drugs.

In his opening address, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Michel Sidibé, emphasized the opportunities ahead to build on progress made in the AIDS response and by implementing the ambitious Fast-Track approach. If the Fast-Track Targets are achieved by 2020, ending the AIDS epidemic will be possible by 2030.

“The Fast-Track approach will be a key instrument in breaking the backbone of AIDS and ending the epidemic as a public health threat,” Mr Sidibé said. “It is time to redouble our efforts.”

Member States, international organizations, civil society and nongovernmental organizations attended the meeting, which was chaired by Zimbabwe.

The meeting concluded with a thematic day on HIV in emergency contexts. The aim of the thematic session was to illustrate the importance that populations affected by humanitarian emergencies be given much higher priority within AIDS strategies, plans and activities. New data presented at the thematic session estimated that of the 314 million people affected by humanitarian emergencies in 2013, 1.6 million people—or 1 in 22—are living with HIV.

The UNAIDS Executive Director’s report to the Board and the Board’s decisions from the meeting can be found at unaids.org.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Representatives of United Nations Member States, international organizations and civil society are participating in a two-day global multistakeholder consultation on the UNAIDS 2016–2021 Strategy.

The global consultation, which follows a round of regional discussions and the completion of a virtual consultation, will review progress made and discuss the changes required to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030.

The consultation will be a key step in developing the UNAIDS 2016–2021 Strategy—to implement and deliver on the UNAIDS Fast-Track Targets.

The Strategy will mobilize and align partners, focus resources, inspire multisectoral action, reinforce related sustainable development goals, promote and protect human rights and gender equality and accelerate progress overall. Its implementation will ensure that no one is left behind and it will also reaffirm the UNAIDS vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths, which continues to inspire and catalyse action.

The first draft of the Strategy will be presented to the 37th meeting of the Programme Coordinating Board of UNAIDS in October 2015.

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