August 2014
NewsNews

Africa and the Middle East

NAMIBIA -- Ministry Scales Up Circumcision Drive

Asia and the Pacific

AUSTRALIA -- Labor Says Federal Budget Is Concerning for HIV Sector 

 

INDIA -- Mandatory Testing for HIV/AIDS Counter-productive: Health Minister
 

PAKISTAN -- Awareness Campaign Against HIV Virus Stressed  

 

SOUTH KOREA -- AIDS Patients with No Place to Receive Care 

Europe and Eurasia

RUSSIA -- Outdated Approaches Fuelling TB in Russia, Say NGOs
 

UNITED KINGDOM -- New Development Goals Need Ambition - and the UK Must Set the Agenda 

Latin America and the Caribbean

North America

UNITED STATES -- City Officials: Fewer New HIV Cases in D.C. in 2012, but Infection Rate Still 'Epidemic'  

 

UNITED STATES -- Opinion: Don't Let Insurers Degrade HIV Coverage 

Global

AdvocateAdvocate Focus

Beri Hull, Global Advocacy Officer

International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW)

 

"Governments and donors need to insist that women living with HIV be involved in programs that are meant to support women with HIV. Not just as consumers but as monitors, policymakers, managers, and planners. It takes an effort to include women, but it's important and fundamental to everything we advocate for." --Beri Hull


 

Beri Hull is the global advocacy officer for the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW). ICW promotes the voice of women living with HIV (WLHIV) throughout the world and advocates for their human rights. Hull's work focuses on advocacy for sexual and reproductive health; rights; care, treatment, and support for WLHIV. ICW operates at the national, regional, and global levels, and Hull works closely with bilateral and multilateral agencies, governments, and donors (including the UN) to promote the rights and participation of WLHIV. The HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor spoke to Hull about her global advocacy work and how policy can improve the lives of WLHIV.


PolicyPolicy Analysis

This series of blog posts -- three of which were also featured in Science Speaks -- highlights the Health Policy Project's (HPP) presence at the 2014 International AIDS Conference. The posts showcase HPP's comprehensive and innovative approaches to policy and advocacy interventions and reflect the conference's theme of "Stepping up the Pace" in the HIV response.

 

What Are You Doing About Stigma and Discrimination that Pose Barriers to Accessing Health Services?

Laura Nyblade, Senior Advisor for Stigma and Discrimination, Health Policy Project, RTI International

http://www.healthpolicyproject.com/index.cfm?id=AIDS2014stigma 

 

Financing the New Global HIV Treatment Vision -- Advocacy and Economics

Arin Dutta, Senior Economist, and Ron MacInnis, Deputy Director for HIV, Health Policy Project, Futures Group

http://www.healthpolicyproject.com/index.cfm?id=AIDS2014Financing 

 

When HIV Research and Data Collection Is at Odds with "Do No Harm"

Anita Datar, Senior Policy Advisor, and Ron MacInnis, Deputy Director for HIV, Health Policy Project, Futures Group

http://www.healthpolicyproject.com/index.cfm?id=AIDS2014GeohealthBlog 

 

The Voice of Public Health Leadership Globally: Marginalized

Ron MacInnis, Deputy Director for HIV, Health Policy Project, Futures Group

http://www.healthpolicyproject.com/index.cfm?id=AIDS2014UgandaHIV  

Punitive Policing and Associated Substance Use Risks among HIV-Positive People in Russia who Inject Drugs
JIAS

http://www.jiasociety.org/index.php/jias/article/view/19043 

 

A cross-sectional study of HIV-positive people with lifetime injection drug use found that practices used in policing injection drug users in Russia may contribute to HIV transmission and overdose mortality. These results highlight the need to create prevention programs that modify individual behaviors and address policing practices to mitigate HIV risk factors.  

UNAIDS Report Shows That 19 Million of the 35 Million People Living with HIV Today Do Not Know They Have the Virus

UNAIDS

 

http://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/ pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2014/july/20140716prgapreport/

 

The UNAIDS precursor report for the 2014 International AIDS Conference, the Gap Report, provides in-depth regional analysis of HIV epidemics and examines 12 populations at higher risk of HIV. By evaluating the factors that limit people's access to HIV services, the report shows how focusing on higher risk populations will be key to ending the AIDS epidemic. 

From Rhetoric to Reality: An Analysis of Donor and Implementing Country Efforts to Scale Up the TB-HIV Response

ACTION

 

http://www.action.org/documents/From_Rhetoric_to_Reality_7-21_%28for_USB%29.pdf 

 

This report analyzes the extent to which donor programs and national health policies include the World Health Organization's key collaborative activities to fight tuberculosis (TB) and HIV in countries where at least 20 percent of people with TB are co-infected with HIV. Increasing policy and program investments and scaling up key interventions is necessary to further the efforts to end both epidemics.  

Access to "Undetectable" Viral Load for All by 2020: AIDS Activists Demand New Model for the HIV Response

Treatment Action Campaign

 

http://www.tac.org.za/news/%E2%80%9Cundetectable%E2%80%9D-viral-load%E2%80%94opportunity-all-2020

 

This statement from the Treatment Action Campaign, supported by other civil society organizations, demands that undetectable viral load become a core target in the new global goals being debated by the United Nations Institutions and national governments. It also calls for leaders to commit the political and economic support necessary to achieve this target.  

ResourcesNew Resources: Models, Tools, and Research 

Consolidated Guidelines on HIV Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and Care for Key Populations

WHO

http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/guidelines/keypopulations/en/ 

 

These new World Health Organization Guidelines on HIV Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Care for Key Populations synthesize existing guidance relevant to five key populations -- men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, people in prisons and other closed settings, sex workers, and transgender people -- and update selected policy recommendations.  

PEPFAR Dashboards

PEPFAR

 

http://www.pepfar.gov/funding/c63793.htm

 

The PEPFAR Dashboards were released to increase transparency, provide access to all levels of program data, and illustrate the impact of its programs. The new Dashboards enable all stakeholders to view and utilize PEPFAR planned budgets, programs results, and expenditure analysis data in an accessible format. 

Untangling the Web of Antiretroviral Price Reductions: 17th Edition -- July 2014

M�decins Sans Fronti�res

 

https://www.msfaccess.org/content/untangling-web-antiretroviral-price-reductions-17th-edition-%E2%80%93-july-2014 

 

This updated edition of the MSF Access Campaign's Untangling the Web of Antiretroviral Price Reductions presents the information in a new, shorter format that focuses on a few key drugs and future regimes. The document also analyzes current opportunities, challenges, and threats to keeping antiretroviral prices down.  

AdvocacyAdvocacy

Mudede Contraceptive Howler Torches Storm

NewsDay
 

https://www.newsday.co.zw/2014/07/17/mudede-contraceptive-howler-torches-storm/

 

Recent remarks by Zimbabwe's Registrar-General that contraceptives are killing women and slowing the country's population growth angered government officials, women's rights groups, and HIV groups. According to these groups, banning contraceptives would reverse the country's health gains, both for family planning and for HIV/STI prevention.  

A Week of Victories for Iranian LGBT: 6Rang Makes History at Istanbul Pride 2014

6Rang Network

http://6rang.org/english/2110 

 

The Iranian Lesbian and Transgendered Network, 6Rang, recently launched a groundbreaking report on state-sponsored medical abuse of the Iranian LGBT community. Pathologizing Identities, Paralyzing Bodies: Human Rights Violations against Lesbian, Gay and Transgender People in Iran uses a human rights framework to analyze how violence and discrimination shape the lives of sexual and gender minorities in Iran.

InterviewInterview with Beri Hull

HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor: What led you to work in HIV policy and advocacy with ICW?

 

I have always been a person that gets involved in issues that are close to me and that I am passionate about. My past includes a history of drug addiction and my road to recovery led to me becoming a chemical dependency counselor. That, in turn, led to me becoming an HIV counselor. Working directly with men and women living with HIV and being a woman living with HIV made for a natural transition to advocacy. I first worked with people living with HIV in the United States before focusing on the issues facing women living with HIV around the world. I started at ICW as a member and volunteer, and subsequently began working for the organization as the global advocacy officer.

 

HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor: Why did you transition from service provision to advocacy?

 

I've always felt that advocacy was important to my spiritual health. Years ago, when I had a strong suspicion I was HIV positive, I wasn't able to accept that reality. When I got tested I panicked. Soon after though, I began realizing that it is important for me to be an HIV advocate; I believe that I can help others to better help themselves. In particular, the struggles that women and girls around the world face is humbling to me, and working internationally makes me realize that I should not take my own life for granted but instead work to help others.

 

HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor: What are the key advocacy initiatives of ICW?

 

ICW was the first organization to link HIV and sexual and reproductive health and rights. We were doing it for our own sake as a network of women living with HIV (WLHIV). At the time, no one was looking at HIV from the perspective of WLHIV. Back then, for WLHIV to have children was considered heresy; thankfully, we've come a long way since then. Now, most HIV organizations have begun to realize the importance of linking HIV to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

 

Coordinating the response to HIV with the promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights is a centerpiece of ICW's work. We are currently focused on responding to issues such as coerced sterilization, criminalization of HIV transmission, exposure and disclosure, and promoting maternal health and the survival of WLHIV. We also work with WLHIV to promote economic empowerment and access to care, treatment, and support services. Fundamental to everything we do are leadership involvement and "movement building" -- empowering women to be advocates for their rights and needs in everything that would affect us as we live with HIV.

 

HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor: Could you tell us more about what you mean by "movement building."

 

The solidarity that comes from belonging to a network of WLHIV from a position of power instead of stigma is conducive to community organization, participatory research, and advocacy for change. We consider "movement building" and leadership involvement to be a methodology rather than an agenda item.

 

HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor: How does ICW work as a bridge between women living with HIV and governments?

 

Governments and donors need to insist that WLHIV be involved in programs that are meant to support women with HIV. Not just as consumers but as monitors, policymakers, managers, and planners. It takes an effort to include women, but it's important and fundamental to everything we advocate for.

 

ICW's tag line is "Nothing for us without us."

 

ICW is a network of women living with HIV, and we work as volunteers to try to identify places where WLHIV should be represented. That is a lot of work. A lot of times we as an organization are spread too thin. It's not so much about me, as the global advocacy coordinator, sitting at the decision-making table, but identifying women in country to represent us and help craft decisions made on responding to HIV. There's capacity building and training involved also. It's a lot of networking and community organizing and fighting for a seat at the decision-making table.

 

Unfortunately, a lot of times decisionmakers have already agreed what they want to do before stakeholders are engaged, and then, because you were there, they want to say that WLHIV were represented and agreed to the decisions made. Just because we were invited to be a part of the process and were present doesn't mean we had a role in making the decision or informing the decision. Politics has a lot to do with it. Therefore, it is important to be engaged throughout the whole policy process and not just be a mouth piece for what decisionmakers in governments already desire. We need to advocate effectively for our needs from the beginning and continue to work with other decisionmakers throughout the policy development process.

 

HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor: How can organizations best advocate for the needs of their communities?

 

We need to work together more. You would think that because different groups living with or affected by HIV have common concerns, we'd work together, but a lot of times we think we're competing. That gets to be troubling. Attention and resources for HIV seem to be waning, but for people living with HIV, the virus is not going to wane. The main thing is for the people who are most impacted by the epidemic to be involved in the development and implementation of any solutions. They need to be consulted, to be decisionmakers -- and we need to work together more than we do now.

 

More information on ICW's work can be found here: www.icw.org 

 

The USAID- and PEPFAR-funded Health Policy Project's HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor is a monthly newsletter focusing on the advancement, development and analysis of policies, advocacy campaigns and organizations, and policy-related data to inform the response to HIV and AIDS at the global, national, and local levels. It includes news items, resources, advocacy reports, and innovative policy analyses on a wide range of topics such as treatment, key populations issues, gender, and financing for HIV policies and programs.

 

If you would like to suggest an item for inclusion in the next issue, please send it to: policyinfo@futuresgroup.com.

 


  Logo Bar: USAID/PEPFAR/HPP
About the Health Policy Project   
The Health Policy Project is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under Cooperative Agreement No. AID-OAA-A-10-00067, beginning September 30, 2010. The project's HIV-related activities are supported by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). It is implemented by Futures Group, in collaboration with Plan International USA, Futures Institute, Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office (PPD ARO), Population Reference Bureau (PRB), RTI International, and the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood (WRA).