HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor

"Civil society organizations need to raise their voices and call for change from the government and from the people. Unlike the government, our passion for these issues drives us. By drawing on this passion and working together with other private sector entities we can build coalitions to effectively pressure the government and create an enabling environment to support people living with HIV." Photo by J-FLAG

Latoya Nugent is the education manager at J-FLAG, an organization that promotes the support and acceptance of all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, through education, policy, and advocacy. She implements cultural sensitivity programs and trainings that promote acceptance and celebration of sexual and gender diversity. She also advocates for better social services for vulnerable populations. The HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor spoke to Nugent about her advocacy work and J-FLAG's role in ensuring the sustainability of HIV programs.

Click here for the interview.

Policy Analysis

Policy Analysis and Advocacy Decision Model for Services for Key Populations in Kenya

Kenya National AIDS Control Council, Ministry of Health

http://www.healthpolicyproject.com/index.cfm?ID=publications&get=pubID&pubID=744

This document -- prepared by the Health Policy Project for the National AIDS Control Council of the Ministry of Health -- compares existing Kenyan policies on HIV services for key populations to global norms and best practices, to identify gaps and implementation challenges. It analyzes more than 120 policy and program documents and, based on this analysis, provides policy recommendations for scaling up HIV services and improving service uptake by key populations in Kenya.

Universal Health Coverage Requires Quality Healthcare Access for Stigmatized Populations

Health Policy Project

http://www.healthpolicyproject.com/index.cfm?id=UHCday2014

The authors of this blog post argue that, despite celebrating the first Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day on December 12, 2014, the global community cannot achieve UHC without a strong focus on meeting the health needs of society's most vulnerable communities. They make three key recommendations for promoting the needs of marginalized groups and extending health service access to these communities.

Can Nigeria's Success on Ebola Translate to TB?

Center for Global Development

http://www.cgdev.org/blog/can-nigeria%E2%80%99s-success-ebola-translate-tb

This blog discusses how Nigeria can apply lessons learned from its successful Ebola containment efforts toward its long-standing fight against tuberculosis (TB). Nigeria has more cases of TB than any other country in Africa, although only 16 percent of cases are detected by the health system. The author suggests that Nigeria should approach the spread of TB with the same urgent, rapid scale-up in funding and action that it used to control Ebola.

What are the Barriers that Could Stop HIV Treatment Becoming HIV Prevention?

NAM AIDSMAP

http://www.aidsmap.com/page/2919697/?utm_source=NAM-Email-Promotion&utm_medium=aidsmap-news&utm_campaign=aidsmap-news

A symposium at the October 2014 HIV Research for Prevention Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, examined whether the use of treatment-as-prevention could represent an effective strategy to end the HIV epidemic, how outcomes might be measured, and possible barriers.

As "Most Improved" for Transparency Among U.S. Agencies, PEPFAR is One to Watch in 2015

Science Speaks

http://sciencespeaksblog.org/2014/11/17/as-most-improved-for-transparency-among-u-s-agencies-pepfar-is-one-to-watch-in-2015/

PEPFAR's rating on Publish What You Fund's Aid Transparency Index improved from 2013 to 2014. Much of this change can be credited to PEPFAR's new data dashboards, which have increased public access to information on the agency's activities and expenditures. Aid transparency increases aid effectiveness by linking financing to results and preventing duplication of efforts by other organizations.

New Resources: Models, Tools, and Research

Positive Health, Dignity, and Prevention: Curriculum By and For PLHIV to Promote Personal Health and Advocate for High-Quality HIV Services

Health Policy Project

http://www.healthpolicyproject.com/index.cfm?id=publications&get=pubID&pubID=142

This is an overview of the forthcoming Positive Health, Dignity, and Prevention (PHDP) Curriculum created by the Jamaican Network of Seropositives, which promotes personal health and advocates for high-quality health services for people living with HIV (PLHIV). The curriculum also offers a tool to strengthen PLHIV leadership and advocacy to advance PHDP in the region and globally.

Lessons from the Front Lines: Trans Health and Rights

amfAR and Global Action for Trans Equality

http://www.amfar.org/uploadedFiles/_amfarorg/Articles/Around_The_World/GMT/2014/GMT%20Lessons%20From%20the%20Front%20Lines%20Trans%20Health%20online.pdf

This report profiles ten organizations working to improve living conditions for transgender people. It provides recommendations for advocacy organizations on how to better support community empowerment and leadership and develop an HIV response designed by and for transgender individuals.

African Health Stats

http://www.africanhealthstats.org/cms/

This new website allows users to chart, map, and compare key health indicators across all 54 African Union member states. It is an online platform that provides data from sources such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization in an accessible and easy-to-use format, and can generate evidence for advocacy campaigns and policy making.

Global Tuberculosis Report 2014

World Health Organization

http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/en/

This report presents the current state of global efforts to combat tuberculosis (TB). Even though health agencies continue to scale up implementation of HIV/TB co-infection activities, rates of co-infection remain high. Increasing ART coverage for those with co-infection is crucial for reducing mortality among HIV-positive TB patients.

How Can We Get Close to Zero? The Potential Contribution of Biomedical Prevention and the Investment Framework Towards an Effective Response to HIV

PLOS ONE

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0111956

This study by John Stover of Futures Institute models ART scale-up in accordance with the 2013 WHO treatment guidelines and analyzes the effects of both scale-up and the use of other new prevention technologies on the overall HIV epidemic. The study's findings revealed that aggressive, immediate scale-up of existing treatment approaches could reduce new infections by 80 percent; further reductions could be achieved by adapting additional approaches and technologies.

Summary Booklet: Assessing the Potential of MPTs in South Africa, Uganda and Nigeria

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

http://resource.cami-health.org/documents/BMGF-AssessingMPTSolutions-Booklet.pdf

This booklet examines the potential impact of multi-purpose technologies (MPTs) on protecting women from HIV infection. MPTs protect against HIV and prevent unintended pregnancies, and 93 percent of women studied preferred an MPT over a contraceptive or HIV-prevention product alone. Because MPTs reduce the need to use multiple methods of protection, offering them as an option may increase women's desire to protect themselves against HIV and unintended pregnancy.

Fast-Track: Ending the AIDS Epidemic by 2030

UNAIDS

http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/ JC2686_WAD2014report_en.pdf

This report projects that meeting UNAIDS' Fast-Track Targets can avert nearly 28 million HIV infections and effectively end the global AIDS epidemic by 2030. However, if rapid scale-up of prevention and treatment strategies does not occur in the next five years, the epidemic will likely rebound with a higher rate of new infections than today.

Advocacy

Global Action with Local Impact: Why Advocacy Matters, 2011-2014

Global Forum on MSM and HIV

http://www.msmgf.org/files/msmgf/documents/WhyAdvocacyMatters.pdf?utm_source=MSMGF+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=91466cbf69-WhyAdvocacyMatters11_5_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6252c2e2af-91466cbf69-389302357

Advocacy's crucial role in decriminalizing homosexuality, increasing investments in HIV programing, lowering treatment costs, and improving access to HIV services is highlighted in this report. Evidence-based public health interventions are not sufficient to reduce HIV infection rates; advocacy -- including stigma reduction, the elimination of human rights abuses and barriers to care, and integration of HIV services into mainstream healthcare -- is necessary to maximize the use of HIV diagnostic and treatment services by enabling access for key populations.

Interview with Latoya Nugent

HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor: Why did you get involved in policy and advocacy?

I only recently discovered my passion for working with vulnerable populations -- including LGBT persons, deported migrants, people living with HIV, and women and children. I spent many years denying that the stigma and discrimination (S&D) I faced when I was younger were a problem. However, as I befriended others belonging to these vulnerable populations, I realized S&D was still very much alive and affecting others besides myself. I realized that my silence was implicitly telling society that discrimination was okay and that I could only help create a welcoming society for vulnerable populations by speaking out.

Prior to becoming involved with human rights advocacy, I was a professor of sociology, politics, and social research at Knox College in Kingston, Jamaica. I took a series of consultancies, including one with the United Nations Population Fund, that engaged me with vulnerable communities and their allies. I realized my passion for working with these groups and eventually encountered J-FLAG, where I saw an opportunity to use both my advocacy and teaching skills.

HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor: Tell us about your work with J-FLAG.

I have been at J-FLAG since September 2013. The core of my work involves both public education and creating programs to help the general public and members of the LGBT community better understand their roles in creating an accepting environment for gender and sexual minorities in Jamaica. I am also tasked with managing outreach activities. The latter includes the creation of community spaces where members of vulnerable communities are empowered and feel comfortable being themselves, and where the LGBT and ally communities are educated about J-FLAG's work and how they can contribute to the LGBT movement in Jamaica.

HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor: What policies is J-FLAG working to address?

Two years ago, J-FLAG was instrumental in creating the Police Diversity Policy, requiring police officers to treat all persons in Jamaica equally, regardless of their religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, class, color, creed, or political ideology. In my opinion, this is one of J-FLAG's most important achievements. Prior to this law, LGBT persons avoided reporting incidents of violence perpetrated against them for fear of further mistreatment by the police. As part of the implementation of the law, police have received several sensitization trainings about human rights. We have started to see a shift in attitudes toward the police, with the LGBT community becoming increasingly comfortable reporting incidents and seeing police as a potential resource.

More recently, J-FLAG's approach to HIV work has shifted from interventions and policies that target men who have sex with men (MSM) toward broader health system measures. We are working with the Ministry of Health to create a healthcare system free of discrimination. We have also trained a number of healthcare workers and partner nongovernmental organizations -- such as Jamaica AIDS Support for Life and the Red Cross -- who provide services to the LGBT and MSM populations. Our aim is to remove policies and practices that prevent vulnerable populations from accessing HIV prevention, treatment, and care services.

J-FLAG is also working to address LGBT homelessness. We have submitted a policy brief to Parliament with recommendations on how to address this issue, including the creation of a shelter for LGBT homeless persons and more comprehensive social reintegration programs for LGBT persons and their families.

HIV Policy and Advocacy Monitor: What is the role of civil society in ensuring the sustainability of HIV and AIDS programs for key populations in the Caribbean?

Civil society organizations (CSOs) are able to raise awareness and pressure political entities to effect change in ways that individuals and governments cannot. CSOs' involvement in the policy process ensures that an issue is not only addressed, but that is done in a comprehensive manner. In terms of HIV policies, CSOs need to raise their voices and call for change from the government and from the people. Unlike the government, our passion for these issues drives us. By drawing on this passion and working together with other private sector entities we can build coalitions to effectively influence the government and create an enabling environment to support people living with HIV.

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: [email protected].

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).