UNAIDS PCB – Statement
Agenda Item 7
Follow-up to the thematic segment from the 36th Programme Coordinating Board meeting
27 October 2015 – 37th UNAIDS PCB Meeting, Geneva, Switzerland
This statement is made on behalf of Stop Aids Alliance, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Aids Fonds/STOP AIDS NOW, the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development (ICAD), and the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+).
Thank you Mr Chair,
We again thank you for the very timely thematic on HIV in Emergency Contexts that took place at the June meeting of the PCB.
In our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world, fragile and emergency contexts are diverse and reach far beyond the more traditional definitions provided in the background document for the thematic – and similarly in the summary report in review today.
As we raised in June, and as we raise again today, we recognize a humanitarian emergency as also being an event or series of events and conditions that represent a critical threat to the health, safety, security or wellbeing of a community or other large group of people. Fragile communities are everywhere even within stable nation states. These contexts are driven by socio-economic status, isolation and social exclusion, and fuelled by other social and structural drivers (such as lack of access to housing, employment, health services and community resources). All of which, exacerbate conditions that place individuals at greater risk and vulnerability to HIV infection and create barriers to attaining optimal health and wellbeing.
We need to make sure there is a continuity in our discussions and processes. As we noted in June, we need to emphasize a differentiated response to different conditions that cause fragility and ask that this language be reflected in the summary report.
