Policy
HIV prevention research,
clinical trials, and programs take place in
countries and communities that are shaped by
laws, regulations, budgets, and policies
enacted at local, national, and even
international levels. These and other elements
form the policy environment in which HIV
prevention research and programming take place.
Policy and HIV
prevention research and
advocacy:
Effecting change,
protecting rights
Monitoring
and advocacy of policy issues related to HIV
prevention and research are critical to
ensuring that research is ethical,
scientifically rigorous, and sufficiently
supported with financial resources and
political will. Communities can work
collectively to challenge and change harmful
laws. For example, advocates, activists, and
public-health professionals are working in many
countries to overturn laws criminalizing
homosexuality or provision of syringe exchange,
two types of legislation that obstruct a
rights-based response to HIV in gays, lesbians,
and injection drug users.
Enabling ethical,
scientifically sound clinical trials
National and local policies on the
approval and monitoring of trials are the
foundation for HIV prevention research. For
example, before launching the first AIDS
vaccine trial in Uganda in 1999, policy makers,
researchers, and public-health professionals
worked together to develop a regulatory pathway
including protocol review committees, ethics
boards, and ongoing monitoring. As described in
the Good
Participatory Guidelines, non-scientists
representing communities affected by HIV
prevention research should sit on key
regulatory bodies. Advocacy by community
members can help ensure that there is
sufficient community representation on these
and other regulatory bodies.
Ensuring financing for research and
future trials
Funding for HIV
prevention research is another key arena for
policy-related advocacy. In the US, advocates
continue to pressure US lawmakers to approve
increased funding for the US National
Institutes of Health, one of the major funders
of HIV prevention research worldwide. National
governments in developed countries should help
finance introduction of new technologies, as
they are currently doing via contributions to
the entity that's financing vaccine purchase
via the Global Alliance for Vaccines and
Immunisation (GAVI).