Harare Declaration by and for African Women Who Use Drugs

During the ICASA 2023 meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, AVAC and AfricaNPUD convened community members to draft the Harare Declaration by and for African Women Who Use Drugs.

Read the full declaration addressed to the ICASA Secretariat here.

Global HIV Prevention Roadmap for Key Populations

This roadmap outlines a strategy for the equitable expression and delivery of HIV prevention services to key populations (KPs) globally and regionally. It introduces a critical, coordinated approach led by KPs to accelerate the implementation of existing and new HIV prevention interventions.

AVAC Commemorates World AIDS Day

This World AIDS Day we at AVAC are reflecting on remarkable gains and increasing threats to progress against AIDS. Our latest issue of PxWire, tracking trends in research, development and delivery of HIV prevention options, speaks to this important progress: 

However, as we look to 2024, all these gains could be imperiled by political and financial choices facing leaders today.

The answers to these questions will require donors and political leaders to do the right thing, and it will depend on us, a global movement of advocates with a track record of world-changing achievements, to stay the course and build the road to reach everyone one of these goals. Below are a few key resources to support your work. 

From the Lab to the Jab

A series of advocates guides on key issues to ensure equitable access to safe, effective, and affordable vaccines.

Learn more.

Call to Action for Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision

A report on next steps to advance the role of VMMC in ending the epidemic.

Learn more.

Good Participatory Practice: Body of Evidence

An online package of resources to support advocacy for GPP as an international standard for clinical trials.

Learn more.

The HIV Prevention Choice Manifesto

A historic milestone in the power of community-led leadership and prioritization of choice in HIV prevention.  

Learn more.

Progress Against HIV and AIDS is Fragile

POZ Magazine’s interview with Mitchell Warren, with a comprehensive look at the status of the fight against HIV/AIDS and the scientific breakthroughs to date and still needed to end the epidemic.

Read more.

The Anti-HIV Jab is Coming to South Africa

Bhekisisa’s Mia Malan and AVAC’s Mitchell Warren breakdown what it will take to get injectable CAB for PrEP to everyone who needs it.

Listen here.

A Call to Action: Scale Up HPV Vaccination in People Living with HIV

In a new call to action, Mitchell Warren and Heather White, executive director of TogetHER for Health, argue that the time is now to invest in efforts to ensure that people living with HIV can live their lives without the threat of cervical cancer.

Read more.

At AVAC, we believe it’s up to all of us to make sure the world does not squander another decade in slow, fragmented rollout of life-saving innovation in HIV prevention or risk underfunding research and development. If we work together to build equity into the rollout of options that exist already and support the promise of expanding choices in the near future, the world will at long last bend the curve of HIV.  

AVAC and Partners at ICASA 2023

Join AVAC and partners for the biennial International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (ICASA), in Harare, Zimbabwe December 4-9. More than 30 of our partners will convene at the meeting to champion community leadership and amplify their role in shaping local, national and global responses and delivering impactful advocacy. Community leadership on a range of issues are instrumental to: 

  • Accelerate and expand access to proven prevention options that people want and need. 
  • Dismantle the structural barriers to health faced by key populations. 
  • Intensify demands for robust domestic and global funding for health. 
  • Integrate HIV services with sexual and reproductive health. 
  • And much more. 

Scroll down for a roadmap to ICASA’s prevention program, and details on sessions and events that you won’t want to miss. 

Sessions of Interest

Sunday, December 3

  • Biomedical Prevention Forum 
    9:00-15:00 GMT 
    The Biomedical Prevention Forum will be held as a hybrid event bringing together advocates, civil society representatives, researchers, government officials and front-line providers to explore and discuss the latest advancements, challenges, and opportunities in biomedical HIV prevention, while emphasizing the importance of choice and its transformative impact on HIV prevention efforts. This is an open event. Register here. 
  • Key Populations Preconference 
    9:00-15:00 GMT 
    The Africa Key Populations Experts Group (AKPEG), African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA), the African Network of People Using Drugs (AfricanPUD) and African Queer Youth Initiative (AQYI) Advocates for Prevention of HIV and AIDS in Africa (APHA), Global Black Gay Men Connect (GBGMC) and partners will host a safe platform to deliberate on the state of the HIV epidemic among Key Populations and to determine the stumbling blocks for progress on the path that ends AIDS for Key Populations.

Monday, December 4

Tuesday, December 5

  • Advancing Integrated Biomedical Prevention: Best Practices from Zimbabwe (Session 2) 
    8:45-09:30 GMT
    This satellite session will discuss best practices and lessons learned from the delivery of biomedical HIV prevention and Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision services as we work to further universal health coverage and robust health systems. Partners will launch a global call to action to unite, mobilize, and advocate for continued prioritized funding, sustained commitment, and strategic integration of VMMC into national and global prevention strategies.
  • Catalyzing a sustainable HIV prevention agenda: Approaches to expand local action on global commitments
    10:45-11:30 GMT
    Leveraging new strategic plans for HIV prevention, including the PEPFAR’s 5-year Strategy and UNAIDS’ Prevention Road Map, this satellite session will discuss combination prevention in the context of a sustainable HIV response and highlight a variety of approaches and models that leverage country and stakeholder-led innovations to meet the challenge.
  • Coordinating Implementation Science for CAB for PrEP: BioPIC’s Implementation Study Tracker 
    12:25-12:35 GMT
    In this oral abstract session, AVAC will present a new dashboard, which reflects all currently known activities relating to implementation research, modelling, clinical research, and landscaping for new late-stage biomedical HIV PrEP options, including cabotegravir for PrEP and the dapivirine vaginal ring.
  • Policy, Politics and HIV Management 
    13:05-13:50 GMT
    In this oral abstract session, Princess Mharire from Pangaea Zimbabwe AIDS Trust (PZAT) will present, Beyond Metrics: How the Simple Participatory Assessment of Real Change (SPARC) Tool Provides a Holistic Approach to Advocacy Measurement, and Joseph Njowa of PZAT will share the COMPASS MERL model in a presentation, Innovative tools for planning, monitoring, and evaluation of advocacy campaigns. 

Wednesday, December 7

Friday, December 8

  • Strengthen integration for better SRHR outcomes 
    10:45-11:30 GMT
    This concurrent session will feature Advocates for Prevention of HIV and AIDS in Africa’s (APHA) Yvette Raphael and will explore linkages between unintended pregnancies, unsafe abortion, and HIV.
  • HIV Prevention-Right Place, Right time 
    13:05-13:50 GMT
    This concurrent session will feature Maureen Luba of AVAC, Definate Nhamo of PZAT and Yvette Raphael of APHA. 

AVAC and Partner Poster Presentations

Tuesday, December 5 

  • Maximizing private pharmacies for PrEP delivery to increase uptake: Lessons learnt from the Community Retail Pharmacy Distribution Point, Ruth Akulu 

Wednesday, December 6 

  • Journalist Training: A Key Advocacy Strategy, Catherine Madebe
  • Perceptions on the new biomedical HIV prevention methods among adolescent girls and young women in tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe, Cleo Makura
  • Lessons from Crisis Response from TaNPUD in Enhancing Harm Reduction from 2015 to 2018, Marineus Mutongore
  • Implementing Community led Monitoring for improved quality of HIV services in Tanzania, Mathew Kawogo
  • Impact of social media exposure on HIV services uptake among Tanzanian Young people: Implications for enhancing the HIV response, Marineus Mutongore
  • Effective Strategies for Operating COWLHA support groups of Adolescents Living with HIV: Case of Mangochi and Chikwawa Districts of Malawi, Harry Madukani

Thursday, December 7 

  • Understanding Choice of HIV Prevention Options among Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) in Zambia, Natasha Mwila
  • Leveraging HIV to Build a Global Health Research and Development (R&D) Equity Advocacy Agenda, John Meade
  • Championing advocacy for domestic resource mobilization for health research and development in Africa, Ethel Makila

Friday, December 8 

  • Rural Youth: Underserved and Unsafe When Seeking Care, Liyema Somnono
  • Redefining Coalition Governance and Leadership in Support of Decolonizing Global Health: The Evolution of the COMPASS Coalition, Roberta Sutton
  • Collaborative Monitoring & Evaluation to Support Learning and Strengthen Advocacy Coalitions: The MERL Hub, Grace Tetteh
  • Realities faced by street children predisposing them to HIV and STIs in Dodoma and Dar es Salaam Cities in Tanzania, Simon Shilagwa 

African Civil Society Mobilization for PEPFAR Reauthorization

Tuesday, November 28 at 7:00 AM ET

Moderator: Richard Muko, Regional Implementation Advocacy Manager, AVAC

Panelists: Joan Chamungu, Tanzanian Network of Women Living with HIV, Lawrence Khonyongwa, Malawi Network of People of Living with HIV, TBC, African Network of Youth Living with HIV, Annette Gaudino, Advocacy Coalition Manager, GAPP

Hosted by African Network of Youth Living with HIV (AY+), East African Network of AIDS Serving Organizations (EANNASO), Key Populations Trans-National Collaboration (KPTNC) and Coalition to build Momentum, Power, Activism, Strategy & Solidarity (COMPASS)

Join civil society organizations in PEPFAR recipient countries to discuss the status and political context of the current reauthorization and mobilize to call on the US Congress to recommit this life sustaining program. Bring your questions and please share this invitation widely in your relevant networks.

Recording / Slides

Pandemic Accord Briefing for Civil Society & Community Partners

The Pandemic Accord negotiations are ongoing, and should come to fruition next year. What do they mean for your work, your country, and the future of global health?

On Tuesday, November 21, 8:00 to 9:30 AM EST / 2:00 to 3:30 PM CEST, advocates came together to discuss two years of talks and what’s next to progress global health equity.

Recording

On This #GivingTuesday Support Community Leadership in HIV Prevention

Today, UNAIDS released its World AIDS Day report, Let Communities Lead. This year’s focus on community leadership is especially important to all of us at AVAC as it lies at the heart of our work for our entire 28-year history. The UNAIDS report highlights what we and our partners have raised over the years—that communities face enormous barriers, community-led responses are under-recognized, under-resourced and in so many ways, under attack.  

From our almost 30 years of experience in HIV prevention advocacy, it’s clear that working in solidarity with communities is imperative to address the root causes of inequity. Community-led responses are essential components of the comprehensive approach needed to end the epidemic.  

At AVAC, we are incredibly proud of our history and in our collaborative work in 2023 to champion civil society and community leadership in shaping local, national and global responses.

Today, as part of #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back, we ask you to consider supporting AVAC so that we and our partners can continue to deliver the effective and impactful advocacy that is described below—and is needed now more than ever.

Your support to AVAC now will ensure that we and our partners can continue putting people and communities at the center of our work, ensuring that the global response is connected to the real needs of affected people.

Advancing bold and innovative agendas for HIV prevention.

In September, the African Women’s HIV Prevention Community Accountability Board (AWCAB) launched its  HIV Prevention Choice Manifesto  in Kampala, Uganda. The manifesto represents a historic milestone in the power of community leadership to re-frame the global discussion around community priorities. The manifesto calls for political will and financial investment to ensure access to the prevention options that women and girls in Africa say that they want. AVAC worked closely with partners to establish this coalition and catalyze its advocacy. 

Learn more.

Supporting communities to engage in the science of HIV and process of R&D. 

The Good Participatory Practice (GPP) guidelines co-developed by AVAC and UNAIDS nearly 15 years ago have become a field-wide standard for broad and inclusive stakeholder engagement in clinical trial research. At AVAC, we train trial staff on the guidelines, support their adaptation to other fields, prepare and support advocates in applying GPP in trial communities, and engage with the research community and ethics boards to maximize their use. Our new  GPP Body of Evidence, takes this a step further, offering GPP resources to advocates that demonstrate its power, show how it can be measured and replicated, and provide GPP training, tools and connection to everyone involved in the research enterprise.

Learn more.

Improving how, when and to whom prevention is delivered.

Developing—and delivering—a rich pipeline of options for HIV prevention must be guided by community priorities that define what products are needed and how they are delivered for impact. In a new opinion editorial published today in South Africa’s Bhekisisa, AVAC’s Wawira Nyagah and Mitchell Warren lay out essential lessons to ensure that a broad range of prevention options that people want and need are developed, tested and distributed equitably, at scale and with urgency. “The world cannot afford to squander another decade through slow, fragmented rollout of life-saving HIV prevention. With longer-lasting options now becoming available… the world could finally bend the curve of HIV—but only if investment and planning for delivery are as evidence-based, person-centered and innovative as research and development in new products.”

Learn more.

Supporting a robust partner network that puts prevention on national and global agendas.

Effective coordination and balanced partnerships are key to creating a policy environment, accelerating ethical product development and advocating for equitable access to emerging health solutions. AVAC partners with a global movement of advocates to bring community voices, sustained attention and greater accountability to science, policy, funding, media, health services and regulatory processes. We are proud of the skills and power-sharing and impact-oriented advocacy that has expanded and refined prevention targets, accelerated development of guidelines and reshaped policies and programs through our long-standing Advocacy Fellows program, the Coalition to build Momentum, Power, Activism, Strategy & Solidarity (COMPASS) Africa and the Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research (CASPR).

Learn more.

Fighting to keep community priorities at the center of global health.

The Coalition of Advocates for Global Health and Pandemic Preparedness is tracking the issues, keeping civil society informed, and developing tools and resources. These efforts are essential to advocacy for an integrated and holistic approach to pandemic preparedness, which depends on safeguarding equity and building on the success of the HIV response. As founding members of the coalition, we’ve been proud to fight for community priorities in the work of ACT-A, the Pandemic Fund, the Pandemic Accord, the UN High Level Meeting on PPPR, and the development of a medical countermeasures platform. AVAC published the Advocates Guide for PPPR in 2023 as a go-to resource on the issues. 

Learn more.

It is a privilege to do the work that we do. Without communities pointing the way, the HIV response will flounder, and global health will go backwards. The strength and leadership of our partners and the communities in which we work is the foundation of our hope for HIV prevention and for global health equity. We thank you for your support.

Many thanks for your partnership, solidarity and support.

What Can Advocates Do?

This graphic outlines the roles and responsibilities of advocates in vaccine access and production, highlighting six key areas: Advocating for awareness, facilitating regulatory systems, engaging with communities, supporting financial and infrastructure development, adapting to market and community needs, and monitoring commitments to ensure accountability.

Excerpted From the Lab to Jab series.

On Transgender Day of Remembrance AVAC Announces TG ROAR 2023

By Jason Rosenberg

Today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), as communities across the globe memorialize trans and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people targeted by violence and state-sanctioned bigotry, AVAC honors the trans community—those lost and those among us. We are committed, now more than ever, to fight these ongoing injustices and support TGNC advocates to lead on issues facing their communities.  

Riding the momentum of the release of the No Data No More Manifesto and the Trans-Inclusivity Scorecard, AVAC is relaunching TG ROAR, a program from our larger PxROAR initiative, dedicated to supporting TGNC HIV advocates in Eastern and Southern Africa. The new eight-member cohort will campaign for trans-centered, HIV research and service delivery while addressing the social, political and economic barriers that all too often stand in the way. 

Crimes against TGNC are on the rise as are rates of HIV incidence in trans populations. TGNC face unique barriers to testing, adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and maintaining viral suppression. Without meaningful trans inclusion in advocacy efforts there will be no epidemic control.  

Learn more about AVAC’s new cohort of TG ROAR advocates here: 

We continue to fight for transgender rights and invest in TGNC leadership to create a more equitable and just future for all.

HPTN 096: Building Equity Through Advocacy – An Integrated, Status-Neutral Approach for Ending the Epidemic Among Black Gay Men in the South

November 15, 10:00 to 11:30 AM ET

The Choice Agenda and partners hosted a fascinating discussion about a novel, much-needed HIV prevention research study – HPTN 096 on November 15. Currently in the field, the study addresses social, structural, institutional, and behavioral barriers to HIV prevention and care. Visit the study website here.

Speakers (list in formation):

Prof. LaRon E. Nelson. Yale School of Nursing; HPTN 096 Protocol Co-Chair
Christopher Hucks-Ortiz, HPTN Black Caucus Chair
Dr. Cedric Pulliam, HPTN 096 Community Strategy Group
Abraham Johnson, HPTN 096 Research Advisor

Moderators:
Riko Boone, Treatment Action Group
John Meade, AVAC

Co-sponsored by PrEP in Black America and Federal AIDS Policy Partnership Research Working Group

Recording / Slides / Resources