Avac Event
GPP enhances every stage of the research lifecycle. In this webinar, our partners at TB Alliance, SMART4TB, and THINK will shared experiences, lessons learned, and innovative approaches in integrating GPP at the organizational, network and situational level, from drug development through delivery.
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Pandemic Accord negotiations have so far failed to effectively engage advocate and civil society voices. With key parts of the Pandemic Accord moving toward further negotiation over the next few years, the Coalition of Advocates for Global Health and Pandemic Preparedness calls on advocates in and around the World Health Assembly to continue to rally for meaningful engagement with civil society and community and leadership roles for both in the ongoing multilateral process for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPPR).
For decades civil society and community organizations have been recognised and legitimately engaged as vital stakeholders and leaders in the HIV response. But this principle of inclusion has been inadequately upheld in other health areas, and vitally important initiatives, including the negotiations of the Pandemic Accord, have failed to build on the success of the HIV response and fully utilize existing models and mechanisms for engagement. Without them, these efforts exclude critical stakeholders when they should integrate civil society organizations (CSOs) as a crucial driver of policy and programming. Although certain initiatives have created some opportunities for CSO involvement, organized campaigns and public outcry have been necessary to garner a seat at the table. With every new program, fund, or secretariat, advocates are compelled to engage in the same repetitive battle to obtain a minimum of two voting seats and consultation prior to decision-making.
Civil society representation at the World Health Assembly has been reduced, a formal mechanism for engagement at UN High Level Meetings has been rejected, requests for even observer status during Pandemic Accord negotiations have also been rejected, and civil society and community advocates have experienced hostility at international convenings such as International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA). Preventing, preparing, and responding to disease outbreaks requires public trust, understanding of regional or cultural ways of working, geographical limitations, and the true needs of communities. We cannot build effective health infrastructure by erecting barriers to civil society and community leadership.
It is absolutely crucial that civil society and communities band together to demand meaningful engagement in the processes that follow and refuse to permit governments and institutions from rolling back CSO access and decision-making power even further.
We have seen throughout the 40 years of the HIV/AIDS response that meaningful engagement turns the tide when biomedical innovations fall short of their potential because of real-world challenges. Decision makers, government representatives, and multilateral institutional leaders must enshrine a baseline level of meaningful civil society engagement practices where and when international decisions are made. As lessons from the global HIV response show us, it is possible, if not probable, that many of the outstanding issues in the Pandemic Accord could have been solved with civil society input and influence, as knowledge-brokers who bring unique insights, find solution, and foster trust where it’s needed most.
The Coalition of Advocates for Global Health and Pandemic Preparedness is a group of organizations advocating for an integrated and holistic approach to preparedness that emphasizes equity, inclusion, and synergies of multiple global health programs in advancing preparedness. We believe that all global health initiatives should be centered on the key principles of community leadership, equity, access, and human rights and that efforts to fight current epidemics and strengthen health systems are central to equitable pandemic preparedness.
The biggest lesson from the fight against HIV, TB, and malaria is that if space is not reserved for civil society, we must take it – “Nothing For Us Without Us”. Join us at the World Health Assembly or watch the recording of our side event focused on civil society engagement if you can’t make it to Geneva, and keep demanding meaningful engagement in every global health initiative.
Avac Event
The conference focuses on advancing biomedical HIV prevention to help achieve Getting to Zero by 2030. Key summit goals include improving access, addressing disparities, fostering research and promoting community engagement. Join us for in-person sessions covering strategies, policies and implementation research.
This conference is curated by AFC, MATEC, PrEP4Teens and Project VIDA.
Registration closes, June 7, 2024.
Avac Event
This webinar is for all COMPASS coalition members, partners, stakeholders and individuals taking on advocacy in various fields.
By the end of the webinar participants are expected to have an improved capacity on how to reflect on advocacy outcomes (positive and negative) individually and collectively with relevant stakeholders and partners; enhanced ability to identify, describe and document advocacy outcomes in a clear and structured manner; and an improved capacity to identify follow up actions/tactics needed to achieve the advocacy goal or respond in the event of a setback.
Avac Event
13:00 – 14:30 CEST PM
Please join this webinar being held in the run up to the 77th World Health Assembly.
The World Health Organization (WHO) will launch a publication, which describes progress and gaps identified during the first two years of implementing the global health sector strategies on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) for 2022-2030.
Moderators will ask key leaders in the responses to HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs how we can increase visibility, political will and community activism to accelerate action.
Panelists include:
The conversation will be moderated by Charles Gore from the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) and Birgit Poniatowski from IAS – the International AIDS Society.
The webinar is organized by IAS – the International AIDS Society – and its partners, WHO, Medicines Patent Pool and Unitaid.
Avac Event
13:30-15:00PM Geneva Time
This side event featured expert panelists discussing what’s promising in the Pandemic Accord, what we expect from governments, and what’s missing for successful implementation. Selected panelists came from different health areas but all have experience in pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.
This panel also helped civil society prepare for the coming year and gain capacity to meaningfully engage in advocacy around implementation of the Accord.
This event was co-sponsored with Care and Frontline AIDS. This in-person meeting will be recorded and the recording will be posted on this page following the event.
On May 2, 2024, AVAC staffer Jessica Salzwedel gave a presentation on diversity, equity and access in HIV research at the Ending the HIV Epidemic Conference at Weill Cornell Medicine. Check out the full presentation in PDF format.
“When we think about what engagement is important for research, it involves building systems of trust.” – Jessica Salzwedel
STOPAIDS, GNP+, WACI Health, AVAC & GFAN
In their statement at the 8th Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) meeting, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) highlighted that from the HIV experience we know that if public health measures do not take human rights into account, we will leave marginalised populations behind, fail to address structural barriers to access to quality healthcare, and miss essential interventions altogether.
At the final negotiation meeting of the Pandemic Accord, Member States risk failing to learn these key lessons from the HIV response.
Over the last two years we’ve seen the limited references to human rights further reduced with each version of the proposed Pandemic Accord text. In the revised text published in April 2024, Member States propose the Agreement is guided by the principle of ‘full respect for the dignity, human rights, and fundamental freedoms of all persons, and the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health of every human being’. Beyond this, key provisions including the need to develop and implement policies to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of all people has been removed and the text fails to recognise or support the critical role of communities.
Local communities are pivotal in advancing the HIV response, leveraging local knowledge to enhance policy execution, and reaching groups left behind by government-led responses.This is true in the HIV response, and is true in public health programs more broadly: participation from communities and civil society is crucial to minimise the gaps of public programs, ensuring that they reach all vulnerable populations, including the most marginalised. Engagement at the community level also ensures that large-scale policies are effectively translated for local contexts, reducing barriers to access and strengthening impact. To not include organisations that already have a plethora of expertise in the areas the Accord aims to help with would be irresponsible, and would be ineffective on behalf of the communities they aim to serve. The HIV response is globally recognised for its inclusion of communities in governance and decision-making and it is critical the Pandemic Accord replicates this inclusion in the implementation and governance of this instrument.
At the final negotiation meeting, we must see Member States agree a Pandemic Accord that is grounded in human rights and supports the critical role of communities. We urge Member States to:
Avac Event
Please join us for a deep dive into the recent ruling on the Anti-Homosexuality Act by the Ugandan Constitutional Court, with a focus on implications for HIV programs in Uganda and beyond, and connections to the US Supreme Court Dodds decision.
Speakers Include:
Last week, 1,000+ community advocates, researchers, policy experts, federal public health leadership, medical and service providers from around the US and Puerto Rico attended the NMAC annual Biomedical HIV Prevention Summit in Seattle, Washington. The discussion and debate on PrEP access, especially for racial and ethnic minorities and key populations, PrEP research, care, policy and community-based programs are ones to follow. AVAC’s John Meade (Senior Program Manager, Policy), Jessica Salzwedel (Senior Program Manager: Research Engagement) and Kenyon Farrow (Communications Director) presented in workshops and satellite sessions at the Summit and at the PrEP in Black America preconference
The Summit included sessions that updated community advocates on the latest in biomedical research for new diagnostics, PrEP, PEP, STIs and vaccines. Meade co-presented a Clinical Trials 101 for community advocates to learn more about the research process. Farrow presented an epidemiological overview on HIV and Disparities in the United States for NMAC’s Gay Men of Color Fellows.
All three AVAC staff contributed to the PrEP in Black America: The State of HIV Prevention Research in the Black Community pre-conference, organized by PrEP in Black America (PIBA). PIBA began in 2022 as a community-led effort to increase Black community mobilization and engagement in PrEP research, policy and access programs. Farrow and Meade are PIBA cofounders, and Meade facilitated the day’s agenda, with more than 200 attendees focused on identifying the research gaps that need to be addressed to increase knowledge, access and use of PrEP. Data shows that while Black people in the U.S. make up 42% of all new HIV diagnoses in 2021, they were only 14% of all PrEP users. By comparison, white Americans are 65% of all PrEP users, but only 26% of all people diagnosed with HIV in the same year.
Salzwedel co-led the closing consensus session at PIBA, a discussion where attendees named research priorities to be later released as part of a National Black-Centered Biomedical HIV Prevention research agenda. One of the most important priorities named, however, goes beyond singling out the right research questions. Attendees showed strong consensus that the research process itself needs to change. Attendees expressed a need and desire for more investment and commitment to community-led research, that can reflect non-traditional ways of gathering data and designing trials and ending the extractive approach that characterizes conventional researcher/community relationships.
To stay up to date with PrEP in Black America, follow them on Instagram and Facebook.
Join AVAC, The Choice Agenda, PrEP4All and HIVMA on Friday, April 26 for a special follow-up webinar, We Can’t End HIV in the United States Without Equitable PrEP Access: Strategies for success. Register here.