Preventing HIV Infection
Overview
- Why Prevention?
- What Have We Learned So Far?
- What Should Be Our Guiding Principles?
- What Can UNFPA Do?
- Notes and References
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What Should Be Our Guiding Principles?
Promote the full realization
of human rights, gender equality and the involvement
of people living with HIV/AIDS.
Respect for all human
rights including the rights to non-discrimination,
equality and participation in particular, can provide
a solid foundation for all HIV/AIDS related
activities and programmes.
Ensure national ownership and
leadership.
The
best responses are country driven and adapted to
fit the epidemiological, cultural, and demographic
context in which they are implemented. To be
successful, leadership at all levels must be inclusive
and proactive, allocate adequate resources, be
innovative and take risks to expand
implementation, overcome obstacles, and
empower others to take effective action against the
epidemic.
Build national capacity.
The ultimate aim should
be to build sustainable national capacity across a
broad spectrum of institutions (e.g. governmental,
non-governmental, civil society, private sector) to
respond to the epidemic especially in the area of prevention. Collective action should be catalytic,
complementary and synergistic; reflect findings
from common country programme processes (e.g.,
CPA, CCA, UNDAF, CDF, PSRP, SWAps); and
be incorporated into the National Strategic Plan
including monitoring and evaluation.
Promote a multisectoral perspective.
The
approach, including for prevention, should be
multisectoral, involving the widest possible range
within government, and civil society including the
private sector.
Support broad-based social mobilization.
The
creation of a broad-based social “movement” to
fight the epidemic is an important building block
towards success. Solidarity among people living
with HIV/AIDS, those who care for them,
communities, key national institutions,
government authorities and the partners providing
financial or technical support is essential for
effective and sustainable prevention efforts.
Encourage a massive scaling-up
of efforts.
Successful small scale and pilot prevention
interventions are not sufficient to defeat the
epidemic. A more comprehensive and expanded
programme approach based upon their lessons
learned is urgently needed to respond on a scale
commensurate with the challenge of the epidemic.