Mainstreaming Gender Concerns
	Population Development Concerns
	Advocacy and Partnerships for HIV Prevention
	Capacity Building

Advocacy and Partnerships for HIV Prevention

For the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, ICPD+5 Key Actions and the UNGASS Declaration of Commitment, UNFPA should build its institutional capacity to ensure the technical quality of country programmes in advocacy and behaviour change communication for the prevention of HIV infection.

This would be undertaken within the context of the promotion of reproductive health and the prevention gender-based violence, including the involvement of men as partners. UNFPA should undertake advocacy to create awareness and mobilize both political commitment and financial support for interventions against HIV/AIDS.

Although the UNFPA focus is on the prevention of HIV infection, its advocacy efforts may include mobilizing commitments to support interventions in prevention, treatment, care and support. Advocacy for the prevention of HIV is the main concern of UNFPA, while it collaborates and coordinates with other partners with mandates in the areas of care, treatment and support.

UNFPA should continue to advocate for interventions against HIV/AIDS at global, regional, country and community levels. The focus of interventions will vary depending on the level and the audiences.

Mostly, at global and the regional levels, advocacy will focus on enlisting political commitment and financial resources from leadership in various sectors, which would be translated into concrete laws and policies, programmes and other interventions against HIV/AIDS.

The four pathways employed by UNFPA for advocacy at the country level would include:

• Mobilizing for political will and policy change. This may involve specific changes in policies, practices, programmes or the behaviour of major national institutions that affect the public, such as government, parliament, the media, the private sector and programmes of other partners to support HIV-infection prevention;



• Alliance building and partnership with and between government and civil society, including building their advocacy capacities. UNFPA should facilitate an inclusive and participatory approach with government in the formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of HIV-infection prevention interventions;



• Consensus-building to form alliances with other stakeholders to overcome resistance to change relevant religious or cultural attitudes or barriers to the prevention of the epidemic. Partnership with the media and with religious and community leaders would be very helpful to remove denial and stigmatization; and



• Community mobilization and empowerment to support HIV/AIDS interventions, using a rights-based approach. This would involve mobilizing community-based organizations and other citizens against any resistance or hindrances to HIV prevention and also viewing their personal involvement as an asset in support of interventions against HIV/AIDS.

Partnerships have the potential to strengthen and magnify any given response. They provide a mechanism for gathering and sharing information and knowledge. They provide technical guidance. They also instil a feeling of “ownership” that is essential for the sustainability of any given intervention or programme.

Fostering partnerships at different levels (with United Nations organizations and agencies, Governments, the private sector and civil society, including NGOs), especially with those involved in care and support, and with those infected and affected, is essential to meet challenges and to ensure harmonization of the continuum of prevention and care.

The interplay of political, social, cultural and economic variables creates a unique situation in each country. The development of partnerships and interventions must reflect the country situation at any given time. Each entity plays a specific role that should be clarified early on.

For example:

• Governments (including bodies at the community level) can be crucial in policy creation, ensuring adequate programme capacities, the identification of fiscal resources, sustainability and coordination of efforts to prevent HIV;



• Donors are critical to advocacy, resource mobilization, and financial and technical support, especially for national capacity-building with respect to HIV/AIDS;



• United Nations organizations and agencies best provide technical guidance on facets of the epidemic, leadership and coordination;



• Foundations can often offer flexible financing through grants and promote a focus on specific issues or on global problems;



• NGOs, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and contractors can be excellent sources of technical assistance, model approaches and training. They can also develop joint programmes through their existing networks, create awareness of needed policies and provide a “bridge” between public and private sectors in the efforts to prevent HIV;



• The private sector itself can play an important role in product and service delivery and sustainability of programmes; and



• People living with HIV/AIDS and communities have a significant contribution to make to the overall effort to support realistic and comprehensive prevention strategies.

The challenge is to identify and bring together the appropriate partners from the broad range of stakeholders to create partnerships that are both strategic and capable of implementing and sustaining programmes.

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