Publications

Women-identified drug users and those also living with HIV face significant challenges accessing a broad set of healthcare services, including HIV treatment, care, and support, as well as harm reduction services. These challenges stem from structural, social, and cultural prejudice stemming from punitive drug policies around the world. This statement is a collaboration between the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW) and the International Network of People who Use Drugs (INPUD), including the International Network of Women who Use Drugs (INWUD), and serves as the beginning of a joint effort to recognize and address the specific needs and rights of women who use drugs who are also living with HIV. ICW and INPUD recognize the intersectionality of the experiences of women who use drugs and of women living with HIV, and therefore recognize the need for a public expression of solidarity to strengthen the impact of both movements.

A significant proportion of young people in Asia and the Pacific are sexually active, and while for many the onset of sexual activity is associated with marriage, an increasing number are initiating sex before marriage. The available information indicates that most young people are ill-prepared for this transition, having insufficient knowledge and life-skills to negotiate safe and consensual relationships and facing considerable barriers to accessing services and commodities needed to avoid unsafe sex and its consequences. The report provides recommendations and identifies priority areas where urgent focus is needed to prevent early and unintended pregnancy, unsafe abortion, sexually transmitted infections and HIV.  And to ensure, in this era of the Sustainable Development Goals, that no young person is left behind.

The 14th round of HIV Sentinel Surveillance (HSS) was implemented among Antenatal Clients (ANC) in 35 States and Union Territories (UTs) of India in 572 districts during January-March 2015 except for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where HSS was implemented during March-May 2015. This report presents the findings of the 14th National HSS among ANC clinic attendees and shows prevalence levels and trends of the HIV epidemic from 2003 to 2014-15. Though the 14th round of HSS was carried out among ANC only, this report also includes data on HIV prevalence among High Risk Groups (HRG) and Bridge Populations from earlier rounds of HSS.

“(Even) Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts: A Case Study on Working Together as the Consortium of MSM and Transgender Networks” documents the impact of the Consortium’s efforts and describes the added value of collaboration. The primary context of the case study is the Consortium’s implementation of two grants by the Robert Carr civil society Networks Fund (RCNF) over the past two years. The Case Study highlights multiple examples of how working in a Consortium has benefited member networks and MSM and transgender communities in general. 

This briefing paper explores sex workers' experiences of HIV and STI testing and treatment programmes from a global perspective. Sex workers are rarely included in the development and implementation of programming. Programming that does exist often violates the rights of sex workers. Through case studies and interviews, this briefing paper demonstrates there is a need for greater investment in appropriate, high-quality, rights-based services, and research led by sex workers in order to meet the specific needs of this population.

This Strategic Plan sets out the key directions for the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) in 2016–20. It outlines how – in those five years – NSWP will build on its significant achievements and lessons to date, while also strengthening critical areas of its work and responding to a changing and challenging environment. The Strategic Plan 2016–20 is the result of extensive consultation among NSWP’s members, as well as other stakeholders – Board, staff, donors and partners. The consultation was led by an independent Global Consultant. They were supported by independent Regional Consultants who, in turn, coordinated local Key Informants to carry out in-depth national consultations with NSWP members in selected countries.

This joint briefing paper by NSWP and INPUD highlights the specific needs and rights of sex workers who use drugs, as a community that spans two key populations. This document provides an overview of some of the most endemic and substantive ways in which sex workers who use drugs face double criminalisation and associated police harassment, intersectional stigma, compounded marginalisation and social exclusion, heightened interference and harassment from healthcare and other service providers, infantilisation, pathologisation, and an associated undermining of agency, choice, and self-determination.

Founded in 2002, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) is one of the world’s largest multilateral health funders, disbursing $3–$4 billion a year across 100-plus countries. Many researchers and policymakers have hypothesized that models tying grant payments to achieved and verified results—referred to in this report as next generation financing models—offer an opportunity for the Global Fund to push forward its strategic interests and accelerate the impact of its investments. Realizing their potential requires technical know-how and careful, strategic decisionmaking that responds to specific country and epidemiological contexts—all with little evidence or experience to guide the way. This report addresses the how of next generation financing models that is, the concrete steps needed to change the basis of payment from expenses to something else: outputs, outcomes, or impact. 

The cultivation of drug crops such as opium poppy, coca, and cannabis is a vital source of economic and physical security for poor, marginalized, and vulnerable communities in the Global South. International drug control strategies that have targeted cultivators with violent state coercion and eradication strategies have fueled displacement, ecological damage, and land poverty, while exacerbating existing problems of malnutrition and infectious disease. Such approaches have proved particularly counterproductive in conflict contexts, where an assumed nexus between drug revenues and the financing of terrorism and insurgency has undermined prospects for peace and stability. This briefing paper highlights some relevant issues for debate in the UNGASS on drugs, focusing on strategies for addressing drug crop production as a development issue.

Thirty years into the HIV epidemic, it is disheartening to note that stigma and discrimination remain a fact of everyday life for people living with HIV. The case studies highlighted in this report are testament to the many forms of attitudes, practices and systems across a wide range of sectors that continue to ‘punish’ HIV to this day. In the past year, HIV related discrimination in educational institutions and work place settings was particularly disturbing. In spite of assurance of good health by medical experts, employees and students living with HIV were dismissed and denied educational opportunities respectively on grounds of 'ill-health'. This underscores the urgent need to review policies that were ill-informed or outdated to reflect the most recent advancement in HIV medicine.