Publications

This brief is meant to help applicants to the Global Fund plan for and scale up effective HIV and hepatitis C programming for people who use drugs, particularly those who inject. Applicants should consult the Global Fund HIV Information Note and Modular Framework Handbook, which detail the full range of biomedical, behavioral and structural interventions that the Global Fund supports as part of a comprehensive HIV response. This brief, drawing on review of past programming and guidance from UN partners, highlights specific lessons and recommendations for harm reduction programming. Closing the HIV prevention gap for key populations, including people who inject drugs, is a priority in the Global Fund’s 2023-2028 strategy. Removing human rights-related barriers to services, and ensuring that community leadership is at the heart of the HIV response, are also strategic priorities.

The role of digital technologies for health financing and their potential contribution to UHC progress is receiving increased attention, although the evidence base is still very small, indicating the need for further documentation and assessments of countries’ practices. This paper seeks to contribute to gathering the evidence needed. Specifically, the paper assesses the experiences of three countries – Cambodia, India and Rwanda – to explore the use and role of digital technologies that support the identification of the poor and other vulnerable population groups. The focus is on the processes of targeting, identification and identity confirmation as important health financing-related tasks that cut across the revenue-raising and pooling functions with the purpose of providing fully- or partially subsidized coverage via publicly funded health coverage schemes.

A vigorous follow-up and appraisal system for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development requires a streamlined process of reporting the agreed framework of indicators and statistical data to monitor progress, inform policy and ensure accountability of all stakeholders. The Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) is a testimony to each country’s continued commitment to support and implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is paramount to have data available to report and monitor the progress in the SDGs of each country. UNICEF set out a regional research initiative to understand the uptake and reporting of 44 child-focused SDG indicators in the VNRs presented by the countries of East Asia and the Pacific Region. This report also analyzed the availability of data for these indicators since 2010. The report outlined the notable variation in the uptake of child-focused indicators in VNRs and data availability across various SDG areas and across countries in the EAP region by different country groupings. The report also highlighted the responsibilities and key actions required to increase the uptake as well as the data availability that the national authorities should consider in the future.

UNDP’s Strategic Plan 2022–2025 and HIV and Health Strategy 2022-2025 view open and inclusive civic spaces as central to achieving broader structural changes to build resilient societies able to respond to conflicts and crises and ensuring that no one is left behind.

This issue brief shares lessons and reflections on enabling legal environments, including decriminalisation, to inform the implementation of key commitments in the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS and the Global AIDS Strategy. These include a shared understanding of the harms caused by the overly broad and unjust application of criminal laws; sensitization of key stakeholders and their engagement in legal review processes; A well-informed judiciary; Coordinated, multi-pronged and multisectoral legal advocacy; and, global and regional advocacy to advance national-level changes to HIV-related punitive and discriminatory laws, including decriminalization.

This issue brief shares lessons and reflections on the role of the judiciary in advancing rights-based HIV responses, to inform the implementation of key commitments in the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS and the Global AIDS Strategy. These include an understanding of the critical nature of judicial decisions in shaping the HIV-related legal environment; the important legal implications of evolving HIV science; sensitizing judges to people’s lived experiences is key; and safe spaces for respectful discussion and learning among justice sector peers.

This issue brief shares lessons and reflections on the importance of regional spaces for strengthening responses, to inform the implementation of key commitments in the Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS and the Global AIDS Strategy. These include an appreciation that convening stakeholders in regional spaces can be safer than in national spaces; regional-level discussions can foster peer-to-peer knowledge exchanges; regional level networking can lead to a network of in-country allies; and importance of regional economic communities for aligning national HIV-related laws with human rights commitments. 

This issue brief shares lessons and reflections on the importance of safe and open civic space for advancing rights-based HIV responses and informing the implementation of key commitments in the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS and the Global AIDS Strategy. These include an understanding that early and broad engagement helps to facilitate the buy-in of key and diverse stakeholders; creating and maintaining safe, open and enabling spaces is critical for civil society to fully contribute to the HIV response; the relationships between governments and civil society are complex and require careful navigation; and capacity strengthening and sensitization of stakeholders is needed for meaningful engagement.

This document summarizes the results of the WHO-commissioned full value proposition for new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines. The assessment was commissioned to provide early evidence for national and global decision-makers involved in TB vaccine development and implementation, who include stakeholders involved in vaccine research, financing, regulation and policy-making, manufacturing, introduction and procurement. The goal is to accelerate development of effective vaccines against TB and their rapid introduction into countries.

This guidance is intended to help policymakers develop survivor-centered programming on ending violence against women and girls that meets the needs of diverse groups of women and girls, including those who are at higher risk of experiencing violence and discrimination. It is applicable to programming across the health, justice and policing, and social services sectors, as well as coordination of these sectors, and will help improve the standard and delivery of essential services for women and girls who have experienced violence.