Re: Selection of HIV+ve as GIPA Coordinator and PLHIV coordinator in Karnataka KSAPS

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum Members,

I would like to provide some besic information about the

International GIPA Concept and Policy according to UNAIDS as follows:

Greater involvement of people living with HIV - GIPA People living with HIV

understand each other's situation better than anyone and are often best placed

to counsel one another and to represent their needs in decision- and

policy-making forums.

The idea that the personal experiences of people living with HIV

could and should be translated into helping to shape a response to

the AIDS epidemic was first voiced in 1983 at a national AIDS

conference in the USA. It was formally adopted as a principle at the

Paris AIDS Summit in 1994, where 42 countries declared the Greater

Involvement of People Living with HIV and AIDS (GIPA) to be critical

to ethical and effective national responses to the epidemic.

Today the GIPA principle is the backbone of many interventions

worldwide. People living with, or affected by HIV are involved in a

wide variety of activities at all levels of the fight against AIDS;

from appearing on posters, bearing personal testimony, and supporting

and counseling others with HIV, to participating in major decision-

and policy-making activities.

The engagement of people living with HIV is all the more urgent as

countries scale up their national AIDS responses to achieve the goal

of universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support

services.

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UNAIDS GIPA Policy Position

No single agency can provide for the full spectrum of needs of people

living with HIV: partnerships between actors are therefore needed. To

enable the active engagement of people living with HIV, UNAIDS urges

all actors to ensure that people living with HIV have the space and

the practical support for their greater and more meaningful

involvement.

Governments, international agencies and civil society must:

set, implement and monitor minimum targets for the participation of

people living with HIV, including women, young people and

marginalized populations, in decision-making bodies. Selection

processes should be inclusive, transparent and democratic; and

involve people living with HIV in developing funding priorities and

in the choice, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of

HIV programmes from their inception.

I would also request you to read in detail UNAIDS Policy Brief: The

Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV to understand the

inportance to provide the oppertunity only to People Living with HIV.

Thanking you,

In Solidarity.

Snehansu Bhaduri

Advocacy Associate

AHF India Cares,

New Delhi.

e-mail: snehansu.bhaduri@...

Phone: 9211957730