25 November 2010
Next year will be ten years from the landmark 2001 Declaration of Commitment of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS.
Since then, UNAIDS has led efforts to track progress in implementing the declaration. Four progress reports have been produced. The latest, the 2010 End of Year Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, was launched on 23 November. The report shows that the World has halted and begun to reverse the spread of HIV. The number of new infections has fallen by 19% since 1999. But there were still 2.6 million new infections in 2009, which means that efforts must be sustained.
In 2010, DFID supported the UNAIDS Monitoring and Evaluation Reference Group (MERG) to review the UNGASS indicators used for this monitoring. Four consultation groups, led by UN agencies and civil society groups, conducted a comprehensive, transparent and inclusive review. DFID supported the MERG’s Indicator Technical Working Group (TWG) to define agreed international standards of indicator quality and to establish four independent Indicator Review Panels (IRPs) to assess proposed UNGASS indicators against the agreed standards.
These MERG processes have increased harmonisation of indicators and improved their quality, which reduces the reporting burden on countries. In addition, there are a number of initiatives to evaluate more rigorously the results and impact of HIV national responses and DFID's support to these.
These include:
Key points from the 2010 UNAIDS Global Report
Work carried out to tackle the spread of HIV has halted and begun to reverse the epidemic. Fewer people are becoming infected with HIV and fewer people are dying from AIDS. The number of new infections has fallen by 19% since 1999. But there were still 2.6 million new infections in 2009 and an estimated 33.3 million people living with HIV worldwide.
- Treatment: 5.2 million people have access to treatment – a 13-fold increase since 2004. This has led to a reduction in AIDS related mortality and morbidity. However, there are still about 10 million in need.
- HIV prevention works: In 33 countries HIV incidence has fallen by more than 25% between 2001 and 2009. Of these 22 are in Sub-Saharan Africa. The biggest epidemics in SSA – Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe – have either stabilised or are showing signs of decline. Sexual behaviour has changed in many countries.
- But several countries and regions do not fit the overall trend. In seven countries, five of them in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, HIV incidence increased by more than 25% between 2001 and 2009.
- Women and girls: More than 50% of infections globally are among women and girls. In Sub-Saharan Africa young women aged 15-24 are as much as eight times more likely than men to be HIV positive.
- Pediatric AIDS: An estimated 370,000 children contracting HIV through mother to child transmission in 2009 – down from 500,000 in 2001.
- Stigma and criminalisation of people living with HIV still presents significant challenges to the AIDS response.
- Resources: Increasingly, countries with a heavy burden are allocating domestic resources to the response. Domestic expenditure accounts for 52% of resources for the HIV response.
Find out more: 2010 UNAIDS Global Report