Scaling-up Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support Programs in Latin America and the MENA Region

Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru

The grant was extended to UNAIDS to support the HIV responses in 19 countries in the MENA Region and in Latin America. The project was structured to achieve specific goals and results as specified in the UNAIDS Getting to Zero Strategy. Zero new HIV infections, Zerio discrimination and Zero AIDS-related death. I. Middle East and North Africa (MENA) The UNAIDS Regional Support Team for the Middle East and North Africa (RST MENA) successfully implemented the planned activities of the project. The close collaboration with national partners and civil society organisations has contributed to the successful implementation of the grant activities and limited the impact of the socio-political challenges in the region. The excellent collaboration and political involvement of the League of Arab States enabled major regional initiatives such as the Arab AIDS Strategy that was endorsed in March 2014. Therefore, many activities agreed in this project with OFID took an enhanced dimension in terms of political commitment, advocacy and sustained impact. • Strengthen leadership and advocacy for effective national HIV response; • Reduce Sexual Transmission of HIV among Key Populations in some countries; • Create protective and enabling environments; • Improve HIV services for migrant and mobile population through sustained advocacy and information generation including on HIV specific travel restrictions on entry, stay and residence in at least five countries; • Strengthen national capacity, systems and institutions to address prevention, treatment, care and support programmes. Some countries such as Sudan, Somalia and Yemen encountered socio-political challenges that impacted the implementation of the National AIDS Programmes, influencing the UNAIDS country offices to adjust the activities accordingly. The UNAIDS regional office for MENA successfully completed its technical support to the countries. The interventions conducted during the previous phase were followed up and adjusted when needed, based on the lessons learned. The grant has provided substantial support though to high level advocacy and political outreach that contributed to strategic partnership development with Civil Society and Intergovernmental bodies such as the League of Arab States. This partnership has paved the road for the development of regional initiatives and breakthrough including UNAIDS optimised the momentum gained with partners and CSOs; particularly within the emerging regional initiatives to advocate for a stronger presence of CSOs and their meaningful involvement in the national and regional HIV response. It also ensured their sustainability and secured resources to maintain the gains achieved. UNAIDS also believed in the importance of involving other CSO partners such as faith-based organisations, youth leaders and the private sector in the response and slightly adjusted some activities accordingly. II. Latin America (LA) Activity implementation is completed. Actions related to activity implementation, including generation of consensus among partners, definition of workplans and recruitment of consultants have been completed in the majority of countries included in the proposal. Key achievements have been reached in the implementation of activities proposed in the area of strengthening protective legal environments. Finalization of activities and full implementation of approved funding has been spent. The proposal implemented through this contribution from OFID aimed toward the achievement of the UNAIDS strategic directions of reducing sexual transmission of HIV, including among young people and key populations most at risk and most affected by the epidemic; reducing the number of countries with punitive laws and practices around HIV transmission, sex work, drug use and homosexuality that block effective responses; and, zero tolerance for gender-based violence, with focus on three key approached.