Public Health Watch joined with more than 30 civil society organizations in petitioning the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to ensure greater opportunities for civil society input into the preparation of the 2006 UN progress report on implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.
The text of the petition is as follows:
Joint NGO Proposal to UNAIDS
As the entity coordinating and guiding the UN’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, UNAIDS will soon begin preparing a second Report on Progress towards Implementation of the Declaration of Commitment. This Report will provide the basis for the Secretary-General’s special progress report in June 2006, and both reports will be reviewed at the next General Assembly High Level Meeting on AIDS in September 2006.
Government input into the report-preparation process is assured; the Progress Report has been and will continue to be based on national progress reports prepared by individual States.
However, the Declaration also emphasizes the importance of full and active participation by civil society in the global effort to confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic, calling for mechanisms that involve civil society as an equal partner at all levels of policy-making, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation (DoC: 32-33; 94-103).
Given its leadership role, it is critical for UNAIDS to enhance the visible opportunities for civil society input into the process of researching, preparing, and presenting the next Progress Report. Civil society organizations–and particularly organizations of persons living with HIV/AIDS–are in a unique position to offer qualitative input which will complement and expand upon the information offered by governments, potentially adding to the breadth and quality of the Progress Report.(1)
To reinforce its public commitment to encouraging and supporting enhanced civil society participation, we urge UNAIDS to:
- Establish a formal mechanism for receipt of written and/or orally-presented information and reports from civil society organizations and PLWHA organizations on DoC implementation in their countries as input for the 2006 Progress Report, according to a schedule to be determined by UNAIDS;(2)
- Using this mechanism as a baseline and example, develop and disseminate publicly available guidelines which encourage governments to establish similar opportunities at the national level for the receipt of broad civil society input into the process of preparing and reviewing national progress reports;
- Work through its network of in-country UNAIDS monitoring and evaluation officers and other national and local partners to stimulate and reinforce the implementation of these guidelines.
Notes
1. The UNAIDS 2004 Progress Report called for “more and better research into the socio-economic of the (AIDS) epidemic” (p. 10) and noted the importance of “significantly involv(ing) communities, civil society and the private sector” (p. 17). Of course, UNAIDS’ agreement to receive civil society input would not guarantee inclusion of this information into the Progress Report; the final responsibility for compiling and presenting the Report rests with UNAIDS.
2. For reference, UNAIDS could refer to the mechanism established by the European Commission for receipt of civil society input into the preparation of its Regular Reports on Candidate States’ Progress Towards Accession, by which Commission officials were available to receive civil society representatives in Brussels for a ten-day period during the report-preparation phase.
Contact Public Health Watch for information on joining the working group on this proposal and to be kept informed of the UNAIDS response.