Connecting professionals living with and working in HIV

The Positive Professionals database has been set up as part of GNP+ efforts to support the application of the GIPA principle. Through Positive Professionals, GNP+ facilitates the connection between organisations working on the response to HIV/AIDS and professionals living with and working in HIV. The database functions as an online “job market” where positive professionals share their skills, experience and technical expertise to be matched with the needs of organisations seeking this expertise. GNP+ through this database facilitates connections between professionals and possible employers.

In addition the database helps professionals to connect with peers with similar expertise to exchange experiences and information on upcoming issues of common concern. Only people living with HIV can register to become part of the Positive Professionals network.

GNP+ takes part as a co-organiser and co-sponsor of different key events and conferences in the international HIV response, such as the International AIDS Conference and the HIV/AIDS Implementers' Meeting, for example. In addition, GNP+ historically is the lead organiser of the International Conference for people living with HIV, which last took place in Mexico City in  2008.

LIVING2008: The Positive Leadership Summit was the 12^th international conference for people living with HIV since 1987. These international gatherings of people living with HIV have been of tremendous importance to many positive people from around the world. Meeting in a safe and empowering environment has contributed both to their personal growth and to a strengthening of the PLHIV movement. LIVING2008 was organised just prior to AIDS2008, and aimed  to strengthen the movement of people living with HIV through promoting the involvement and leadership of people living with HIV in the global HIV response, as well as benefiting participants and programming at both the Positive Leadership Summit and AIDS 2008.

While the International AIDS Conference is a bi-annual event that focusses both on scientific developments as well as civil society involvement in the response, the HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting is an annual conference that focuses on implementation of best practices and lessons learnt for HIV implementers worldwide. At both conferences, GNP+ specifically aims to strengthen the participation of civil society and the involvement of organizations of people living with HIV.

A comprehensive, two-year process of research and analysis led by GNP+, ICW and Young Positives has led to the formulation of a Guidance Package to support policymakers, programme managers, health professionals, donors, and advocates better understand the specific steps that must be taken to support the sexual and reporductive health of people living with HIV.

Imperatives of both human rights and public health require that health care and legal systems support the sexual and reproductive health and rights of people living with HIV.

People living with HIV have the right to pursue healthy, satisfying sex lives, and need laws to protect this right. From a public health perspective, decision-makers and service providers must recognize that people living with HIV do enter into relationships, have sex, and bear children. Ensuring that they can do these things safely is key to maintaining their own health, and that of their partners and families.

Direct input from people living with HIV at the national and community levels increases the quality of HIV programming and enhances the impact of HIV programmes on the lives of people living with HIV. GNP+ has a tradition of collecting this input through its programmes and through direct engagement in meetings, technical consultations and conferences. To increase the outreach and impact of these consultations, GNP+ has started to make use of existing and popular communication technologies.

According to GNP+, web based consultations should not be run in isolation, but be part of a package of consultations run through regional and national networks of people living with HIV indentifying with GNP+.

GNP+ supports its regional networks and their member networks at national level to engage in structural issue-specific consultations with its constituents at regional, national and community levels in order to complement efforts via the e-consultations. The use of electronic platforms has been incorporated into the several programmes that GNP+ is implementing. GNP+ will also launch its own social networking platform that will be a main stage for these consultations.

GNP+ is strengthening the position of youth within the networks through a programme which is currently being set up. The Youth Programme aims to address the gaps in the HIV response, one being that in the highly active youth movement, youth living with HIV are not represented, and in the HIV positive community youth are not represented.

GNP+ will work to support and broaden networking and collaboration amongst stakeholders to facilitate an enabling environment within GNP+ and the regional people living with HIV networks for youth living with HIV. This initiative is driven by youth living with HIV through an interim reference group of youth living with HIV and GNP+.

An estimated 33.2 million people are living with HIV, of whom 5.4 million are young people. 40% of new infections are amongst 15-24 year olds, most of them female. However, in the global response to HIV there is a massive gap in the support and the meaningful and engaged participation of youth living with HIV (YPLHIV).

GNP+ makes its free manual, Positive Development, available for grassroots organizing and training. Positive Development has been widely acclaimed as a vital resource for development and maintenance of community-based organizations supporting people living with HIV/AIDS.

The manual emerged from the collaboration and experiences of people with HIV/AIDS from all over the world. It was designed to help people living with HIV/AIDS to become involved, establish or redirect their own groups, improve their capacities, or share their abilities with others.

The manual is also useful for leading workshops and for trainers and facilitators who have been running groups for some time or who are helping others set-up their own groups.

After an evaluation in 2006, GNP+ is now developing a new programme around the concept of self empowerment, which will be inspired by the success of Positive Development.

Positive Development is available in Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Khmer, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, and Vietnamese. Electronic versions can be accessed through the GNP+ Library. 

GNP+ supports the research and development of new prevention technologies (NPTs). Research and development of any health related technology always raises questions about safety, drug resistance, testing and access as well as other ethical issues, especially for people living with HIV.

Leadership of people living with HIV in NPT research and development continues to be crucial, particularly now as scientists, researchers and advocates explore the possibilities of ARV-based prevention, specifically pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and some microbicides.

Through a new NPT Working Group and the engagement of people living with HIV in key consultations, meetings and other activities, GNP+ places people living with HIV at the fore front in supporting these debates and processes to be properly informed.

At an International Technical Consultation organised by GNP+ and UNAIDS in Tunisia in April 2009, people living with HIV worked with civil society, government agencies, international development agencies, UNAIDS Cosponsors and donor agencies to develop the concept of ‘Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention’ and to establish the values and principles underpinning it.

Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention highlights and links issues of HIV treatment, prevention, support and care within a human rights framework.

The International Technical Consultation is part of an ongoing process of reinforcing the leadership role of people living with HIV in Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention. Further consultations at regional level and with key populations are underway in order to establish a common understanding of Positive Health, Dignity and Prevention and provide guidance in developing policies and programmes globally.

The website of the People Living with HIV Stigma Index is online! 

The People Living with HIV Stigma Index provides a tool that measures and detects changing trends in relation to stigma and discrimination as experienced by people living with HIV.

People living with HIV are at the centre of the process as both interviewers and interviewees and as drivers of how the information is collected, analyzed and used. The Index is designed to increase the understanding of how stigma and discrimination is experienced by people living with HIV. The data gained can then be used by the national implementing partners to shape future programmatic interventions and policy change.

The process for implementing the index in each country will be unique, drawing on the strengths and diversity of the different partners. Each country project must remain committed to the ethos of the index overall ensuring that it remains by, and for, people living with HIV. To learn more about the Index please visit the website.

The NGO Code of Good Practice was developed by NGOs for NGOs, to help guide our work by providing a framework to which we can commit and be held accountable. Drawing on 20 years of knowledge and experience, the Code sets out key principles, practice and evidence base required for successful responses to HIV.

After the initial set up in 2004, a large number of international NGOs working in HIV endorsed the Code. A second drive for endorsements took place in 2007/2008 as part of a project supported by the Ford Foundation and DfID.

The NGO Code of Good Practice is currently being maintained by GNP+. GNP+ anticipates that before Spring 2010 over 500 international, national and community based NGOs will have endorsed the Code.

Click here to access the NGO Code website!

Human Rights Count! is an evidence gathering programme which documents HIV related human rights violations against people living with HIV. The programme is the first human rights violation documentation project that is based on a methodology driven by people living with HIV. Evidence gathered will inform advocacy campaigns against these violations.

People living with HIV from around the world will be able to submit human rights violations in their community, city and country electronically or by mail. GNP+ works with focal points at regional and national networks of people living with HIV to research, verify and analyse these violations.

GNP+ has developed a structured form used to elicit quantitative and qualitative data regarding the violations, which will be available as an online questionnaire and as a writable PDF. Individuals or networks can also print the questionnaire and fill it out by hand.

By collecting the information through focal points in the region, there will be a strong link to regional and national campaigns. In addition, working through communities of people living with HIV will increase the level of understanding of rights and through this empower people to assert their rights. Reporting forms will shortly be available both online and at selected focal points.

Achieving universal access to HIV treatment, care and prevention requires a coordinated response that involves multiple and diverse stakeholders. Civil society, including people living with HIV (PLHIV) networks, can play a critical role in the realisation of national and international targets. Through its work with communities, civil society can provide a unique perspective on the barriers to accessing services and offer evidence-based advocacy and recommendations about what must be done to remove these barriers.

The HIV Leadership through Accountability programme is a collaboration between the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+), the World AIDS Campaign (WAC), national networks of PLHIV and national Civil Society platforms. The programme is funded by UK DfID and combines specific HIV mapping tools, national AIDS campaigns and targeted advocacy for Universal Access.

The programme will run for five years and involve 15 countries in total. Within each country, over a two-year period, the national network of people living with HIV will implement tools by and for PLHIV, elaborated by GNP+ and its partners, aiming at strengthening the evidence on four key areas:

In addition to the four mapping tools, Advancing the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of PLHIV: A Guidance Package will support PLHIV networks to engage in national processes for the development and/or adaptation of sexual and reproductive health services.

 Concept note - HIV Leadership Through Accountability 205.56 Kb

GNP+ is implementing the GIPA Report Card, an advocacy tool designed to gather information on the level of application of the greater involvement of people living with HIV (GIPA) principle. The GIPA Report Card seeks to increase and improve the programmatic, policy and funding actions taken to realise the greater involvement of people living with HIV in a country's HIV response. National networks of people living with HIV are leading the process in their countries.

Information gathered through the GIPA Report Card serves as a baseline against which future application of the GIPA principle at national level can be measured. It is a tool to hold governments, NGOs, United Nations agencies, donors, organisations of PLHIV and other stakeholders accountable to their commitments relating to the application of the GIPA principle and increases and improves the meaningful participation of people living with HIV within the broader national response.

The GIPA Report Card has been conducted in India, Kenya, Lesotho and Trinidad and Tobago. In 2009 GIPA Report Card has been implemented in Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia.

 GIPA Report Card Briefing Paper 221.99 Kb

 GIPA Report Card Kenya - December 2009 786.82 Kb

 GIPA Report Card Zambia - December 2009 782.05 Kb

Initiated by the Global Network of People living with HIV (GNP+) and partner organisations, the Global Criminalisation Scan is a tool to map criminal and other laws used to prosecute people for transmitting HIV. The aim of this in-depth research is to create a pool of knowledge that will inform advocacy plans and can be shared with other jurisdictions.

The Global Criminalisation Scan already includes data of over 150 countries and territories in Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. The research is currently being expanded to include data from Africa and the Caribbean. In addition, in- depth studies into selected cases are being conducted in the different regions, starting with North America.

From 2010 onwards, GNP and its partners will expand this work to look at how laws and regulations are applied in a way that impedes an effective response HIV, for example:

• The criminalisation of engaging in commercial sex;

• Prohibiting same sex sexual relations;

• Prohibiting using/injecting drugs; and

• Restricting or denying entry/stay/residence or require deportation of HIV positive non-nationals.

For more information on the information gathered and the partners in this exercise, please view to the Global Criminalisation Scan website.