Despite the early political acceptance of the Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GIPA) Principle - that in order to have success in dealing with the global AIDS pandemic, people living with HIV need to be involved in all aspects of HIV and AIDS policy and project design and implementation - to date little more than lip service is paid to it. Where people living with HIV are involved, GIPA is still often tokenistic and usually in project implementation rather than in designing of policies or programmes. There is little involvement of women and young people living with HIV in policy-making decisions that affect their lives. Even within the Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs) of the Global Fund to Fight HIV and AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), the voices of people living with HIV may be drowned out by stronger players.

People living with HIV have unique expertise to bring to the table ? we can inform governments where and how programmes can be strengthened and improved. It is therefore important to increase the skills of many more people living with HIV so that they have the confidence to speak out in key decision-making forums. The aim of the programmes under the Empowerment platform is to ensure that people living with HIV are involved in all decision-making processes that affect their lives.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria

The Global Fund's international Board includes representatives of donor and recipient governments, non-governmental organizations, the private sector (including businesses and foundations), affected communities and key international development partners. GNP+ is one of the founding members of the Communities? Delegation, whose mission it is to bring the voices of people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to the deliberations of the GFATM Board and its committees and ensure greater impact of the GFATM at the community level. The delegation has voting rights on the GFATM Board.

The Communities? Delegation plays a vital role in bringing attention to the impact of proposed policy decisions on the lives of affected people. The Communities? Delegation also plays a significant role in monitoring the establishment and operations of Country Coordinating Mechanisms, particularly in advocating for the meaningful involvement of people living with or affected by HIV, tuberculosis or malaria on CCMs. Consequently, key CCM requirements have been adopted, including the requirement for all CCMs to show evidence of membership of people living with and/or affected by these diseases.

Positive Development

Without involving people living with HIV at all levels, an adequate response to the HIV epidemic is not possible. GNP+ has consistently contributed to the development of materials and resources for people living with HIV and their organizations. The pioneering ?Positive Development? manual provides tools and strategies to assist PLHIV to set up support groups and become organized. Since its first edition in 1998, some 40.000 copies in around two dozen languages have been distributed worldwide. During 2006 the manual was evaluated. The evaluation signalled the value of Positive Development and its significant contribution to an improvement in the lives of people living with HIV. The key recommendation of the evaluation is that the manual be updated, and reformatted.

GNP+ is committed to revising the manual, including new sections on stigma and discrimination, human rights, advocating for treatment and accessing treatment, and positive prevention. In addition a special trainer?s guide will be made available. Translation, cultural adaptation and distribution will be optimized by involving national networks.

PLHIV Conference / International AIDS Conference

GNP+ has organized and hosted many international conferences with large numbers of participants and complex logistical demands. These forums are widely recognized as contributing significantly to the strength of the PLHIV movement and to the growth of participants and their organizations. In 2008, GNP+, in collaboration with the Living with HIV Partnership, will hold the 12th International Conference for People living with HIV, as a pre-conference to the International AIDS Society World AIDS Conference, in Mexico.