Twenty five years into the AIDS epidemic, the number of new HIV infections has yet to decline. Almost 40 million people around the world are living with HIV and AIDS – half of them women. In Latin America the rate stands at 1.6 million people living with HIV-AIDS and in Central America alone, there was a 16% and an 18% increase in the number of women living with HIV over the past two years.
The AIDS epidemic has swiftly escalated from a public health challenge into an unparalleled development crisis. AIDS has reversed valuable development gains, and resulted in illness and death among the most productive age group of societies. The long-term human development impact is felt in all sectors of public and private life. National and local budgets have been strained by AIDS-related costs, sectors such as education and health are being deprived of skilled workers, and the capacity of various sectors to sustain previous levels of productivity and services is weakened. The epidemic has impoverished families and communities, and has resulted in social exclusion and countless human rights violations. Women and girls are particularly vulnerable to HIV and its impacts, and bear the burden of providing car for affected families.
UNDP’s mandate in the LAC region
As a cosponsor of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV-AIDS (UNAIDS), UNDP has a specific and well-defined role in the overall response of the United Nations system and in helping countries to implement the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV-AIDS as well as in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). UNDP’s response strategy focuses on four services that are complementary and mutually reinforcing: - HIV-AIDS and human development
- Governance of HIV-AIDS response
- HIV-AIDS, human rights and gender
- HIV-AIDS and sexual minorities
Under the first service line, activities planned for 2008 include the mainstreaming of HIV-AIDS into national strategic plans and instruments such as PRSPs, developing guidelines on Mobile Populations, Decentralization and income generating and improved legislative environment for sustained access to AIDS medicines. Under the second service line, one country “governance diagnostic study” in Honduras and one in Barbados and the OECS countries is planned. The third serves line seeks to strengthen policy legal and human rights frameworks to address stigma and discrimination, address gender related vulnerability and impact on women and girls, empower PLWHA in the AIDS response and strengthen the CO response to the epidemic. The fourth service line will consist of the development of a regional programme on sexual minorities.
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