GHDonline Panel Discussion “Turning off the Tap”

HIV Prevention Community Launch

With Special Guests from the Gates’ Foundation

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

For every 100 people put on HIV treatment, another 250 are newly infected.  As the global recession reduces resources for treatment, the importance of strengthening HIV prevention efforts is becoming even more apparent.  While continued investments in vaccines provide hope for a powerful solution, applying existing knowledge and strategies in the right combination and target populations could profoundly impact the epidemic, averting approximately half of all HIV infections projected to occur between now and 2015.  With funding for HIV treatment declining, there is an urgent need to invest in building better models to deliver HIV prevention and scaling up effective services.

In response to this growing need, the GHD Project is launching a new HIV Prevention community on GHDonline.org, a platform for dialogues promoting more effective programming on the ground, with a kick-off Expert Panel Discussion in the community on May 25, 2010.

In recent years, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested in biomedical tools like vaccines and microbiocides and programs with an integrated approach to HIV prevention, and is leading the charge in many countries. In India, the Gates Foundation’s Avahan Initiative has mobilized marginalized communities, including commercial sex workers and injection drug users, to reduce their risk by practicing safer sex and injection methods, and through collective action against structural risks. In China, the Gates Foundation recently launched another HIV prevention initiative to determine the appropriate mix of strategies for reducing risks. Programs supported in Africa include some of the largest efforts to date — former Gates’ grantee loveLife, now South Africa’s national HIV prevention program for youth, is the largest HIV prevention program in a country with 5.7 million people living with HIV and a prevalence rate of 18.3%, and the African Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Partnership (ACHAP) in Botswana has set a national scale-up of male circumcision as one of its priorities.

On Tuesday, May 25, Aparajita Ramakrishnan, MBA, Senior programme officer, Matangi Jayaram, Programme Officer, and Sema Sgaier, PhD, MA, Programme Officer and others from the Gates’ Foundation will share their first-hand knowledge of these efforts in the HIV prevention community on GHDonline.org. Members will have the opportunity to discuss with these representatives what works in HIV prevention and what can be done to create and maintain effective programs at scale.

It’s easy to join the launch event:

• If you are not a member of GHDonline.org, please click here to join the new HIV Prevention Community with “Per Post” email notification so that you can join the online debate right away (free)!
• If you already are a member of GHDonline.org, simply go to your profile and check “HIV Prevention” in your communities and notification settings and click on “Submit.”
• Then post a question, share your experience and information either online in the community or via email: hivprevention@ghdonline.org on or by May 25.