AIDS 2010 REGIONAL ACTIVITIES

The International AIDS Conference has grown to become the world’s largest and most important single event on HIV and AIDS. It is a critical platform for presenting new research, sharing best practice and advancing the fight against HIV and AIDS. In Mexico at AIDS 2008 there were more than 20,000 participants from 189 countries.

With the growth in size and diversity the conferences have also become more complex in terms of governance, programming, logistics and participation. This has raised a number of challenges and concerns. One such challenge is how to ensure that key stakeholders can be effectively represented and heard. A second challenge is how to ensure that participants do not get overwhelmed and feel lost but that they instead make sense of the conference as a whole and are able to take away key messages and learning. A third challenge is how to link the international AIDS conferences with the field so that the high science and globalized messages presented can be unpacked and translated into tangible and context-sensitive actions at regional, country and community levels. At the same time, the conferences should facilitate the generation of specific commitments and action plans and ensure that these are accounted for at subsequent conferences.

The Future Directions Project carried out in 2005-2006 proposed sessions at which key players from each region can discuss region-specific issues on service scale-up, and exchange information on best practice and barriers identified at the regional AIDS conferences. It also envisaged that these discussions at the international AIDS conference would later feed into and inform the regional AIDS conferences.

And in a critique of AIDS 2006, Richard Horton of the Lancet argued that specific regions and their issues had been invisible in Toronto.

Based on past and ongoing discussions and a successful programme of activities with a regional focus at AIDS 2008, the Conference Coordinating Committee for AIDS 2010 has approved regional activities according to the following classification:

• Asia and the Pacific
• Caribbean
• Europe and Central Asia
• Latin America
• Middle East and North Africa
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• USA and Canada

1. Regional sessions
2. Regional exhibition booths in the main commercial exhibitions hall
3. Networking areas in the global village
4. Funder/partner meetings
5. A joint consultative and experience sharing meeting of key stakeholders in HIV/AIDS from all the regions

The main task of the working groups is to provide overall planning and guidance for the development and implementation of the approved regional sessions and activities at the XVIII International AIDS Conference.

Each working group will comprise seven members, including the Chairperson. The detailed composition is as follows:

• The Chairperson nominated by AIDS 2010 Conference Coordinating Committee
• One member nominated by Global Network of People Living with HIV
• One member nominated by the International Community of Women Living with HIV
• One member nominated by the organisers of the main regional AIDS conferences
• One member nominated by the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations
• One member nominated by the International AIDS Society
• One member nominated by UNAIDS.

1. Agree the exact titles and issues to be covered under each topic for the regional sessions; based on the broad themes approved by the Conference Coordinating Committee
2. Agree on country case studies and issues to be presented
3. Define and finalise Terms of Reference for presenters
4. Identify and select presenters
5. Identify and select chairs/moderators/facilitators of the respective regional session
6. Review presentations
7. Provide advice on the planning and implementation of the regional booth, the regional networking zone, funder/partner meetings and the joint consultative and experience sharing meeting of key stakeholders in HIV/AIDS from all the regions zones.

Working Groups will carry out all their tasks by email and teleconferences. It is foreseen that there will be at least one teleconference per month between September 2009 and March 2010.

Active member involvement is important and members are expected to participate in all meetings and activities of the Working Group.

Quorum for decision-making purposes will be 50% of the Working Group membership and the Chairperson.

Decisions will be made by consensus. If consensus is not possible, members will agree on, and carry out, a process to deal with the issue.

Minutes summarizing issues raised and action items will be taken by the Conference Secretariat and distributed by email to the members.

The Conference Secretariat will ensure on-going management, coordination and support for the working groups and for the implementation of the agreed activities. In particular, the Secretariat will:

1. Provide administrative support to the working group;
2. Oversee proper endorsement/approval of working group decisions by relevant conference organizing bodies;
3. Implement working group recommendations and decisions.

The Names of those on the Caribbean Committee are:

• Marcus Day, Chair, CVC, CCC representative
• Olive Edwards, ICW representative
• Yolanda Simon, GNP+ representative
• Merle Mendeza, ICASO representative
• Miriam Edwards, Civil Society Representative
• Ingrid Cox, PANCAP representative
• Michel de Groulard, UNAIDS
• Celia DC Christie-Samuels, IAS representative