New 'people-centered investment approach' could lead to end of global AIDS pandemic

Nov 16 2012

Writing in Huffington Post's "The Big Push" blog, Lucy Chesire, executive director and secretary to the board of the TB ACTION Group, notes "countries from north and south, U.N. organizations, private sector companies and [non-governmental organizations (NGOs)] are meeting in Geneva [this week] at the Board meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to discuss how best to invest available resources against the three killer diseases." She highlights "a new approach to fight AIDS, which basically could lead to the end of the global pandemic," noting, "UNAIDS calls it 'the people-centered investment approach.'" Chesire interviews Bernhard Schwartlander, director of evidence, innovation and policy at UNAIDS, about this new approach.

"It focuses on just five types of basic program action that on their own or in combination should be used in specific settings depending on the nature of the HIV epidemic in each country," Schwartlander said, adding, "Mainly, we are talking about a radical simplification in approaches, such as shifting many tasks away from specialized doctors to community health workers, and working with communities so that community members reach out to those in greatest need and make sure they access treatment services and keep taking their AIDS medicines." He says, "At the Global Fund's Board meeting this week in Geneva, the organization will take important decisions on how to execute a new strategy. This strategy ... builds in large part on the investment approach I just outlined," and concludes, "The Global Fund's Board can take decisions that get us closer to the end of AIDS" (11/14).