World AIDS Day 2023 – Put communities first!

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This World AIDS Day, the IAS calls on all stakeholders to put communities first! It's long been known that progress in the HIV response hinges on community leadership.

“Community leadership in the AIDS response is its fundamental pillar for success” because community has “unmatched experience, expertise and reach”, authors of a special World AIDS Day viewpoint in the Journal of the International AIDS Society state.

And as the 2023 UNAIDS Global AIDS Update emphasizes, countries that put people and communities first in their policies and programmes are leading the way in the HIV response.

However, community-driven efforts are underutilized and underfunded globally. Around the world, 9.2 million people living with HIV are not accessing life-saving treatment and 630,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2022 – that is one life every minute. HIV is still most prevalent in central, eastern, western and southern Africa, home to 65% of all people living with HIV.

Contributing to this is a lack of community-focused HIV prevention services, funding and innovative approaches for marginalized and key populations, as well as barriers posed by punitive laws and discrimination.

We must recognize that communities impacted by HIV are the best, and most valid, source of information about what is needed in an effective HIV response.

We must champion and help expand community-first solutions and approaches.


What do community-first approaches look like?

  • Community-led monitoring: This evidence-based model empowers community members in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data to identify and address challenges. It can help improve the accessibility, acceptability, affordability and quality of services.

  •  Community-based participatory research: Putting people first in product design and clinical trials means engaging communities living with and affected by HIV throughout the research process to identify, design and co-create desirable and accessible tools.

  • Community advocacy: This empowers individuals and communities to shape decisions that affect their lives. For example, community advocacy in France, arguing that offering condoms alone was not enough to prevent HIV acquisition through sex, resulted in the country becoming the first to support PrEP on demand through its national healthcare system.

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