HIV in Asia--Transforming the agenda for 2012 and beyond

Abstract

Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund). This report is the work of independent consultants and does not necessarily represent the views of the collaborating partners. We would like to thank all the people we interviewed across the region, and in Geneva, for their gracious acceptance of our intrusion; their wisdom; and their keen interest in what we were doing. We learned much from them. We also appreciate the support we have received from the members of the Reference Group, and their guidance. It is important also to acknowledge the insight and hard work put into the design of the assignment, the detailed thinking that went into the terms of reference, and the support and encouragement we received along the way, from Robyn Biti and her colleagues in AusAID, and Jackie Mundy and her colleagues in the Health Resource Facility. We especially appreciate the detailed, thoughtful and knowledgeable comments on our draft report we received from members of the Reference Group and their colleagues at country level. This assignment built on, and we trust has taken forward, the work of UNAIDS in the region, first with the Report of the Commission of AIDS in Asia, and more recently with their Universal Access Stocktaking Report, and their Getting to Zero in Asia and the Pacific publication at the end of 2011. Much of the data and analysis comes from this work; our task was to try to find a useful new perspective on it. We also need to recognise the courage and fortitude of the people of Asia, faced with the threat of HIV and AIDS. As one HIV positive ex-drug user put it to me: 'We didn't give up when we first realised what HIV was; we didn't give up when there was no treatment; we didn't give up when drugs were expensive, or difficult to access. Why should we give up?' It is in the light of this courage and fortitude that we address the partners for who this report is written: do not give up.