Community Voices: Documenting the Impact of Government and Donor Policies

From The International Coalition of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO)

Over the last 25 years since the history of the AIDS epidemic, it has become increasingly apparent that social, cultural, economic and legal factors exacerbate the spread of HIV and heighten the impact of HIV/AIDS. In almost all cases, socially marginalized groups such as sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM) and injecting drug users (IDUs) are disproportionately vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and its consequences.

Today, ideological agendas and restrictions are threatening to undermine some of the positive gains that have been made in the HIV response. Government and donor restrictions on vulnerable groups (such as sex workers, injecting drug users and men who have sex with men) are leading to further marginalization of those already in the fringes of society and single-focused prevention strategies such as abstinence –only campaigns are reducing access to and undermining public confidence in condoms as a tool for HIV prevention.

ICASO is thus undertaking a project to document donor and government policies that restrict the HIV response. This information from frontline workers in different countries will provide strong basis for evidence informed programming. The findings from this project will be disseminated extensively at AIDS2006 and at other policy forums to challenge governments and donors to amend these policies that are undermining the response to HIV and AIDS.

The project will examine donor and government restrictions in the
following areas:
A. Abstinence only focused prevention policies
B. Harm reduction policies
C. Policy and legal restrictions on sex work
D. Laws and policy restrictions on men who have sex with men (MSM)

NGOs and CBOs worldwide are invited to send ICASO their experiences around donor and government policy restrictions that have affected their response to HIV/AIDS services. Please answer the following questions and send us your response by July 31, 2006 to restrictions@icaso.org