Development of a National HIV/AIDS Strategy

The development of a National HIV/AIDS strategy is President Obama’s highest domestic HIV/AIDS priority.
The primary goals of a national strategy are to develop concrete recommendations for significantly:

• Reducing HIV incidence;
• Increasing access to care for people living with HIV/AIDS and improving health outcomes; and,
• Reducing HIV-related health disparities.

The Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) has been conducting meetings with a wide variety of stakeholders to seek input on key issues and to gather recommendations for moving the nation forward to better support people living with HIV/AIDS and more effectively work to end the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The strategy will: identify bold, but achievable, goals; include timelines and accountability mechanisms; rely on sound science; and build on programs and practices that are proven to work.

Key elements of the Administration’s plan for developing a national strategy are as follows:

Leverage the extensive HIV/AIDS expertise across the federal government

• ONAP Director, Jeffrey S. Crowley, will convene and chair an interagency HIV/AIDS working group to help develop the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. Leveraging knowledge across the government will ensure the strategy is informed by a breadth of knowledge, research and expertise.

Engage the public in meaningful ways

• Through the remainder of 2009, ONAP will conduct town hall meetings in communities across the country to learn more about the situation on the ground. Town halls will be held in the traditional epicenters of the epidemic, as well as areas with recent growth in HIV transmission, rural areas and underserved areas in the south, and Indian country. One town hall will be held at the National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta on August 25th.

• A forthcoming new web page on www.whitehouse.gov will enable the American people to offer their input and be kept abreast of our progress in developing the strategy.

• The Administration will receive input and recommendations from the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

Research and analysis of critical issues

• ONAP staff will work with external experts to conduct consultations, research and other activities on specific policy issues. These may include: reducing HIV-related stigma, understanding the role of housing in maintaining people in care, and engaging youth to prevent new infections.

The National HIV/AIDS Strategy will be released in early 2010.