Annex One: Campaign Partnerships

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: "The Truth About AIDS. Pass It On ..."

Over the past five years, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and UNAIDS have sought ways to strengthen their contributions in the response to HIV/AIDS and, in particular, to expand the work of reducing HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination. This close collaboration has also resulted in the establishment of a partnership between the IFRC and the Global Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+).

The IFRC and GNP+ launched, on World Red Cross Red Crescent Day, 8 May 2002, a two-year global action against HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination under the slogan, "The truth about AIDS. Pass it on ...". This major global campaign aims to reduce HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination, to pass on the truth about HIV/AIDS and warn against the dangers of stigmatizing those who are infected, or their families.

Over the coming 18 months, there will be ample opportunities for cooperation between the three organizations in the areas of awareness-raising, specific projects and programmes and resource mobilization. Furthermore, messaging between the campaigns has been devised to be complementary. A collaborative poster on the basic facts about HIV/AIDS will be produced jointly and materials will be shared. A joint letter with GNP+, UNAIDS and IFRC as signatories has been sent out by the respective organizations.

In order to strengthen international, regional, national and local actions against HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination, the United Nations System at all levels, and the IFRC and National Red Cross/Crescent Societies, in partnership with GNP+ and national organizations of people living with HIV/AIDS, are encouraged to collaborate in these campaigns. All concerned need to look for possible synergies within the campaigns at the national level and to coordinate the different efforts to eradicate discrimination against HIV-positive people and their families.

UNAIDS and the IFRC Secretariats have undertaken to distribute the materials from the respective campaigns to country level. For more information on this campaign, please go to www.ifrc.org/news/events/8may2002/.

A Best Practice document on the partnership between GNP+ and the IFRC and UNAIDS will be elaborated. It will describe the problems of, and barriers to, this work, as well as the successes. The aim is to inspire other organizations to follow this example of working closely with groups of people living with HIV/AIDS, and to show how such work can eradicate stigma and discrimination. The report contributes to the follow-up to UNGASS, whereby the partnership was launched in the presence of Kofi Annan and his wife. The target audience for the report is the Red Cross National Societies and National Chapters, other similar large NGOs and youth organizations.