A partners’ meeting of UNDP/Global Fund HIV Project on March 23, 2012 gathered together representatives of governmental, non-governmental and international organizations, involved in the area of HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. The meeting was devoted to sharing the results of joint activities in the area of HIV response and discussing plans of future collaboration.

The UNDP/GF Project aims to prevent the spread of HIV into the general population by reducing its impact on at most vulnerable populations and to strengthen health systems and national capacity for universal access to HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care in Uzbekistan. Supporting expansion of access to antiretroviral treatment (ARVT) in order to achieve universal access of people, living with HIV is one of the priority directions of the Project. The Project efforts have been facilitated by the government of Uzbekistan that strives to fulfill the obligations under the international agreements, such as Declaration on Universal access, Dublin declaration and etc. Under the made commitments, the number of people, receiving ARVT is planned to reach 6000 people by the end of 2012. Moreover, according to the national clinical protocols on universal access to ARVT, based on recommendations of the World Health Organization, the overall number of people, who will need access to ARV treatment, will make 8000 people by the end of 2013.

Taking into account the budget constraints under the GF project to fill the needs for the ARV for 2013, Government provides leadership in mobilizing the resources from other donor agencies, aiming at ensuring its better use and better coordination of efforts. Moreover, the Project has started looking into the other components of the project that can be restructured and benefited from the funds available under other projects, financed by different donors with the aim to ensure efficacy of available resources. Therefore, willingness of MSF-Holland to join efforts by contributing to provision of ARVT to 330 patients and provision of psycho-social support to PLHIV, expressed by Dr. Andreas Brunder, Head of MSF in Uzbekistan was welcomed and stirred particular interest among meeting participants.

Furthermore, during the meeting project sub-recipients - the Republican AIDS Center, UNICEF, NGOs shared their results and achievements in 2011. As was noted, in spite of significant time limitation for project implementation in 2011, almost all set targets were achieved, while some results exceeded planned indicators. Dr. Zakir Kadirov, Project Manager highlighted these achievements by informing that the Global Fund HIV project in Uzbekistan preliminarily rated A1 by the GF. This achievement not only demonstrates appreciation of project results, but also opens up opportunities for Uzbekistan for future financing of such programs.

The dialogue enabled participants to share ideas and concerns, establish new partnerships and this approach was recognized by participants as fruitful for continues collaboration which will open up opportunities of further scaling up HIV response and ensuring universal access to antiretroviral treatment in the country.