A New Meeting of the HIV/AIDS Civil Society Forum, held in Bruselles, between 8-9 of April
April 14th 2008
Society Forum took place during 8-9April in the capital of the European Union, Brussels.
Every time succeeds to gather a wide range of participation of the civil society representatives active in the HIV/AIDS field, the Civil Society Forum (CSF) has the role of a consultative body of the EC, namely for the Commission of Health and Consumer Protection.
The meeting's participants had been both EU countries ( Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Czech, Netherland, Belgium, France, England, Croatia, Slovenia, Portugal, Germany, Spain, Cyprus, Malta, Romania), and representatives of the NGOs from countries situated at the Union border, in the immediate neighbor area (Moldova, Morocco).
The reunion also enjoyed the presence - as observers or guests - of representatives of some international organizations reference in the HIV infection prevention and control: AIDS Action Europe, EATG, ECDC, OMS, UNAIDS, SANCO, etc.They had a significant contribution to the optimal development of the work papers by their sustained presentations and expertise in developing adequate programs.
As usual, the work agenda included interesting topics and of high interest rank: evaluation of the Dublin Declaration's implementation status, the health programs financed by EC, elaborating the Action Plan for CSF, financing the HIV/AIDS programs, especially of the Eastern Europe NGOs, the epidemiological situation for the C hepatitis, intervention priorities and the action areas for the present countries, presentations that targeted the UNGASS indicators and the ones used by ECDC.
The discussions over the proposed topics - moderated by the representatives of AIDS Action Europe and EATG - got down some important conclusions also for the Romanian civil society, active in the HIV/AIDS:
- EC will continue to finance health projects and programs, including those for HIV/AIDS. Thus, the conditions, applications forms and also the funds allocated for these programs can be accesses and consulted on http://health.europa.eu; http://ec.europa.eu/health; http://ec.europa.eu/phea;
- A comprehensive study, that approaches the incidence of the C hepatitis among the general population, especially among the persons who belong to vulnerable groups in Europe, it is already available on www.harm-reduction.org. Romania is among the few countries that have national programs/ strategies to approach this infection, its incidence places our country among the countries medium affected by the disease. Moreover, on May 12th will be celebrated in the whole world the World Hepatitis C Day, and with this occasion this topic will be introduces on the discussions agenda of both the governmental factors and the civil society ones from the affected countries, in order to intensify the control and prevention measures;
- The countries from the East Europe are facing difficulties in ensuring the sustainability and the continuity of the activities and projects initiated and developed with the Global Fund's financial support, as it is necessary to develop some strategies of overtaking, integration and financing these programs;
- Will be continued and varied the steps necessary for the future countries that are to be in the role of the EU President, namely Czech, Poland, Sweden, France to also have on the agenda of priorities the HIV/AIDS programs and also the interventions connected to these;
- Ensuring the non discriminatory access to the services of prevention, treatment and support for the people who migrate, continue to represent a constant preoccupation of CSF, as there had been discussed the progress registered in applying the provisions of the meeting on this topic, even from June 2007, in Lisbon.
At the end of the working groups, there had been established the EC priorities that will be included and debated during the following CSF working meeting:
- Insurance of the universal access for the people from some vulnerable groups;
- Facilitation of the communication between the civil society HIV/AIDS representatives and the structures and decision makers from EU;
- Strengthening the capacity building of an NGO from Eastern Europe in order to carry out HIV/AIDS programs;
- Human rights strengthening and defense in the HIV/AIDS context.
The work group that will collaborate for elaborating the materials and the report on the measures necessary for the increase and strengthen the capacity building of the Eastern Europe NGOs has as member Dr. Mihaela Stefanescu, as a representative of Romanian Angel Appeal Foundation.
The full report of this meeting will soon be available on: http://www.aidsactioneurope.org/index.php?id=202&L=%22%20onfocus%3D%22blurLink%28this%29%3B#c1366;
