Advocacy partnerships

UNAIDS is a leader in advocacy in a number of ways: through its staff working at national, regional and global levels; through its support to advocacy based initiatives, including campaigns; and through Advocacy Partnerships, whereby UNAIDS supports civil society efforts to be stronger advocates.

Advocacy has led to significant progress in the AIDS response. There is more political commitment and leadership on AIDS than ever before. International and domestic funding for AIDS has grown from 'millions' to 'billions' in the last decade. And HIV prevention and treatment programmes are growing in size and scale and showing results.

A number of advocacy partnerships are central to UNAIDS’ work.

There are 16 international celebrities from the world of arts, science, literature, entertainment, sport and other fields of public life who are serve as UNAIDS Special Representatives. They work voluntarily to raise awareness on AIDS issues in all regions of the world. There are also Special Envoys on AIDS in the regions, appointed by the UN Secretary General.

UNAIDS also has key partnerships with the World AIDS Campaign – founded by UNAIDS and now an independent NGO, with international trade unions through Global Unions and with parliamentarians through the International Parliamentary Union.