News summary
On November 24-28, 2014, the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) held a joint workshop training, titled Community Involvement in Access to Affordable HIV Treatment: Focus on the Influence of Intellectual Property & Free Trade Agreements, at the Aviator Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The four day training aimed to equip human rights and treatment activist leaders with skills, tools, resources and opportunities to influence decisions-makers in their countries to increase access to optimal treatment for HIV and co-infections with an emphasis on intellectual property and trade intervention using a human rights framework.
The workshop’s 14 participants, who came from across the African region, reviewed the basics of HIV and HIV treatment, discussed human rights and intellectual property as they relate to access to HIV treatment, and developed advocacy plans for country access to affordable HIV treatment. Training sessions were developed and adapted from ITPC’s Advocacy for Community Treatment (ACT) Toolkit.
Following the workshop, ITPC and ARASA issued a closed request for proposals to the participants. The available grants will support country-level advocacy for increased community access to affordable optimal HIV treatment. The proposed work will take place over a 10-month period beginning in March 2015.
This training and the subsequent advocacy activities are part of a larger effort to increase HIV treatment access supported by the Robert Carr civil society Networks Fund.
ITPC and ARASA look forward to sharing further updates in the new year.
For more information on the ACT Toolkit, click here.