The Principles of Effective HIV Prevention

access to high-quality primary health care, TB management, sexual and reproductive
health services, especially sexually transmitted infection management and prevention
of mother-to-child transmission;
access to alcohol and drug-related harm reduction programmes, including sterile
needles/syringes and opiate-substitution therapy; and,
integration of HIV services with all relevant welfare services, including social support
mechanisms for sex workers and their families.
Effective delivery of these essential services requires coordinated action by a range of
actors operating at different levels. Convening and facilitating collaboration among the
government and civil society partners to ensure the delivery of this coordinated action
is the responsibility of national authorities. The UN system should promote and support
the planning and delivery of this essential combination of actions on the scale required to
achieve universal access।
The Principles of Effective HIV Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support
The 2005 UNAIDS policy position paper on Intensifying HIV Prevention34 provides a
global framework to help guide all HIV prevention efforts and is reflected in UNAIDS’
response to HIV and sex work.35
The UNAIDS prevention framework is based on the following principles.
All HIV prevention, treatment, care and support efforts/programmes must have
as their fundamental basis the promotion, protection and respect of human rights
including gender equality.
HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programmes must be differentiated
and locally adapted to the relevant epidemiological, economic, social and cultural
contexts in which they are implemented.
HIV prevention, treatment, care and support actions must be evidence-informed,
based on what is known and proven to be effective and investment to expand the
evidence base should be strengthened.
HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programmes must be comprehensive
in scope, using the full range of policy and programmatic interventions known
to be effective.
HIV prevention is for life; therefore, both delivery of existing interventions as
well as research and development of new technologies require a long-term and
sustained effort, recognizing that results will only be seen over the longer-term
and need to be maintained.
HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programming must be at a coverage,
scale and intensity that is enough to make a critical difference.
Community participation of those for whom HIV prevention, treatment, care and
support programmes are planned is critical for their impact.