baseline assessment

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has recently published the “Baseline Assessment 2021 - Mapping UNODC activities: Law Enforcement (LE) and CSO partnership in HIV response”. This assessment represents the mapping and evaluation of existing UNODC programmes that target LE to increase the trust and understanding of the partnership benefits between LE, CSO and public health sectors.

In endorsing universal access to healthcare as a Sustainable Development Goal, the UN committed to a “leaving no one behind” approach. To achieve this in the global HIV response, countries need to prioritize reaching the key populations (KPs) - men who have sex with men (MSM), sex workers (SW), people who use drugs (PWUD), transgender people (TG), and people in prison and other closed settings, and effectively address the needs and barriers that stand on the progress path.

The success of any National HIV/AIDS programme is highly dependent on the strength of multi-sectoral partnerships and consistent collaboration between all relevant agencies - especially between the Law Enforcement (LE) officials, health sector, social services, and non-government agencies. Functional and meaningful partnerships between these agencies are an essential step towards creating an enabling environment for providing critical services that prevent, treat, care HIV and support people vulnerable to HIV and other infections.

There is increasing global recognition of the vital role that law enforcement (LE) officials have in protecting and promoting individual and public health, especially the health of diverse and vulnerable communities. The nature of their role in upholding law and order, protecting communities, and human rights brings them in frequent contact with KPs. It makes them better informed and equipped to exploit the unique opportunities presented by their work to reach these populations and refer them to HIV-related services. LE agencies and officials at all levels represent essential and meaningful partners in national and global HIV response.

From 2013, UNODC has consistently maintained its focus on establishing and nurturing the partnership with relevant national stakeholders, specifically Law Enforcement, through technical assistance and capacity building activities which aimed to enhance further the cooperation and collaboration between LE, health sectors, and CSOs in effectively responding to the challenges posed by HIV.

UNODC is creating and sustaining opportunities to engage the enforcement sector in the global AIDS response and sensitise them and their practices to ensure that they support rather than impede the HIV response. In the context of preparing the new UNAIDS and UNODC strategies, UNODC organized Focus Group Discussion where inputs from the Justice and Law Enforcement sector on how to ensure their meaningful participation in country-led AIDS responses were discussed and included in the new strategies.

UNODC has developed tools such as The Training Manual for LE officers on HIV prevention services among PWID and The practical guide to provide CSOs with insights on how best to engage law enforcement in the public health response. Moreover, UNODC is actively engaged in capacity building activities in 23 High Priority Countries (HPC) and globally which introduce topics such as: workplace safety and security for LE, code of conduct, HIV/Harm Reduction service provision, referral schemes to HIV services (Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine). We have trained over 5000 law enforcement officials, more than 1500 civil society partners, over 400 parliamentarians, health, education and social sectors. Moreover, UNODC is supporting the integration of the relevant role of HIV/Harm reduction service provision/safety/code of conduct/role of LEA/referral services into the existing police academies/university curriculums in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

Full report: here

[Russian version]