HIV and AIDS in Europe and CIS

UNDP partners with countries to make national responses to HIV more effective.

According to the 2010 UNAIDS Report on the global AIDS epidemic, the number of people living with HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia has almost tripled since 2000 and reached an estimated total of 1.4 million in 2009 compared with 760,000 in 2001.

A rapid rise in HIV infections among people who inject drugs at the turn of the century caused the epidemic in this region to surge.

Overall, prevalence is one percent or higher in two countries in the region – the Russian Federation and Ukraine, which together account for almost 90 percent of newly reported HIV diagnoses.

At 1.1 percent, the adult HIV prevalence in Ukraine is higher than in any other country in all of Europe and Central Asia. Annual HIV diagnoses in Ukraine has more than doubled since 1991.

The HIV epidemic in the Russian Federation also continues to grow, but at a slower pace than in the late 1990s. Newly reported HIV cases have increased in several of the countries in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, which has the largest epidemic in Central Asia.   

AIDS-related deaths continue to rise in the region. There were an estimated 76,000 AIDS-related deaths in 2009 compared with 18,000 in 2001, a four-fold increase during this period.

As a member of the United Nation Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), UNDP plays a leading role in HIV/AIDS as it relates to the Millennium Development Goals and development planning, governance, human rights, gender and sexual diversity.

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and development planning

UNDP works with national partners to integrate AIDS responses into poverty reduction strategies, Millennium Development Goals national development plans, United Nations assistance, and macroeconomic processes.

>> Armenia and Tajikistan integrated AIDS responses in their poverty reduction process and strategy with support from a joint initiative of the UNAIDS, the World Bank and UNDP.

Governance of the AIDS response

UNDP works with national partners, helping to strengthen national capacities for inclusive governance and coordination of AIDS responses. This includes promoting participation of civil society and people living with HIV in decision-making processes and delivery of services.

>> Based on a capacity assessment in six countries (Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Moldova) identifying gaps and needs of the national HIV responses, UNDP helped to develop short and medium term recommendations to address these issues.

Law, human rights, gender and sexual diversity

Women in Central Asia

UNDP works to ensure that policies and programmes are implemented to protect the rights of populations at higher risk and people living with and affected by HIV. This also includes understanding and addressing vulnerabilities related to gender and sexual diversity.  

>> A regional vulnerability study in seven  countries (Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Turkey, The Russian Federation, Ukraine and Uzbekistan strengthened local-level research capacities and resulted in a Regional Human Development Report on AIDS in Eastern Europe and the CIS – The Human Cost of Social Exclusion

>> A regional meeting on HIV, men who have sex with men and transgender people in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region held in Kyiv, Ukraine,helped to create strategic partnerships between governments and civil society, share innovative and rights-based strategies on HIV prevention, care and support, and identify resource mobilization opportunities to scale up responses for these vulnerable populations.

Public health and development partnerships

UNDP works to strengthen the capacities of national partners to implement AIDS funds and programmes financed through multilateral funding initiatives, including the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

>> As Principal Recipientof last resort in Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan (and soon to be in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan), UNDP is implementing HIV prevention, treatment and care, and tuberculosis programmes. At the same time, UNDP works with national partners to take over implementation.

>> In Belarus, through UNDP’s partnership with the Global Fund to Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNDP has worked with nearly 100 organizations on an HIV programme focusing on sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), injecting drug users, and prisoners.