Tag: EU Civil Society Forum on HIV/AIDS

Webinar on data

Posted on by Milutin

The Drug Policy Network South Wast Europe hosted a webinar to present the recently published data related to harm reduction and HIV/AIDS in South East Europe on 26 November 2024. Besides presenting the data, it was an opportunity to discuss ways in which data should be more reliable and how to integrate data collected by civil society organisations in govrenmental reporting.

Following the welcome address by Nebojša Đurasović, DPNSEE President, we had excellent presentations:

  • Global State of Harm Reduction report – presented by Colleen Daniels, Deputy Director and Public Health Lead, Harm Reduction International (2024 available here>>>)
  • Harm Reduction in South East Europe – Marios Atzemis, DPNSEE Board member (available here>>>)
  • Civil Society Monitoring of Harm Reduction in Europe – Iga Jeziorska, Senior Research Officer, Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (available here>>>)
  • HIV/AIDS surveillance data for South East Europe (data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control – ECDC) – Milutin Milošević, Executive Director, DPNSEE (available here>>>)

In addition, DPNSEE had sent data by countries and territories to its member organisations and governmental institutions. You can also download them here:

Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Greece Kosovo*

Montenegro North Macedonia Romania Serbia Slovenia Turkey

DPNSEE informed that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control – ECDC will publish the HIV/AIDS surveillance in Europe 2024 (2023 data) report on 28 November at https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/. DPNSEE will process the new data and prepare new visuals in early 2025.

EU Civil Society Forum on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis criticizes European Commission’s reflection paper

Posted on by Milutin

The EU Civil Society Forum on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and viral hepatitis issued a statement in response to European Commission’s reflection paper Towards a Sustainable Europe by 2030.

The Forum states that the paper is arguably far too little, too late to live up to the expectations on Sustainable Development Goal 3 to ensure healthy lives and promote the wellbeing for all at all ages. This is even more so when it comes to stigmatized and marginalized communities who continue to be disproportionally affected by HIV/AIDS, TB and viral hepatitis epidemics. By now we have the knowledge, the tools and the experience to make these epidemics history and to ensure that no-one is left behind. However, political leadership is lacking or waning.

To be a trailblazer and reap the significant medium to long-term human and financial gains that elimination of these epidemics entails, the EU Civil Society Forum on HIV/AIDS thinks that the EU needs to:

  • Increase its focus on social dimensions of sustainable development to ensure a reduction in social inequalities, sustainable and fairer health systems and improving health outcomes for all.
  • Adopt an ambitious agenda, implement a strong and budgeted action plan that is aligned with SDGs commitment and targets.
  • Develop a plan that is coordinated with member states and monitored via a sound indicator set aligned with the goal of elimination. This would allow a more accurate interpretation of the desired direction for EU action.
  • The EC could consider data collected by The European Union agency aimed at strengthening Europe’s defences against infectious diseases (ECDC) to provide a proper assessment of performance (e.g. infection rates, treatment coverage, prevention budget, regulatory frameworks). It could integrate ECDC and WHO reporting.
  • Improve coherence between EU policies and actions.
  • Collaborate with third countries to catch up.

To read full statement follow this link>>>>