The National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2012 – 2016 is guided by evidence from various reports, including the Know Your Epidemic (KYE) report and other epidemiological studies which identify key populations that are most likely to be affected by HIV and/or TB. These include young women between 15 and 24 years, mobile men and migrant populations, sex workers and their clients, people who abuse alcohol and illegal substances, incarcerated persons, men who have sex with men and trans-gendered individuals.
At the South African AIDS Conference held in Durban recently, SANAC hosted a pre-conference session on key populations to discuss challenges particular to these groups. Over 200 delegates participated and stimulated thought-provoking discussions. The objectives of the meeting were to increase awareness activities related to key populations, share experiences, best practices, information, tools and technical resources relating to key populations, advocate for scaling-up of research, policy and programme activities, increase linkages between government, civil society, technical agencies and key populations, and build the capacity of stakeholders to implement programmes for key populations.
The meeting succeeded in raising awareness and highlighted gaps in programming and strategies to improve performance measurement and HIV surveillance among key populations.
SANAC CEO Dr Fareed Abdullah cautioned against talk without action: “There is a danger of talking about implementation. While South Africa is excellent at making plans, implementation is always a challenge. This will be the focus of SANAC’s involvement with key populations, to ensure that the NSP targets relating to key populations are met.”
According to Dr Catherine Sozi of UNAIDS a shift from talking to doing is crucial: “HIV continues to have a disproportionate impact on sex workers, men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs and other key populations. UNAIDS suggests using the investment approach that offers a realistic, achievable road map to decisively accelerate progress in the global HIV response, with particular focus on key populations.”