Pakistan

Key Results

22 cities implemented community-led HIV prevention outreach programmes targeting men who have sex with men, transgender populations, and female sex workers.
Increased federal and provincial budget allocation of US$ 2.83 million for HIV response.
Number of HIV treatment sites increased from 51 in 2021 to 70 in 2022.

Joint Programme Results

The Joint Team in Pakistan in 2022 focused their country support on expanded access to community-led HIV services, creation of an enabling legal environment, and increased and optimized domestic and external resources for HIV.

In collaboration with key stakeholders including the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination and the Common Management Unit, the Joint Team drafted the HIV Legislation (Act) for the Islamabad Capital Territory, seeking to create enabling legal environment to expand HIV services, promote health seeking behaviours, and establish a regulatory framework to redress discrimination and inequities within the health sector (UNDP, UNAIDS Secretariat).

Thanks to technical and financial assistance mobilized through the Joint Team, there is now stronger community-led programming to address harmful social norms for communities living with and at risk of HIV and scale up service delivery, community-led monitoring, and active community engagement in policy change and decision-making processes such as the Inter-Provincial Coordination Mechanism and the Global Fund mechanisms. Networks of key populations and people living with HIV play an increasingly critical role as peer educators and community supporters with the support of the Joint Team. By end of 2022, a total of 22 cities implemented community-led HIV prevention outreach programmes in 54 sites, targeting men who have sex with men, transgender populations, and female sex workers (UNDP, UNAIDS Secretariat).

Strong advocacy and technical assistance by the Joint Team resulted in increased federal and provincial budget allocations for the HIV response—US$ 2.83 million from July 2022 to June 2023). Coupled with donor funding, it enabled the Government to increase the number of HIV treatment sites from 51 in 2021 to 70 in 2022 that helped reduce some of the persisting long-term service gaps (UNAIDS Secretariat).

The Government, with technical support from the Joint Team, implemented the Primary Health Care (PHC) for Universal Health Coverage to ensure equitable and people-centred health services with better integration of HIV services and attention to the needs of key and priority populations (UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO, UNAIDS Secretariat). The Joint Team also played a critical role in ensuring the strategical inclusion of HIV and the needs of vulnerable and key populations in the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2023–2027, aiming to advance three outcomes of Basic Services, Gender Equality and empowerment of women and Governance (UNAIDS Secretariat).