In addition to providing HIV services for more than 4,000 people, Burundi-based NGO HUMURE has supported people with psycho-social and legal assistance who were arrested while conducting HIV education. A partner of HUMURE, MOLI works with communities across Central and East Africa to accelerate change, including community-led and managed efforts to prevent and respond to rights violations based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.

In Tajikistan and across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, UNDP and the Global Fund have been supporting the roll out of the REACT system.

“The REACT project is precisely aimed at human rights protection,” says Farishtamoh Gulova, the coordinator of REACT. “Initiated four years ago, it focuses on addressing human rights violations, especially among target groups such as people who use drugs, people living with HIV and sex workers.”

In 2022 alone, the community-led system documented 810 rights violations, with more than half of these cases involving violations against individuals living with HIV. This type of monitoring is critical to provide immediate support to individuals, as well as to advocate for structural change in healthcare and police settings.

In Sudan, community-led efforts have been critical in supporting life-saving treatment for people living with HIV since violence erupted in April 2023. UNDP worked closely with the Sudanese People Living with HIV Care Association networks across Sudan’s 18 states to track people on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and ensure they had access to treatment. UNDP also helped map all functional health centres offering HIV services and assess their antiretroviral (ARV) drug stock across the country, delivering two emergency procurements of HIV medicines and testing kits. Supporting more than 75 percent of people living with HIV to access ARVs during crisis would not have been possible without the leadership of communities.

Removing barriers to community leadership, such as limited funding and punitive and discriminatory laws, can further strengthen the HIV response.

Globally, about one in eight people who inject drugs have HIV. In Zimbabwe, criminalization of drug use discourages them from accessing HIV services while creating legal barriers to programmes that could prevent HIV transmission. Though parliamentarians’ views have shifted to more rights-affirming interventions, criminalization and access to HIV services remain challenges.

Embedded in the grants is a commitment to support the next generation of community leaders and reflect the intersectional realities of marginalized people. The Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce in South Africa aims to establish a community-led advice office, which will provide legal advice to sex workers, LGBTI+ people, homeless people and migrants. Philippine Anti-Discrimination Alliance of Youth Leaders (PANTAY) is working to support youth leaders and advance HIV prevention for young transgender people and men who have sex with men in the Philippines, where nearly half of all new HIV infections are among young people.