The Road Ahead: Campaigning on Universal Access until 2010

Draft for discussion, August 2007
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Contents

Introduction
Campaigning on Key Policy Processes for Universal Access Campaigning
World Health Assembly
UNAIDS Programme Coordination Board
Global Fund Against AIDS, TB and Malaria
G8 Campaigning
Regional Policy Processes
Campaigners Information on the Official Policy Process for Universal Access
Mobilisation Opportunities and Key Events
International AIDS Memorial day
Global AIDS Week of Action
Country and regional campaigners meetings on universal access
World AIDS Day
International AIDS Conference
Sporting events
Regional AIDS Conferences
Introduction
To make universal access to treatment, prevention, care and support a reality by 2010 many new structures need to be in place. Health systems need strengthening, funds need to pour in, and international and national programmes need to speed up the pace of their efforts exponentially. For any of this to happen successfully, campaigners will need to put universal access at the centre within the public and policy agenda. No one organisation will be able to make this happen. Campaigners, activists and other AIDS organisations will have to work together strategically and systematically to bring results. For this to happen, we all need to know what is going on and how we can work together on it. This document is divided into three sections. These sections cover general policy processes, the universal access process specifically, and finally general mobilisation events.

The first section covers a number of important policy processes and meetings which will determine the success or failure of the effort to provide universal access. These include the G8 meetings, the World Health Assembly meetings, the Global Fund processes and regional AIDS coordinating mechanisms, for example the African Union. The agendas and venues for many of these big meetings and processes are already set. Campaigners and AIDS organisations have yet to organise and strategise collectively about how to best intervene to make universal access happen.

The second section examines the official universal access process, coordinated mainly by UNAIDS. This includes national efforts to set targets, developing costed national plans and reviewing progress on a regular basis. Within the official universal access process, countries convene occasionally to share updates on progress. Major meetings will take place in 2008 and 2010. Prior to these meetings on the national AIDS authorities in each country should be busy at work rolling out a programme for universal access. Often this is just a case of adapting existing national AIDS plans to make the language around universal access meaningful by 2010. Campaigners and AIDS organisations urgently need to strategise around the landmark moments relating to universal access to see what collectively can be done, and to share ideas for joint action.

Along with the international policy processes and the UNAIDS coordinated process there are a number of key mobilisation opportunities and key events which can be used to maintain the pressure for universal access. These are covered in the third section and include International AIDS Conferences, World AIDS Days, global weeks of action, and big sporting events. Campaigners and activists often only organise joint action in the weeks prior to these key events, and often in reaction to the most pressing and immediate AIDS issues. There is rarely a long term shared strategy for this campaigning. Coming together now to get a sense of what could and should happen at these key events to make universal access a reality could provide an opportunity for making sure efforts are coordinated and effective.
Without a shared vision for campaigning on universal access, efforts will remain fragmented. Even with a well organised, collaborative and dynamic civil society effort the challenges in achieving universal access are enormous. This document aims to raise a few questions about what, where and how things need to be done in order to help build consensus on action.

Campaigning on Key Policy Processes for Universal Access Campaigning

World Health Assembly

The World Health Assembly (WHA) is the supreme decision-making body of the World Health Organisation (WHO). It meets in Geneva in May each year, and is attended by delegations from 193 Member States. The main function of the WHA is to determine the policies of the WHO. Campaigners will be working each WHA to ensure that universal access on AIDS treatment, prevention, care and support is on the agenda.

Already campaigners have been corresponding with Dr Chan, Director General of WHO, and protesting about how treatment is going off the agenda. WHO lacks the resources and the technical capacity to focus on treatment scale up, according to ITPC and other groups. A strong emphasis on global targets, promoting generics and other initiatives to boost access to medicines is required. The central message currently is that WHO needs to retain the sense of urgency and focus on treatment that it had during the 3 by 5 initiative.

To campaign effectively at the WHA it is crucial that groups who have knowledge of the process share their ideas and expertise about what might work. As a first step it is important that we identify influential actors that can play a role at the WHA.

Campaigning effectively at the WHA will require an approach that helps inspire and engage the scores of health ministers and other officials that attend the event. Pushing for universal access within this setting will come up with a number of challenges. One significant challenge is the fact that some ministers of health are struggling to reconcile their own national plans and priorities with those of the international community currently pushing for universal access. Those campaigning for universal access at the WHA will clearly have to show how this demand strengthens each national framework and can be a source of national pride.

World AIDS Campaign has little experience of working with the World Health Assembly so a group that has worked within this forum documenting further lessons from their experiences could be very useful. Initial first questions include, “Who are the key civil society agencies engaging with the World Health Assembly” and “How can we develop a plan for campaigning at the World Health Assembly”.

UNAIDS Programme Coordination Board

UNAIDS, as the agency that coordinates the UN response on AIDS, is an agency many campaigners tend to work with. A good moment for doing this is at the annual UNAIDS board meeting. UNAIDS is guided by this Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) which serves as its governing body. The PCB has representatives of 22 governments from all regions of the world, the ten UNAIDS Cosponsors, and five (non-voting) non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including associations of people living with HIV. UNAIDS is the first United Nations programme to include NGOs in its governing body.
The PCB holds a regular session once a year in Geneva and in alternate years holds thematic sessions outside Geneva, as requested by the members. The last southern meeting, in Lusaka 2006, was an important forum for civil society voices on AIDS.

To campaign effectively with the PCB meetings it is important to circulate and publicise a listing of all the contacts of people on the board. Particularly useful allies will be the civil society representatives on the PCB. Analysis on what can be achieved through civil society pressure around the time of the PCB needs to be generated and shared, and networks could start sharing ideas for long term engagement with the PCB.

The process of civil society participation in the PCB has just undergone a thorough review . The findings of this review note that civil society participation in the PCB needs to be strengthened, UNAIDS needs to work more with civil society to enhance civil society involvment and that a consultative and resource facility needs to be set up to help enhance civil society relations with the PCB. It remains to be seen what will come of these review findings.

Some of these recommendations respond to the practical challenges campaigners have faced when working with UNAIDS. One of the challenges is that the organisations representing civil society on the PCB do so on a voluntary basis. There are no funds to help them share information and develop accessible analysis for their country colleagues. While each civil society board member may put in considerable effort to be open with information and to drive engagement with the PCB, these resource and capacity restraints mean that far more could be done. A strong system for sharing information across the numerous channels and websites within the civil society AIDS response needs to be developed. Organisations on the PCB could liaise with partners with e-forums, newsletters and websites to agree a quick and easy process for relaying the information as widely as possible.

The Global Fund Against AIDS, TB and Malaria

The Global Fund has sets of replenishment conferences every three years. The next meeting will be in September 2007. The current system of replenishments works by establishing regular meetings that allow donors to discuss and negotiate current funding needs for a set period. In 2005, the first year of implementation, three voluntary replenishment conferences were held in Stockholm, Rome and London. 2007 is the year of the next set of replenishment conferences. The first has already happened, in Norway in March. The next will be in Germany, September 2007. Campaigners will be drawing attention to the fact that the current budget short-fall is not covered and that the next replenishment is likely to have insufficient funds. Central to the campaigning challenge is that for the Global Fund to meet its funding goals for 2010, it will need to triple in size in the coming couple of years. No one knows how this is possible.

In 2009 there is likely to be a fair amount of campaigning activity as the Global Fund is preparing for its next round of replenishment conferences. In 2010, the Global Fund will enter into another round of replenishment conferences, and will be under intense scrutiny over its role in the successes and failures of universal access.

Campaigners need to have a solid grasp of what resources are necessary for achieving universal access. Estimates already exist, though these need to be clearly tied to the different elements of prevention, treatment, care and support and linked to costed national plans so it is clear exactly what is being fought for. The key experts in terms of independent civil society appraisal of the fund and its needs and challenges need to be identified and put into contact with campaigners. The communications team within the Global Fund need to provide their ideas about promoting the fund, so civil society can compliment their work. Knowing what documents are coming out, and related schedules, could help civil society organisations plan their mobilisation efforts.

The Global Fund has within it a communications focal point. For the last 2 years this position was filled by ICASO. Now this term is up, the position is being readvertised. Having an effect communications focal point will imperative for all our efforts, so making the right choice here is important.

Lessons from past Global Fund campaigning highlight the challenges of getting information out to countries where civil society networks are not strong. In many countries, information about the Global Fund is not shared. The annual report from the Global Fund to document its impact is produced as an international overview of what is being done. An ideal would be that this report is produced also on a national basis, with each country documenting efforts in a way that incorporates civil society input.
Another challenge with the Global Fund campaigning is that there is no one definitive website or focal point for advocacy and mobilisation specifically on the Global Fund. The Global Fund’s one site is very comprehensive, but presents the official picture, not any kind of listing of civil society information and perspectives. The reality for those wanting to campaign on the Global Fund at present is that at best the information is scattered across a large number of e-forums and websites and at worst not available at all.
What information there is on the Global Fund can often not be very easy to understand. The way the replenishment conferences work, for example, is fairly complex, and the way money is distributed over time is also complicated. Simple visual depictions of what is needed by when could help address this.

G8 Campaigning

In July 2008 the G8 summit will take place in Toyako, Hokkiado. Early signals suggest that it will be a challenge to get AIDS fully on the agenda. In 2009 Italy will take over the chair of the G8 followed by Canada in 2010.

Before AIDS campaigning starts once again in earnest in 2008, it would be well worth campaigners reviewing what has worked and what has not. Getting a shared body of information on this could guide future efforts already coming together with the early organisation of the Japanese NGO forum on AIDS. There is already a good shared understanding of the importance of joint messaging, common actions, and mobilisation at the national level, including in heavily burdened countries. Yet how to organise this work better, and how to work more effectively together is seldom discussed among those leading on such efforts.

One aim to work towards with G8 AIDS campaigning is for national campaigns to start working on developing their messaging for the G8 early, and in partnership. A concerted national and international campaign would be orchestrated for maximum effect. Ideally, each national message would relate to some shared common messaging so the G8 leaders, officials and developing country representatives hear the same message over and over again, with different local nuances. A similar approach was attempted at the 2007 German G8 summit, with civil society asks being grouped together under a few categories of demand, ranging from intellectual property rights through to strengthening health systems.
There are normally a number of southern heads of state that attend G8 meetings. These heads of state are key conduits of information from south to north. An orchestrated campaign targeting each of these heads of state could ensure, for example, that the contributions of southern delegations to the G8 resonate and enforce what global civil society is petitioning for. Working at the national capitals of the leaders in the North and the South that participate in the G8 process gives best effect.

Campaigners can benefit from early intelligence. For example we already know a little about what might happen in Toyako next year. Preceding the G8 the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) will take place around April/ May 2008 in Jokohama – which recurs every 5 years. At this conference it is expected that the Japanese Prime Minister may make a financial pledge for the Global Fund, and campaigners will be suggesting that they should.

For the G8 summits in 2009 and 2010, understanding what is going to happen in relation to other global agenda items can give campaigners a sense on how to intervene. Any climate change conferences or policy documents are likely to compete for AIDS attention at the G8, and advanced planning is necessary.

There is a new shared website for G8 AIDS campaigning but national campaigns have so far failed to share information on this site with other country efforts. And the site itself is fairly unattractive and managed with the minimum of staff capacity. Looking at how to bolster this site, or invest in new sites could be useful now.

Identifying now who would be the best allies in each of the forthcoming G8 countries: Japan, Italy and Canada would be beneficial, as well as starting early talks about how each can be supported in helping organise efforts. In Japan this is already happening. If each of these country campaigns could participate in some measure of documenting what works and what does not in the G8 campaigning efforts then the future work would be more strategic. Identifying now who would be involved in these discussions, and how they could be organised would all be useful steps if the capacity and the will to take things forward is there.

At a practical level, there is a considerable NGO lobby that attends G8 meetings. Yet this lobby is often not representative of broader civil society, and not able to relay information to and from the actual G8 meeting. In 2007 many campaigners were occasionally frustrated with the lack of information coming out of the G8 from their colleagues inside the meeting. Meanwhile those inside the meeting probably felt that the community beyond were slow in the uptake and dissemination of their breaking news. Particularly imperative is to ensure that there is a joint media and advocacy strategy on some of the key common AIDS advocacy points at the G8. If civil society all prioritise health systems reform, for example, then the media messaging around this should be orchestrated and effective, building on the various documents, petitions and other materials that each group is generating.

Identifying which organisations have the advocacy and policy capacity best placed to advise on G8 campaigning would be useful. Already there are established leaders in some key areas, for example on gender, new prevention technologies and intellectual property rights. Listing and connecting these groups could help, while finding out who can lead on some of the other broader issues would also be beneficial.

Regional Policy Processes

There are a number of Regional Policy Processes which can help determine the success of scaling up for universal access. These regional policy processes relate to bodies such as ASEAN, CARICOM, SADC and the AU. In some cases civil society manage to engage in these processes in a way that is coordinated, effective and provides an example to the wider community. An example is the way in which the African Civil Society Coalition engaged in the Abuja process of the African Union in 2007.
In that process the importance of having a few key donors interested and involved was evident. Having the money to call regional meetings allowed the coalition to grow and gain momentum throughout 2005 and 2006. Leaders with a regional vision prepared to engage in the regional policy processes were crucial. The late Omolulu Falobi played the role of a visionary leader during the coalitions early period.
Campaigners need robust documentation on each of the regional policy processes, including a listing of the meetings being held, updates on progress, and an analysis on what kinds of efforts can make a difference. Within each region the key civil society actors that work on the regional policy structures should be identified, and their advice and expertise should be shared around the region.

Campaigners Information on the Official Policy Process for Universal Access

Campaigners and activists are hard pushed to engage strategically with the UNAIDS coordinated efforts of rolling out and reviewing universal access, as the precise form of this process is little understood. If civil society does not engage with the UNGASS 2008 process then the opportunity that this mid-term review represents will probably be lost. Governments will only act if we pressurise them to do so.
It is known that formal or informal national level civil society consultations will commence in late 2007, with different groups or government agencies convening meetings to discuss progress relating to the 2001 UNGASS Declaration of Commitment. Country Reports are due to be with UNAIDS by January 2008. There will be some effort made to incorporate the feedback from civil society in these national forums, though in many cases, from past experience, only those organisations closest to government, and therefore the least critical, will be allowed to engage.

A number of international civil society agencies will be working across multiple countries to try to ensure local campaigners and activists are engaged. At present it is likely that the level of coordination between these agencies will be fairly minimal, with differing alliances and financial incentives minimising the degree to which there will be unified, civil society voices.

As of June 2007 civil society groups have agreed to listing who is doing what in relation to national processes on universal access and UNGASS 2008 review. As soon as this listing is compiled it will be on www.ua2010.org and other sites.

In September 2007 there are discussions about the possibility of a major civil society meeting to help plan and coordinate engagement in the UNGASS 2008 review. It is unclear what the plans are for this meeting, who will organise it, and who might participate. Establishing this will be crucial for civil society organisations. One of the current suggestions is that there might be a separation between the political process in New York which would debate the declaration, and the review process which could take place in some other venue. This latter process would look at a more in-depth analysis of the country information assessing national progress with universal access and could possibly give campaigners a better platform to engage in the actual review process.

Since 2006 those civil society groups working on monitoring the UNGASS declaration of commitment and campaigning around awareness-raising on Universal Access have been discussing how to organize their work for joint impact. One of the forums where this has been discussed is the cs monitoring yahoo group csmonitoring@yahoogroups.co.uk. Relatively few organisations are planning to run civil society monitoring projects at present. However, one or two organisations are planning major initiatives which could help equip civil society organisations with the information they need to hold governments to account. AIDS Accountability International is one such organisation, launching its first international findings around the end of 2007.

Early indications are that shadow reporting (civil society reports that compliment or critique governmental reports of AIDS programming processes) will not be as heavily supported by UNAIDS as it was in 2006. Rather, civil society will be encouraged to get involved in the main national level efforts for monitoring progress. UNAIDS is training civil society groups in June 2007 in order to promote this type of engagement. However, independent civil society monitoring remains important. If civil society can demonstrate where the gaps are with the universal access process by the time of the review they will be well placed to receive good media coverage around the time of the 2008 meeting.

Detailed civil society monitoring takes resources, and the experience to date suggests that more effort goes into the process than actually using the final studies to pressurise governments to act. Working in partnership with this monitoring has also proven difficult, with different methodologies and timeframes detracting from any effort to achieve joint advocacy impact. If a good number of national campaigners could agree a shared approach to a less intensive model of civil society monitoring then the outcome could be more beneficial. Using online surveys or simple questionnaires in a large number of countries, with different national focal points pushing the process and using the findings for national advocacy, while also submitting their information to an international pool could be a powerful mobilisation technique.
The official 2008 UNGASS Review will likely take place around June 2008. This review was agreed to when in 2006 heads of state declared they would “undertake comprehensive reviews in 2008 and 2011, within the annual reviews of the General Assembly, of the progress achieved in realizing the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, entitled “Global Crisis — Global Action”, adopted by the General Assembly at its twenty-sixth special session, and the present Declaration.”

The precise form of UNGASS 2008 Review meeting remains to be seen, and will also be affected by the outcomes of the civil society preparatory meeting to be held in September 2007. Collectively, activists and campaigners need to establish what will happen in New York in 2008. For example, the size and scope of the 2008 review need to be known. Pushing for a large meeting in 2008 could help civil society keep universal access on the agenda. How to exert collective pressure around the time of the review and how to organise civil society involvement is already being informally discussed amongst some groups.
The experience of campaigning for an African agenda at UNGASS 2006 offers many examples to learn by. Developing a strong regional analysis of the UNGASS process, via the African Union Abuja summit, was crucial to the efforts and successes of the African Civil Society Coalition on AIDS. Yet while this analysis was shared amongst colleagues participating in the coalition, it was a challenge to interact meaningfully with the missions. Understanding how the missions and delegations work can help.
Each county has a mission to the UN based in New York. These missions do much of the early negotiation of declarations with their counterparts from other countries that also have missions in New York. Missions from poorer countries have little capacity, and often do not have designated capacity on AIDS. Instead the small team will be dealing with a range of issues, from international security, through to climate change and health. This means many of the details and priorities in demands from campaigners are not properly understood. In the run up to a UN high level meeting, the New York missions to the UN start the process of negotiation. This continues until the national delegations arrive just a few days before the event. These national delegations then lead the negotiations. The national delegations are influential, and lobbying them before they leave their state capitals, be that in Harare, Lusaka or Delhi, can have a significant impact on what unfolds at the UN headquarters.

During 2006 it was evident that there should be civil society members within the national delegations. Being inside the political declaration room was key to the experience of civil society. Ideally, before the meetings, civil society groups should brief their missions and delegations, to ensure that as far as possible everyone is on the same page.

Beyond the issue of missions and delegations, one of the challenges is that international civil society agencies often have better access to the universal access review process, but their work can be distant from the regional and national networks best placed to mobilise at the local level. Ideas for overcoming these challenges are needed.

One suggestion that is being made by a number of civil society groups is that there should be a broad based civil society secretariat that helps support civil society participation within the UNGASS review process. This secretariat would probably employ one full time staff member and their work would be steered by some kind of a representative steering committee. The steering committee would have regional focal points that would enable a good exchange of information around the globe, ensuring civil society is well engaged and motivated around the universal access process.
Beyond 2008, the process for engaging in the universal access scale up coordinated by UNAIDS is even less clear. We know that there will be official reports from UNAIDS and possibly WHO to document progress against the 2010 goal of achieving universal access. At this point there will also be some new language to redirect efforts and attention to the longer term targets of 2015, including the millennium goal on AIDS: “to begin to reverse the spread of AIDS”.

The UNGASS 2011 review, New York, is likely to be a large event, with regional equivalents around the world. The process in the African Union, probably with a major meeting in Abuja 2010 may well be the most advanced civil society regional process within the overall 2010 reviews.

At national level, many countries will probably be compiling official national reports of progress within their national AIDS programmes in relation to the 2010 targets. Civil society groups will organise to critically engage some governments on lack of progress. A number of national and international civil society organisations will be developing 2010 independent civil society monitoring studies of progress similar to those developed in 2008, 2006 and 2005. In other instances, civil society will work closely with governments to reposition efforts towards 2015 national strategic frameworks.

Civil society groups need to collectively work out how to respond to efforts made by the UN and national governments to adapt and weaken the language of universal access. Universal access will not be achieved by 2010, but campaigners need to ensure that the 2010 date is used to maximum effect to increase pressure on all national and international agencies that committed to 2010 targets. While the tone of engagements may at times need to be confrontational in some countries or settings, ultimately campaigners need to ensure that they do not undermine allies within positions of power, and the overall response is strengthened, not weakened by campaigning efforts.

Mobilisation Opportunities and Key Events

There are a large number of mobilisation opportunities and key events in the run up to 2010. By working together now, and building strong alliances for strategic impact, the benefit taken from these opportunities can be maximised.

International AIDS Memorial Day
International AIDS Memorial Day is on the third Saturday of May each year. This is a day to remember those who have died of AIDS. A similar event is the German Night of Solidarity often the first Saturday of June. Because the G8 was in Germany in 2008 the Night of Solidarity was marked internationally. Campaigners in several European countries were mobilising to send a strong message to the G8. However, having two similar days, so close together, is probably not strategic long term. Campaigners need to work together to strengthen the International AIDS Memorial day, making this a real day of global action. One possibility is to tie the events and thinking of the Night of Solidarity into the current structure of the International AIDS Memorial day.

Global AIDS Week of Action
In May 2006 and 2007 there was the Global AIDS Week of Action. This particularly aims to put pressure on the G8 and/or on the regular UNGASS meeting. It is not yet known whether there will be a Global AIDS Week of Action in 2008, although from a campaigning perspective the Global AIDS Week of Action marks a considerable opportunity. Civil society groups need to strategise together on what dates or actions work best in order to achieve broad and intense activity. Reviewing what works and what does not in the AIDS Memorial Days and the Global AIDS Week of Action would be a useful first step. If the Global AIDS Week of Action is to be repeated in future years it should be owned by civil society broadly, with early consultation with as many groups as possible taking place.

Country and Regional Campaigners Meetings on Universal Access
In June and July 2007 three Country meetings on universal access campaigning will be facilitated by the World AIDS Campaign Support Team. At this point campaigners will be coming together in Zambia, Nigeria and Kenya to share ideas and plans for universal access campaigning. Shortly after, July 2-4, World AIDS Campaign Support Team is convening the National campaigning meeting on universal access, Nairobi, Kenya where 60-70 campaigners from around the world will be convening to promote and discuss universal access campaigning.

Also around September/October 2007 there will be a number of WAC facilitated sub-regional meetings on UA campaigning. So far these are planned for Eastern, Southern and Western Africa. These meetings will give groups an opportunity to come together from neighbouring countries and plan joint actions on universal access campaigning.

World AIDS Day
On December 2007 World AIDS Day will focus on “leadership”. As in other years, the slogan will be “Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise”. World AIDS Day promotions and coordination progressively emphasises the need for action on universal access. WAC will be particularly promoting actions were civil society groups either celebrate existing leadership or call for further leadership in the quest for universal access. A lot of information has already been circulated on World AIDS Day, see www.worldaidscampaign.org for details.

In December 2008 World AIDS Day the 2 year theme of “leadership” will be continued with mass mobilisation efforts driving home the fact that the 2010 targets will be due in just two years. There are currently plans for a number of leadership forums on AIDS in 2008, though nothing concrete enough to share at this stage.

International AIDS Conferences
August 3-8 2008 Mexico International AIDS Conference: Planning for the XVII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2008) is now underway, with planning committees organized along the three main programme areas: the Scientific Programme, the Community Programme and the Leadership Programme. The International AIDS Conference is the world’s largest and most important AIDS forum, with over 20,000 participants, including 2,500 journalists. As the first International AIDS Conference to be held in Latin America, AIDS 2008 is expected to increase awareness of the disease and its impact throughout the region. The leadership programme will be particularly interesting to campaigners – as it resonates with the current World AIDS Day theme and discussions are already taking place, in different constituencies of civil society as well as in UNAIDS, and other stakeholders, on how to maximise the opportunities for working on leadership at the conference.

At the international conference one of the key issues is for civil society to help set the agenda on a series of high profile discussions on universal access where real forward movement can occur. If the conference is to be more than just a huge trade-show on AIDS (as some say Toronto IAC 2006 was) then it must give room for the kinds of discussions and voices which determine the collective response. Mexico will be the last conference before 2010. It will be the last opportunity for a conference to make a real difference to the effort on universal access and an important moment for civil society to pre-empt any attempts by the UN, donors, or national governments to redefine universal access in a way that removes the urgency from the current efforts. Having strong leadership voices from civil society at the conference will be an important starting point.

In 2008 we can also expect increasing engagement with the principles of the 3 ones, or at least their interpretation in many national settings where they have served to alienate critical civil society voices.
The 2010 International AIDS Conference, probably in Delhi, will represent a moment for widespread reflection on successes and failures of the response so far. It will likely accommodate heated discussion between activists demanding a change in the way in which the nation and international infrastructure on AIDS is organised, and those who want to work within the existing structures and processes within a clear plan for 2015.

Sporting Events
In October 2008, the Olympics will be held in Beijing, marking an opportunity to work with sports people on the issue of AIDS leadership. As of yet there are few plans for working at the Olympics, and no joint planning has taken place. China might not be the most supportive host of vibrant campaigning efforts.
In 2010 South Africa will host the World Cup. Having this major sporting event in Africa is a historical moment – one for which the South African government is already investing much labour and cash. The 2010 World Cup will almost certainly hold numerous opportunities for concerted campaigning around AIDS, although early planning will be necessary in order to get football teams to support activities.

Regional AIDS Conferences
Every 2 years each region has an AIDS Conference. These are not all listed here as they are too numerous. At each conference there will be a greater chance of media interest and campaigners are well placed to mobilise large numbers of delegates to keep the spotlight on universal access. It would be ideal if the regional groups convening around the regional policy processes mentioned briefly earlier in the document could also convene around how to use each of these regional conferences most productively.