- Author
- UNAIDS - Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; AHRN - Asian Harm Reduction Network
- Title
- The Asian Harm Reduction Network: Supporting Responses to HIV and Injecting Drug Use in Asia
- In
- UNAIDS Best Practice Collection - Case Study
- Description of Work
- UNAIDS/01.28E
- Imprint
- UNAIDS - Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Geneva, May 2001, 48 pp
- ISBN/ISSN
- 92 9173 072 6
- Description
Reproduced with the kind permission of UNAIDS.
- Abstract
By early 2000, the number of people living with HIV was estimated to be 34.3 million worldwide, with injecting drug use proving to be a major accelerant of HIV infection in many countries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), injecting drug use is facilitating the spread of HIV in 114 countries, many of them in less developed parts of Asia, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe. Drug use and HIV/AIDS are complex problems having political, social, economic, and cultural determinants. Experience shows that no single agency is in a position to provide effective and comprehensive responses to all these issues; as a consequence, new forms of organizational structures had to be developed to initiate and implement comprehensive and large-scale approaches. Over the past few years, technical resource networks have been found to be successful in doing that. The Asian Harm Reduction Network is such a technical resource network. Supported by UNAIDS and other agencies, it has become an important mechanism for promoting pragmatic
approaches to the prevention of drug use and HIV/AIDS in Asia. The purpose of this case study is to examine those factors that made it necessary to establish this network and why a network, not a traditional nongovernmental organization, was necessary. The study provides information on how the network was conceptualized and on its major activities during its first four years of operation. An assessment of the impact of its activities is provided, and future challenges are outlined. In the final sections, the benefits of harm- reduction networks are discussed in general terms, and the lessons learned in creating and maintaining the network are described."