Key Recommendations

The ingredients for success in the fight against HIV/AIDS include comprehensive national-level plans; an enabling social and political environment; adequate financial resources; a focus on behavior change; improved access to education and to health information and services; and the active participation of civil society actors.

Condoms For All

Male and female condoms should be available to everyone who needs them when and wherever they want them. If cigarettes can get to the remotest corners of the Earth, so can condoms. AIDS is everywhere and the means for protection from HIV infection must also be there.

• Reproductive health and HIV/AIDS programs must promote the complete “ABCs” of prevention and not just parts: abstinence, being faithful to one’s partner (or limiting the number of one’s partners), and condom use by the sexually active at risk of infection.
• Countries must have the capacity to finance, procure and deliver condoms to those who use them, which means having the necessary logistics and supply systems in place — or access to such systems.

Condoms are a simple, inexpensive technology that can save lives.

Money Matters

• More money, effectively used, is key to making AIDS prevention programs — including condom promotion and distribution — work.
• Better coordination — among donor nations, foundations, developing country governments, and the private sector — is needed to ensure that countries and communities in need do not fall through the cracks, and that donor efforts complement, rather than contradict, the efforts of others.
• Financial resources must be targeted to groups in greatest need, which implies a need for honesty in identifying and targeting high-risk populations, without regard to cultural taboos and stigmas.
• South-to-South transfer of information and technical expertise is crucial to making condoms affordable, accessible, and attractive to potential users.
• AIDS prevention should be integrated into existing health services, especially family planning, just as it should be integrated into other sectors.
• Partnerships between the private commercial sector and non-profit organizations (NGOs) should be encouraged, along with market segmentation. Wealthier people can afford to pay more for health services, including condoms — and will have to in order for poor and marginalized communities to be served.
• Continued and increasing support for research on both a cure for AIDS and other means to prevent its spread — a vaccine and microbicides — should be priorities.

Political Commitment Counts

Unwavering commitment to preventing HIV, at the highest levels of government and society, has been key in countries such as Thailand, Uganda and Senegal that have had success against the spread of HIV/AIDS.

• The commitment to lead must come from all sectors of society including political, religious, business, special interest, community, academic leaders and, especially young people.
• Leaders at all levels of society must be willing to challenge cultural barriers, stigmas, and other societal norms that discourage condom use.
• Advocates have a special responsibility to give political and other leaders the support and tools they need to speak out and lead on the issue, and must hold them accountable for their success or failure.

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