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HIV / AIDS

 


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Overview

Globally there are 34 million people living with HIV. While new HIV infections have declined by 20 percent between 2001 and 2011, the HIV epidemic continues to outpace the response. In 2011, 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV and 1.7 million people died from AIDS-related causes.

In Jamaica, HIV is an issue of national significance. The prevalence of HIV in the country has steadily increased, in 2009, it  was estimated that about 32,000 people were reported infected with the virus with a 1.7 % prevalence rate among adults aged 15 to 49; while about 1,200 had died from AIDS. Even so, HIV infection and AIDS cases are considerably underreported, and the magnitude of the epidemic is not known with any precision.


HIV/AIDS remains one of the main causes of mortality in the Caribbean; it is the leading cause of death among persons from 20-59 years.

Our Goals

UNDP collaborates with UNAIDS and the United Nations Country Team to support integration of HIV priorities into national planning and implementation processes; strengthen governance and coordination of HIV responses; promote human rights and gender equality; and respond to HIV in at risk populations. More>
Our overall goal is to assist the development, implementation and evaluation of evidence-based policies and programmes aimed at reducing the impact of HIV in Jamaica.

Our Initiatives

UNDP is contributing to the development of a supportive and enabling national policy framework to reduce the impact of HIV and AIDS. We collaborate with United Nations partners including UNAIDS, UNFPA and UNICEF to design programmes that assess the impact of HIV and AIDS and increase awareness among vulnerable groups, especially young women and men, as well as among community, political and institutional leaders.

In particular, UNDP seeks to support the generation of baseline data at the household level on the impact of the epidemic including household surveys on factors that increase or reduce vulnerability to HIV, changes in socio-economic status and quality of life  among persons with HIV, household health expenditure surveys and the impact on children affected by HIV.

More information on:

UNDP global site/HIV/AIDS

Watch UNDP's response to HIV