WHO, IAPAC Sign MOU Focused on                      Achieving Health-Related SDGs, ‘Health for All’

Geneva, SWITZERLAND (26 April 2023) – World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Dr. José M. Zuniga, President/CEO of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that provides a framework for collaboration between the two institutions to advance mutual HIV and other health objectives.

“We are honored to sign this Memorandum of Understanding with WHO, through which we will engage in collaborative endeavors to achieve the health-related SDGs, but notably SDG 3.3, as well as WHO’s broader ‘Health for All’ objectives,” said Dr. Zuniga, who also serves as President/CEO of the Fast-Track Cities Institute. “We aim to marshal our 30,000 clinician-members and leverage the 500+ Fast-Track Cities network as we strive towards realizing the fundamental right of every human being to the highest attainable standard of health.”

“We are thrilled to announce our partnership with IAPAC in support of WHO’s mission to end the epidemics of HIV, viral hepatitis, and STIs by 2030,” said Dr. Meg Doherty, Director of WHO’s Department of HIV, Hepatitis, and STI Programmes. “Our collaboration will strengthen technical expertise and strategic efforts to disseminate the latest guidelines to healthcare workers, while providing opportunities to amplify our new global health sector strategies across the three levels of WHO. Together, we can make a real impact in ending these epidemics.”

The Memorandum of Understanding includes areas of collaborative focus across three core pillars:

  • Global Health Agenda. Supporting WHO strategic objectives in furtherance of the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, including by identifying, addressing, and monitoring programmatic and structural barriers across the HIV treatment and prevention continua and promoting innovative approaches to optimize testing, linkage to care (including primary prevention), antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation, ART adherence, and retention (and engagement/re-engagement) in care to support viral suppression and U=U (undetectable equals untransmittable).
  • Normative Guidance/Strategic Information Dissemination. Promoting dissemination of WHO’s global normative guidance on HIV, hepatitis (HBV and HCV), and tuberculosis (TB) and its implementation through knowledge dissemination to clinicians and community health providers, as well as providing strategic information to WHO by monitoring WHO policy uptake at urban (and national level in countries with a critical mass of Fast-Track Cities).
  • Health Resiliency. Supporting WHO in relation to health systems resilience, pandemic and other public health emergency preparedness and responses, and monitoring and addressing disruptions in health services access and utilization, notably for HIV, hepatitis (HBV and HCV), and TB.

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About the World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) is an international intergovernmental Organization and Specialized Agency of the United Nations and the directing and coordinating authority on international health, and provides leadership on global health matters, shapes the health research agenda, sets health norms and standards, articulates evidence-based policy options, provides technical support to countries, and monitors and assesses health trends. For more information about WHO, please visit: https://www.who.int/

About the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care

Representing 30,000 members, the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC) is the largest association of clinicians and allied health professionals working to end the epidemics of HIV and tuberculosis (TB), as well as eliminate HBV and HCV, by 2030. IAPAC is also a core technical partner to the Fast-Track Cities network and the Secretariat for its Fast-Track Cities Institute. For more information about IAPAC, please visit: https://www.iapac.org/

About the Fast-Track Cities Institute

The Fast-Track Institute (FTCI) was created to support cities and municipalities worldwide in their efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.3 (ending the epidemics of HIV and TB), the World Health Organization goal of eliminating HBV and HCV, and SDG 11 (making cities and municipalities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable). For information about FTCI, please visit: https://www.ftcinstitute.org/

About Fast-Track Cities

Fast-Track Cities is a global network of more than 500 cities and municipalities striving to end urban HIV epidemics by getting to zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS-related deaths, and zero HIV-related stigma. Launched on World AIDS Day 2014, the partnership also advances efforts to end tuberculosis (TB) epidemics and eliminate viral hepatitis (HBV and HCV) in urban settings. The initiative is supported by four core partners: IAPAC, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), and the City of Paris. For more information about the Fast-Track Cities initiative, please visit: https://www.iapac.org/fast-track-cities