Why an HIV code?

Over the past 20 years, research and practice have generated an impressive body of knowledge about how to respond effectively to HIV. While learning will continue, we must use what we already know to guide the allocation of resources and develop and sustain responses of sufficient scale to affect the dynamics of the epidemic. 

This requires HIV-specific responses and the integration of HIV within broader health programming, including sexual and reproductive health. It also requires HIV to be mainstreamed within development and humanitarian programming to address the underlying causes of vulnerability to HIV infection and the complex consequences of HIV.

The proliferation of NGOs and programmes has, at times, occurred at the expense of accountability and quality programming, and has led to fragmentation of the NGO ‘voice' in the HIV response. The wealth of expertise and capacity that NGOs bring to the HIV response must be effectively tapped, resourced and coordinated in order to bring to scale the range of responses needed to have an effect on the course of the pandemic.

The purpose of the Code is to address these challenges by:

  • outlining and building wider commitment to principles and practices, informed by evidence, that underscore successful NGO responses to HIV
  • assisting NGOs to improve the quality and cohesiveness of our work and our accountability to our partners and beneficiary communities
  • fostering greater collaboration between the variety of NGOs now actively engaged in responding to the HIV pandemic, and
  • renewing the ‘voice' of NGOs responding to HIV by enabling us to commit to a shared vision of good practice in our programming and advocacy.

What the Code is not:

Given the diversity of epidemics around the world, the Code is not intended to be a detailed practice manual. This would be a far larger task, and would be extremely difficult to achieve in a manner appropriate to all the different types of epidemic. It does, however, outline the main population groups that are vulnerable in different contexts. It is envisaged that signatory NGOs will apply the Code in different ways, such as developing training modules with partner NGOs or member organisations, or using the principles it contains to develop indicators appropriate for the context in which they work, which can then be used when developing, implementing and evaluating specific programmes. The value of the Code will depend upon how these principles are applied by signatory NGOs over time, in line with the nature of each country's epidemic and context.