HIV/AIDS Civil Society Forum XXI in LuxembourgOn July 6-7 the HIV/AIDS Civil Society Forum held its 21st meeting. Besides the fixed agenda points, such as reporting of CSF activities and updates from the European Commission and the agencies, the meeting´s agenda focused on Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and the use of gay dating apps for prevention among MSM; prevention among youth; gender and women issues; the role of self-testing in reaching the 90-90-90 targets (90% diagnosed), and an update on Quality Action. The forum also discussed the findings of the START study, which raised the issue of affordability again.

A small task force was also set up during the meeting to prepare joint civil society action and input into the UNGASS 2016 meeting, the leadership of the CSF will closely work together with the Civil Society Forum on Drugs to make sure that Europe has a strong voice during the UNGASS meeting and that a strong position on decriminalization of drug use and scale up of harm reduction services will be delivered.

Also the CSF discussed the possible ways of how to make sure that there is a policy framework from the European Commission in place after the present action plan have expired. A future policy framework is crucial for keeping HIV/AIDS on the agenda of the EC and its member states and for having sustainable funding for programs in the field.

The full report and an executive summary of the meeting will be shortly available on AIDS Action Europe´s website.