In 2001 member States to United Nations adopted the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS obligating themselves to report every two years on their progress to UNAIDS that also prepares a regular report based on the reports submitted by the countries. Three rounds of UNGASS Reporting have since taken place in 2004, 2006 and 2008. The next round due to 2010 is a key date, since deadlines to achieve goals stated in the Declaration are to expire by the end of this year. Activists and NGOs role is to advocate for countries to fulfill their commitments under the UNGASS-AIDS Declaration of Commitment, and to improve their response to the epidemics and work on prevention, access to treatment and care and the mitigation of stigma and discrimination.

Civil society can work in cooperation with governments to make sure their governments report the actual situation of HIV/AIDS in the country. Civil society can also send their own shadow reports to UNAIDS telling their perspective on the situation of the country. That’s one of the main goals of the project “Monitoring UNGASS-AIDS goals on Sexual and Reproductive Health of Women and Girls”, to produce a research based report and send to UNAIDS on the implementation of governmental responses to the epidemics related to gender. Each country participating in the project sends a shadow report to UNAIDS and hold talks with government in order to get the results of the research included in the governmental Country Report. Also a comparative report is produced comparing all the findings from the different countries. This comparative report is also sent to UNAIDS and published for civil society and other main stakeholders.

It is possible for NGOs and activists from all over the world to send their comments and critics through their representatives at the UNAIDS Program Coordinating Body which stands for the perspectives of civil society, including people living with HIV, within UNAIDS policies and programming. NGO delegates actively seek input from their respective communities on key issues related to UNAIDS policies and programs, and advocate with members states (governments) and cosponsoring organizations (the United Nations organizations that make up the UNAIDS 'family') for meaningful improvements in the implementation and evaluation of AIDS policies and programs. A list of actual representatives can be found here: http://www.unaids.org/en/Partnerships/Civil+society/csPCB.asp

In many countries, civil society is the main provider and recipient of prevention, treatment, care and support services. As such civil society is best placed to be driving universal access and ensuring the feasibility, relevance and cost of proposed targets and scale up activities.

From a civil society perspective, some factors that might warrant engagement with UNAIDS include the fact that UNAIDS:

    * Supports the resourcing of AIDS responses
    * Brokers government-civil society dialogue and engagement
    * Supports the engagement of civil society in the planning, implementation and monitoring of national AIDS responses
    * Supports resource mobilization and capacity building needs of civil society organizations to be effective actors in the AIDS response
    * Promotes the civil society watchdog role in monitoring progress towards political commitments and targets on AIDS
    * Initiates multi-stakeholder partnerships among governments, donors and civil society for action on AIDS under the banner of scale-up towards universal access in 2010 and the MDG Target of 2015
    * Provides a potential advocacy platform for diverse vulnerable and marginalized populations
    * Supports the creation of an enabling legal and regulatory environment for civil society engagement in key legislative processes
    * Supports developing the capacity of civil society organizations in an effort to create long-term sustainable responses to AIDS
    * Promotes norms, policies and standards on AIDS that can be applied by all stakeholders – including civil society organizations - in their AIDS work.