1 July 2013: The first meeting of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Lancet Commission agreed that eradicating AIDS should be a top priority in the post-2015 development agenda, and considered how the global health architecture could adapt to a new and changing world. The UNAIDS and Lancet Commission work, ‘From AIDS to Sustainable Health,’ aims to bring discussion on a global response to AIDS to the public, and to ensure its place in an equitable and sustainable global health agenda.

The first meeting took place from 28-29 June 2013, in Lilongwe, Malawi, and drew attention to social, legal and economic issues surrounding the AIDS crisis. Stressing the importance of addressing discrimination and inequality, human rights, gender empowerment and youth opportunities, Commissioners looked at ways to create more sustainable progress and development worldwide.

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, said Commissioners had planned “concrete steps” to put AIDS and global health at the core of the post-2015 development agenda. Helen Clark, Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said that the meeting’s organizers would “play a key role in feeding into the debate on the shape of development goals beyond 2015.”

The initiative was launched in May 2013. It is co-chaired by Joyce Banda, President of Malawi, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, African Union (AU) Chairperson, and Peter Piot, former Executive Director of UNAIDS. Overall outcomes will include a Special Report on findings, evidence for the prominent placing of HIV/AIDS in the post-2015 development agenda, and mobilization for high-level commitments to act against the epidemic.

The next meeting of UNAIDS and the Lancet Commission will be held in Brazil in 2014. [UNAIDS Press Release] [UNAIDS and Lancet Commission Campaign] [The Lancet Website]