The International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine (Alliance Ukraine) is the largest NGO in the country working on HIV, and is the leading organisation in the national response to HIV.
The HIV epidemic in Ukraine is largely driven by key populations who are at higher risk of HIV including people who inject drugs, sex workers and men who have sex with men. HIV prevalence among people who use drugs is particularly high.
Alliance Ukraine works to prevent the spread of HIV among these populations and to provide integrated care services to those vulnerable to and affected by HIV. It has been implementing Global Fund supported programmes as a Principal Recipient since 2004. The current Global Fund grant operating in the country is from round 10, and is aimed at building a sustainable system of comprehensive services on HIV prevention, treatment, care and support for key populations and people living with HIV in Ukraine. Alliance Ukraine implements this programme with its co-Principal Recipients, the All-Ukrainian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS and the Ukrainian Centre for AIDS Prevention of the Ministry of Health, and their Sub-Recipients.
Alliance Ukraine has also been addressing HIV/TB co-infection since 2004. In 2011, they became a Sub-Recipient to the Global Fund TB grant in round 9 to lead the HIV/TB co-infection component as well as to be responsible for the procurement and supply management of the entire programme.
Alliance Ukraine is committed to supporting community action on HIV and supports a broad range of interventions across the country. It funds around 150 organisations which run HIV prevention programmes reaching vulnerable groups.
Since 2006 HIV incidence has been falling has been declining, largely due to the interventions of civil society organisations.
Alliance Ukraine started life as an Alliance Country Office which became an independent Linking Organisation in 2009.
Alliance Ukraine also:
- Advocates for the rights of people living with HIV and key populations. In 2011 nearly 200 decision makers of leaders reached through advocacy work.
- Hosts the Alliance’s Regional Technical Support Hub for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which helps to spread best practices developed by Alliance Ukraine across the regions. Visit their website here.
- Coordinates regional networks of key populations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Starting 2012, Alliance Ukraine is also working to address the comprehensive needs of the key populations in seven countries in the Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region (a project managed by the Regional Technical Support Hub).
- Performs programme management for the Community Action on Harm Reduction (CAHR) project, which aims to expand harm reduction services to more than 180,000 injecting drug users, their partners and children in China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, and Malaysia.
- Developed the Monitoring and Evaluation system, SyrEx, which has since been adapted for use in other countries.
- Led the expansion of access to antiretroviral treatment in Ukraine.
- In partnership with other civil society and international organisations, carried out a successful advocacy work to introduce oral substitution therapy in Ukraine and legalized the use of methadone in the country.
- In 2012 Tanya Deshko, Associate Director of Field Programs Department at Alliance Ukraine and Programme Manager of the CAHR project, was presented with the Levi Strauss & Co Pioneer Award for her contribution to the fight against HIV. You can read more here.
- Highlighted by the Global Fund as a good model for managing grants in 2012.
- Over 25M condoms were distributed by Alliance Ukraine in 2011. Find out more about our annual achievements in Ukraine from our interactive map.
You can find out more about the work of Alliance Ukraine on their website.