ViiV Healthcare: Positive Action
Committed to working as a transformational partner that champions people and communities to end AIDS. By putting people and communities first, Positive Action strengthens capacity and collaborates strategically to work towards achieving healthy communities in a world free of AIDS
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Objectives
- Ending paediatric AIDS
- Reducing HIV infection in people who inject drugs
Positive Action exists to further ViiV Healthcare’s* mission of ensuring no person living with HIV is left behind, by investing in partners working directly with the communities most affected by HIV. Its mission is to be a transformational partner that champions people and communities to end AIDS by putting people and communities first, strengthening capacity and collaborating strategically.
In the 30 years since Positive Action began, it has supported more than 600 partners to run more than 800 projects in over 100 countries.1 Partners include community-led organisations such as Y+ Global, focusing on implementing the HER Voice Fund, supporting adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) to have a meaningful voice in decisions that affect their health. The HER Voice Fund has already supported over 34,000 adolescent girls and young women affected by HIV in 13 sub-Saharan African countries, a region that continues to bear the heaviest burden of HIV in the world.2
ViiV Healthcare Positive Action recognises the significant role that community workers (peer workers, volunteers, community health volunteers etc.) contribute to the HIV response. Positive Action supports the appropriate remuneration for their work which should be in line with other community workers nationally. Community workers should also be supported through proper induction, training, and development to perform effectively. We encourage grantees and partners to implement this guidance when utilising and benefiting from community resources.
*ViiV Healthcare is the only global biopharmaceutical company 100% focused on combating, preventing, and ultimately curing HIV and ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. Our shared purpose is to unite science, talent, and technology, to get ahead of a leading chronic and infectious disease for greater health impact. We were established in November 2009, through a science-led partnership between GSK (our majority shareholder) and Pfizer; with Shionogi joining in 2012. We are dedicated to researching and delivering innovative HIV medicines and solutions with an ambition to make HIV a smaller part of people’s lives. In addition, we work in solidarity with HIV communities across the globe, this includes people living with HIV and diverse communities vulnerable to HIV transmission. We collaborate to build multisector partnerships which seek to accelerate progress aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals to leave no person living with HIV behind.
Results and milestones
- In the 30 years since Positive Action began, it has supported more than 600 partners to run more than 800 projects in over 100 countries.
- Positive Action’s Community Strategic Initiatives (CSI) grants to community-led organisations who work to improve the quality of life of people living with and those most at risk of HIV. CSI Momentum programmes focus on paediatrics, adolescent mothers and caregivers, and CSI Innovator programmes have focused on HIV stigma and self-stigma, as well as community-based harm reduction.
- Positive Action has also invested in Strategic Partnerships including the Breakthrough Partnership which works to improve the location, linkage, treatment and retention of mothers and children at risk or living with HIV in Mozambique, Nigeria and Uganda with our partners Aidsfonds, Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), Paediatric Adolescent Treatment Africa (PATA), UNICEF.
- Since the launch of the current strategy to 2021, we have committed £11.5M to CSI and £8.5M to Strategic Partnership programmes.
- The COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund (ERF) was launched to help address specific challenges for the HIV community created by the global pandemic and has supported 36 grants in 16 countries, with an investment of £1.5million for communities. The fund emphasises Positive Action’s ability to be agile and flexible, responding quickly to support those in need.
- Innovator grants have supported new projects in 2020 to address HIV self-stigma globally and HIV-related stigma in the Middle East and North Africa:
- Five HIV-related stigma grants in five countries with an investment of £478K
- 18 self-stigma grants in 11 countries, with an investment of £1.3M
- The second funding round focused on supporting community-based harm reduction services and provided eight grants with an investment of £730K
- In 2020, grants were given to organisations focused on adolescent mothers living with HIV, to provide tailored care and address the myriad of issues affecting adolescent mothers and their children:
- First funding round: Supported adolescent mothers living with HIV and their children to enjoy health and well-being, which resulted in 11 grants with an investment of £3.2M
- Second funding round: Improved retention in HIV care among children living with HIV and their caregivers, which resulted in 10 grants with an investment of £2.6M
- Third funding round: Increased HIV case finding and treatment and provided support to children and early adolescents living with HIV aged 0-14 years, which resulted in 7 grants with an investment of £2.1M.
- In 2021 Positive Action reached approximately 386,352 people across 28 countries through funding 66 grants from the CSI and Strategic Partnership portfolios.
References
- Positive Action. Progress Report. Available from https://viivhealthcare.com/hiv-community-engagement/positive-action/progress-report/. Accessed July 2022.
- UN Chronicle. Combatting HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa – Investing in Health Can Make the Difference. Available from https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/combatting-hivaids-sub-saharan-africa-investing-health-can-make-difference#:~:text=Sub%2DSaharan%20Africa%20continues%20to,people%20living%20with%20HIV%20worldwide. Accessed July 2022.
Geographic Reach
- Global Commitment
Disease Area
- Women’s and Child Health
- Infectious and Parasitic Disease
Target Population
- Men
- Women
- Rural populations
- Youth
- People with low incomes
- Marginalized/indigenous people
SGDs the partnership contributes to
SDG 3: Good Health and Wellbeing
- 3.1: Reduce Maternal Mortality
- 3.2: Reduce Under-5 Mortality
- 3.3: Communicable Diseases & NTDs
- 3.7: Access to sexual and reproductive health-care services
- 3.8: Achieve universal health coverage
SDG 5: Gender Equality
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Partner organizations
Lesbians Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO)
Masaka Association of People with disabilities living with HIV
Mpact
NETWORK OF NETWORKS OF HIV POSITIVES IN ETHIOPIA (NEP+)
Nyanza Initiative for Girls Education and Empowerment
Paediatric-Adolescent Treatment Africa (PATA)
PLAN Health Advocacy and Development Foundation
Sexual Rights Centre
Tackle Africa
mothers2mothers (m2m)
Teens Link Uganda (TLU)
Action Communautaire Pour l’Integration des Femmes Vulnerables d’Haiti (ACIFVH)
AIDS Support Organisation (TASO)
Africa Youth Development Link
Transgender Equality Uganda (TEU)
Community Health Alliance Uganda (CHAU)
Desmond Tutu Health Foundation (DTHF)
Empowerment of Marginalized Communities (E-MAC Tanzania)
International Community of Women Living with HIV Eastern Africa
Women4GlobalFund
UNICEF
Kenya Network of People Who Use Drugs (KenPud)
Amref Health Africa
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF)
Global Network of Young People Living with HIV (Y+ Global)
Aidsfonds
Pharma (non-IFPMA member)
ViiV Healthcare
Additional information
Please refer to this report for further examples of Positive Action's partner organisations.
Geographic Reach
Global Commitment
Disease Area
Women’s and Child Health
- Family Planning, Sexual & Reproductive Health
- Children's Health
- Women's Health
Infectious and Parasitic Disease
- HIV/AIDS