Introduction

From late December 2005 to March 2006, the Philippines undertook a series of initiatives to develop its targets and roadmap in line with the global initiative towards "Scaling Up Universal Access to HIV Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support". These include:

• Desk review to map the different prevention, treatment, care and support services available in the Philippines for each of the various most-at-risk and vulnerable groups, and current level of access by each group, and to revisit existing national policies, guidelines and protocols.

• Convening a Technical Working Group, composed of members from various disciplines to draft country-specific targets and roadmap towards Universal Access.

• Conducting a national multisectoral consultation, participated in by representatives of government- national and local, NGOs, people living with HIV, academe and multilateral agencies, to a) refine the draft targets and roadmap; and b) identify obstacles in the field that might hinder the achievement of the targets set.

The target-setting process undertaken highlighted crucial issues in scaling up that have already been identified in previous assessment exercises. These include, among others:

• Limited programme coverage

  • Most-at-risk groups and vulnerable populations still underserved; most remains un-served.
  • Limited access to condom
  • Low level of knowledge even among most-at-risk groups
  • Weak life skills education among the in and out-of-school youth
  • Limited ARVs and OI drugs, including pediatric formulation and 2nd line ARV regimen
  • Care and support services limited in a few urban centers

• None or limited baseline data

• HIV/AIDS Monitoring and Evaluation system still in its development stage

• Limited capacity of the Philippine National AIDS Council (PNAC) to lead, monitor and coordinate the national AIDS response

• No strategy to sustained leadership

• Limited engagement of other sectors (faith based organization, private sector)

• Limited financial resources

• Stigma and discrimination against PLWHAs or those suspected to be HIV positive, remains

Nonetheless, with the newly developed Philippine AIDS Medium Term Plan IV for 2005-2010, the Universal Access initiative becomes more relevant and timely as it provides an opportunity to review, refine and cost-out national programme targets and strategies, based on existing country realities.

What does UNIVERSAL ACCESS mean for the Philippines?

In the National Consultation \workshop held last January 2006, stakeholders agreed on the following conceptual definition:

1. Optimal availability and utilization of comprehensive prevention, treatment, care and support information, services and commodities by most-at-risk and vulnerable populations, people living with HIV/AIDS and their affected families and communities, and the general public.

2. Provision of equitable and sustainable information, services and commodities to all those who need them -- most-at-risk and vulnerable populations, people living with HIV/AIDS and their affected families and communities -- and the general public.

Other working definitions agreed upon includes:

1. Coverage - optimal availability and utilization

2. Optimal - best possible services within available reach

3. Comprehensive - refers to the "continuum of care" approach from prevention to treatment, care and support, addressing the totality of a person's physical, emotional, psychological, socio-economic needs

4. Most-at-risk population - refers to people in prostitution (PIP), men having sex with men (MSM) and IDU (injecting drug users)

5. Vulnerable populations - refers to Overseas Filipino workers (OFW), youth and children

6. General public - refers to other groups/sectors not included in the identified most-at-risk and vulnerable populations

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