UNAIDS works with a broad range of partners to share knowledge, skills and best practices across boundaries. It ensures the meaningful participation of people living with HV, and brokers and strengthens multi-sectoral alliances towards an expanded, coordinated and sustained response to the HIV epidemic. Partnership development is among the strategic functions of UNAIDS.
Business Sector
“AIDS will be with us for generations to come. Its impact on business is likely to grow. At this juncture of the AIDS epidemic, it is essential that the business sector becomes a fully engaged partner of the global response to AIDS in the long term.” -- Peter Piot, former UNAIDS Executive Director
The Philippine Business Sector Response to HIV and AIDS has a core group composed of Pilipinas Shell Foundation, Philippine Business for Social Progress, Philippine National AIDS Council and the UNAIDS Country Office in the Philippines. The group aims to mobilize an enhanced business sector response to HIV and AIDS through advocacy, capacity building and partnership development. At present, the Philippine Business for Social Progress serves as the secretariat for the group.
Civil Society
Civil society refers to “the dimension of society that is different from the ‘state’ and is important as a forum for independent public expression.” UN member states and UNAIDS have noted that civil society participation is essential for an effective and sustainable response to HIV and AIDS.
The UNAIDS Country Office in the Philippines works with a wide range of civil society organizations. Several of these organizations are affiliated with networks at the national and regional level. Many of them work with most-at-risk populations.
Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs)
Faith-based organizations including their religious leaders are in a unique position to break the silence surrounding HIV by acknowledging the suffering and reaching out to the excluded and marginalized.
The UNAIDS Country Office in the Philippines has worked with a number of faith-based organizations, such as the National Secretariat for Social Action and the Episcopal Commission on Migrants and Itinerants of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Caritas Manila, the Daughters of Charity, the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit, and the Ministers of the Infirm, among others. UNAIDS Philippines has also developed a “Training Manual on HIV and AIDS for Catholic Church Pastoral Workers” which has been endorsed by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
Media
The media has a pivotal role to play in the AIDS response. With its wide-reaching, global infrastructure and communications expertise, the media’s ability to change the course of the AIDS crisis is virtually unparalleled. Partnerships with media organizations are therefore critical to raising awareness and getting messages out about AIDS.
Innovative channels, such as social networks and other online media, provide information and a forum for discussion to a wide and diverse audience.
Organizations of People Living with HIV (PLHIV Support Groups)
Persons living with HIV (PLHIV) have a vital role in the national and global response to HIV and AIDS. At the Paris AIDS Summit in 1994, 42 countries declared the Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV and AIDS (GIPA) to be critical to ethical and effective national responses to the epidemic. To enable the active engagement of people living with HIV, UNAIDS urges all actors to ensure that PLHIV have the space and the practical support for their greater and more meaningful involvement.
Support groups for people living with HIV in the Philippines include Pinoy PLUS, Positive Action Foundation Philippines, Inc. (PAFPI), Babae PLUS, Sister PLUS (Angeles City), Empowered (Iloilo City), Crossbreed (Bacolod City), Mindanao Advocates
For more information, contact:
Mercedes "Ced" Apilado
Social Mobilization Adviser (SMA)
Email: apiladome@unaids.org | 
