Progress to date

Costing Methodology for HIV infection testing costs based on current HIV testing strategies and RDT-based testing costs and data collection tool are developed, data on Kazakhstan and Georgia are collected, the reports are under finalization.

Progress to date

Current testing and treatment protocols analysis is finished in 7 countries (Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine) and recommendations to align the national protocols with the WHO guidelines are provided. The report is available at the link.

WHO has held the analysis of HIV testing guidelines in 6 countries of EECA – Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. The report is available at the link.

Progress to date

Synthesis Report on assessment of readiness of health systems to decentralize HIV testing services in 5 countries of the EECA region is developed and can be found at the link.

Progress to date

Synthesis Report on assessment of health systems to decentralize HIV treatment services in 5 countries of the EECA is developed and can be found at the link.

Progress to date

Priorities for improvements of PSM systems in Armenia, Georgia and Kazakhstan were discussed and agreed for further activities in 2023-2024. In Kazakhstan, MOH provided a list of its activities aimed to preserve state registration procedure and expressed the need to develop relevant legislation. In Georgia, access to the Global Fund procurement mechanism is of the highest priority. In Armenia, long-term agreements for ARVs and streamlining procurement practices from bottom to the top level in terms of centralization/decentralization and improvement of medicines registration procedure are of importance.

Progress to date

ECOM in partnership with WHO regional office for Europe analyzed five national PrEP protocols (Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Ukraine) and provided Report with recommendations on the steps needed to include PrEP into nationally approved standard package of servises.

Progress to date

Practical handbook on community-led monitoring tools was developed in English and Russian languages. The checklist with EHRA and other partners for CLM was discussed and agreed upon.

On 2-8 December 2022, specialists from the Eurasian Harm Reduction Association (EHRA) conducted regional online training “Community-Led Monitoring Methods” for the representatives of community organizations in the CEECA region. The training was attended by 38 representatives of organizations from different vulnerable communities in the CEECA region. The aim of the training consisting of three online sessions was to train leaders of self-organizations from different key communities in the CEECA region to understand, which role CLM can play in their advocacy work, how to formulate the proper problem and research question for CLM, and which of the different methodologies can most effectively provide the data needed for advocacy. Video recordings of the training, as well as presentations can be found at the link.

Progress to date

Work on shelters has expanded – in addition to 5 shelters for working with women who use drugs in conditions of violence (Ukraine, Serbia, North Macedonia, Kazakhstan), support for flexible shelters for representatives of the LGBT community in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has been added. The program was distinguished by a special programmatic approach to working with clients – about 3,200 clients received material assistance in the form of food packages (Georgia, Kazakhstan). PPE support in Kaz for migrants and KGP (124,000 disposable masks, 1,000 antiseptics); CLM to provide quality services for clients of OST programs in 7 countries.

Progress to date

Supporting key group populations in a COVID setting “General contingency planning guide developed in the frames of the C19RM is available here.

Guide by APH for Contingency Planning for Key Population HIV Services during COVID-19 and Other Emergencies for North Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Moldova, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in English is available at the link https://aph.org.ua/en/eeca/ in the folders with the names of each country.

Progress to date

Costing Methodology for HIV infection testing costs based on current HIV testing strategies and RDT-based testing costs and data collection tool are developed, data on Kazakhstan and Georgia are collected, the reports are under finalization.

In 2022, the project conducted an assessment on policies, regulations, and practice of HIV Rapid Testing/Self-testing in 4 SEE countries and developed a report on findings and recommendations. The assessment was conducted in North Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, and Serbia. The purpose of this assessment was to evaluate country-specific policies, regulations, and practical factors that are currently facilitating or affecting community-level access to rapid diagnostic tests, including self-testing of HIV. Some of the key recomendations which are suggested: to update National Guidelines/Protocols for HIV testing, outlining clear HIV testing algorithm in line with WHO recommendation including community based testing and HIV self-testing; update the existing internal protocol on HIVST; develop policy and advocacy recommendations for reducing HIV-related stigma and discrimination; integrate HIV self-testing into existing HIV service delivery models including OST programs. The report can be found at the link.

Progress to date

Cumulatively, during 2022 there were registered 6700+ cases in 13 countries (Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Serbia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan) involving 170+ CBOs, as well as regional networks such as ECOM (in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan) and ENPUD (Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Belarus).

The following publications are available:

• Statistic country reports by APH on human rights violations based on REAct data collected in 2021 in Kyrgyzstan, in Georgia, in Moldova, in Tajikistan.
• Protectors or Perpetrators: the impact of unlawful policing on human rights and HIV. Join analytical publication in partnership with Frontline AIDS, Alliance for Public Health (Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Moldova, Georgia, Uzbekistan), AIDS Foundation (South Africa), Gender Dynamix.
• Report on the results of the analysis of the Hotline calls by APH: Domestic and other forms of violence against women living with HIV and women in key populations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Tajikistan.
• REAct Statistical Report for the 1st half of 2022 by APH. Violations of the rights of people living with HIV and representatives of vulnerable groups in Georgia.
  Situational Report by APH: Drug policy in Georgia and Challenges.
• Series of publications by APH based on REAct data within regional campaign “16 days against gender-based violence”.

Progress to date

Protocols for Stigma Index Research are developed in Armenia and Georgia. The filed phase will start in 2023.

Progress to date

An analysis of the current situation regarding the development and implementation of tools to ensure access to harm reduction services with a focus on OST was conducted by FreeZone in Georgia and in Kyrgyzstan.

An analysis of the current functioning of NPMs was carried out by FreeZone in Moldova and Kazakhstan.

For Moldova and Kazakhstan, Information on key indicators of the incidence of socially dangerous diseases in penitentiary institutions was collected, namely data on the total number of convicts held in penitentiary institutions; detailed information on the number of people living with HIV infection; the number of detected cases of tuberculosis; the number of convicts who were provided with treatment for viral hepatitis. The results can be found at the links: Moldova,  Kazakhstan.

Progress to date

The assessment was finalized in Serbia and Georgia.

Progress to date

Small Grants Programme with 4 selected projects run by grass-root NGOs in 2022 included:

• “National Trans Coalition” NGO with the project titled “HIV prevention in Armenia through gender mainstreaming” (Armenia);
• “The Public Association “Union for Equity and Health” NGO with the project titled “Gender Equality for sex workers” (Moldova);
• “Rromnjako Ilo” Zrenjanin he Public Association” NGO with the project titled “Check your health – Equality for Trans Roma and Roma women/girls sex workers” (Serbia);
• “NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION «NASHA DOPOMOGA»” with the project titled “RIGHT TO HEALTH!” (Ukraine).

Progress to date

100% Life conducted an analysis of the legal environment in Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic and the Republic of Uzbekistan in order to identify regulatory legal acts that need to be amended to reduce the criminalization of people living with HIV.

Progress to date

Two reports were developed on decriminalization of drug use in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

ENPUD is working on several strategic cases: in Moldova, unauthorized urine PAS test was prevented regarding an OST patient, as well as arbitrary detention of an OST patient in another case. In Ukraine, two strategic ongoing cases regarding keeping the driver’s license for the OST patient; and restoring activist`s rights and reputation, and punishing the police officers responsible for the provocation. In Kazakhstan, several strategic cases regarding taking cannabis for medical purposes. In Kyrgyzstan, a strategic case regarding provocation by the police with the planting of “evidence”; extortion of a bribe for the opportunity to be at large while “investigative” actions are going on.

Progress to date

The Guiding Principles document is developed and approved by the ECECACD. The first draft of the document was reviewed and discussed during in-person meeting of Commissioners on November 2, 2022 (the Minutes extract with provided recommendations to the document are available upon request). The document was amended accordingly to the recommendations and sent for the second review by Commissioners. Commissioners provided their recommendations and corrections to the text (the letters and texts with corrections are available upon request). Final amendments was done, the document was completed and finally approved by Commissioners (relevant correspondence is available upon request). The final version of the Guiding principles is under design

Progress to date

ToR for the dashboard is under development; methodologies and approaches to data collection for the social contacting and sustainability and transition portals are being updated.

Progress to date

ToR is developed, specifications are being developed, team is being trained, development is due to start in April 2023.

Progress to date

Concept is developed, scripts are under development, research is being carried out to identify the optimal technical framework.

Progress to date

Targeted activities were held in all project countries to discuss with national and international, governmental and non-governmental stakeholders the changes needed to enable sustainable and uninterrupted funding of HIV-related activities from national resources. Through targeted advocacy, technical support, and an integrated approach to HIV funding, in 2022 the project team managed to allocate approximately 1,7 million USD at the national level to programs for key populations, using social contracting mechanisms: Moldova – 154,126.84 USD; Kazakhstan – 118,529.33 USD; Kyrgyzstan – 61,000 USD; Tajikistan – 19,200.00 USD; Georgia – 357,000 USD; Ukraine – 931,453.96 USD.

Progress to date

Targeted activities were held in all project countries to discuss with national and international, governmental and non-governmental stakeholders the changes needed to enable sustainable and uninterrupted funding of HIV-related activities from national resources. Through targeted advocacy, technical support, and an integrated approach to HIV funding, in 2022 the project team managed to allocate approximately 1,7 million USD at the national level to programs for key populations, using social contracting mechanisms: Moldova – 154,126.84 USD; Kazakhstan – 118,529.33 USD; Kyrgyzstan – 61,000 USD; Tajikistan – 19,200.00 USD; Georgia – 357,000 USD; Ukraine – 931,453.96 USD.

Progress to date

In the reporting period, the Emergency package of services for key and vulnerable groups of the population in the field of HIV, and TB in the context of military conflicts was finalized, including tariffication. On its basis, in 2023, the process of advocacy and promotion of implementation at the level of countries in the EECA region will be launched.