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By UN News Centre
10-Feb-2012
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Asia-Pacific nations at a United Nations meeting in Bangkok have agreed to boost cooperation and to develop regional accountability mechanisms and financing modalities to accelerate progress towards global HIV/AIDS commitments.
The agreed action plan comes at the end of three days of high-level talks by representatives of 34 Asia-Pacific nations, organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and other UN co-sponsors.
The meeting marked the first time that officials from national health, justice, law enforcement, social development and drug control agencies in the region came together at a single forum, according to a news release issued by ESCAP.
They were joined by people living with HIV as well as representatives from populations most affected by HIV, including sex workers, people who use drugs, men who have sex with men and transgender people, to review the region’s progress towards commitments on AIDS.
“This is Asia-Pacific at its best – showing leadership, fore-thinking and spirit of collaboration, underlining the powerful force of this region,” the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on HIV, Nafis Sadik, told delegates.