Democratic Republic of the Congo

UNICEF’s HIV/AIDS Thematic Fund is a global flexible funding pool. It enables us to strengthen systems to ensure an AIDS-free future for children and adolescents. This offers donors an exciting opportunity to target funding specifically to HIV/AIDS outcomes, while also giving UNICEF the flexibility to allocate funds based on where the need is greatest for children, including critically underfunded priorities at the country level, humanitarian response activities, and where funds will have the greatest impact. Thanks to our generous donors UNICEF’s Global HIV/ AIDS Thematic Fund income in 2022 reached over $5.7 million.

This document features the results achieved in 2022, when supporters of the HIV/AIDS Thematic Fund enabled UNICEF to allocate resources to 45 countries and territories. Funds were allocated to countries based on several measures determining the burden of HIV/AIDS on the population. These included the number of AIDS-related deaths in the country and the number of new infections among children and adolescents in the country. Funds were also allocated to UNICEF’s regional and global headquarters, supporting the vital work that allows thematic funding to unlock wide-scale results and impact the world over.

This key considerations document, developed by UNICEF and WHO, expands on the 2020 “last mile” operational guidance, with specific considerations for countries with lower HIV prevalence. It builds on the experiences of countries that have been validated for EMTCT of HIV and syphilis and translates the valuable lessons and promising practices of these countries into an operational framework for national programmes, consisting of 12 strategies and enablers to guide efforts towards Fast-Tracking EMTCT in lower prevalence countries.

It is based on a review of experiences, key lessons learned and promising practices in implementation of EMTCT interventions in lower prevalence countries, including Sri Lanka and Thailand, which have been validated by WHO for having eliminated vertical transmission of HIV, and three countries with the potential to achieve EMTCT by 2030: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana and India.