ABSTRACT
The creation of UNAIDS and the Global Fund, as set out in the previous chapters, coincided with a period of increasing political attention to global health issues and corresponding resources. As is also set out in Chapters 1 and 2, since approximately 2008 global health resources have stagnated and the priorities of GHIs and donors have been called into question, particularly around HIV/AIDS. This context has demanded a repositioning of the HIV/ AIDS response, and CSOs’ positions within it, in the broader context of GHG. This chapter outlines how changes in the broader political economy of
health resulted in a reassertion of biomedical and neoliberal approaches. In this shifting context HIV/AIDS CSOs have struggled to maintain their privileged position and ability to advance a rights-based response to health. While they have attempted to transfer their expertise and rights-based frames to sectors beyond the HIV/AIDS response, they are restricted by the legacy of AIDS exceptionalism. This is illustrated by the inability of HIV/AIDS CSOs to ensure strong right-to-health language in the SDG agenda. However, CSOs have been more successful in continuing to champion rights-based responses through the key populations frame. Examples of how this frame has been used to advance the rights of specific key populations at the global, regional and national levels demonstrate both the opportunities and limits HIV/AIDS CSOs continue to engage with.
