Question 6.
How much inclusive and representative will be the UNGASS reports?
            Is there any special preparation going on from UNAIDS in Asia?

Every two years, in compliance with the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS signed by UN member states in June 2001, countries report to UNAIDS on their progress made in the response to the AIDS epidemic. UNGASS Report 2008 was due on 31 January 2008. This year, countries and individuals showed extraordinary personal commitment to this reporting process.

Many improvements have been seen in this year's process in terms of the quality of data, civil society participation, number of reports and the data analysis capacities.

Submission rates are higher this year. As of 7 March 2008, 147 out of 192 countries had submitted their reports; this is a large increase from the 2006 number of 115 countries out of a 189. In Eastern Europe and Central Asia it stands at 95% whereas it is 60% and 57% respectively for East Asia and Oceania.The high submission rate in several regions is indicative of how many countries are prepared to be publicly accountable. The UNAIDS secretariat publishes these reports on the UNAIDS web site exactly as submitted by the country, without editing or other alteration.

The participation of civil society is an essential part of the reporting process and they have a particularly important role to play in the compilation of the National Composite Policy Index (NCPI) indicators.

UNAIDS has engaged a consortium of civil society organizations led by the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations and the International Women's Health Coalition (ICASO and IWHC) to provide support to civil society organizations in national reporting. This support has been made available at the regional level, through a number of networks working with in partnership with ICASO and IWHC.

In many countries civil society has been engaged in the national reporting process, providing inputs at different levels including providing complimentary or qualitative data to supplement national reports, engaging in national reporting workshops and producing shadow reports. A shadow report may be submitted by civil society where civil society was not adequately included in the national reporting process or where governments do not submit a country progress report.

There has been a significant drop in number of shadow reports submitted to UNAIDS, reflecting the substantial efforts in many countries to increase the engagement of civil society in national reporting processes. These reports sometimes reflect the perspectives of marginalized constituencies who, for a variety of reasons, can find it difficult to gain access to more formal reporting processes.

The shadow reports produced by civil society organizations are available on the ICASO web site.

The UNGASS indicators will be used to monitor the progress towards achieving Universal Access to prevention, treatment and care in 2010 and eventually in reaching the Millennium Development Goal of arresting and halting the spread of HIV by 2015.

The UNGASS data will form the basis of the UN Secretary-General's report to the General Assembly in June as well as the 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic to be launched at the Mexico City International AIDS Conference 3-8 August 2008.