Author: Olesya Kravchuk, AFEW International
The total of 603 abstracts from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) were submitted to 22nd International AIDS Conference AIDS 2018 to be held in July in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 182 abstracts out of them were selected for the abstract book, posters and oral presentations.
These results were achieved with the support of AFEW International, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in partnership with EECA regional networks EHRA, ECOM, ECUO and GNP+.
“It is a great success, and we can see that especially by comparing it with the previous AIDS conferences. In comparison to the AIDS 2016 Conference that took place in Durban, South Africa, the amount of submitted abstract has more than tripled, and the number of accepted abstracts has increased by almost six times,” says AFEW International Project Manager of AIDS 2018 EECA Daria Alexeeva. “124 abstracts were submitted to AIDS 2016, and 31 were accepted. The acceptance rate has increased this year as well – 31% against 25%.”
The special group of 25 EECA organizations whom AFEW International supported with on- and offline training program on community-based participatory research and funded their local community-based researches, has shown even greater results. Eight of the abstracts that were developed based on their researches were accepted. 13 scholarships were awarded.
Besides, a special EECA communities networking zone was secured at the Global Village of the Conference. Challenges and successes of the region will be featured there. EECA regional networks and community organisations will use the zone to jointly advocate for financial sustainability for the AIDS response in the EECA region, vanishing legal barriers for effective prevention programs and increasing meaningful participation of the communities in decision and policy making.
