UNDP's Partnerships; a Step towards Achieving the MDGs

Partnerships are particularly important to UNDP's work and for achieving The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Goal  Eight  of the MDGs; "To develop a global partnership for development," explicitly calls for partnerships, which are essential at all local, national, global levels for the attainment of the other seven goals, and the values and actions set  out in the Millennium Declaration. To support this effort and in close partnership with the Global Fund, UNDP works to prevent the spread and to reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

Launched in 2002, the Global Fund is one of the key sources of financing for the world's response to the epidemic diseases. The Global Fund was established to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world’s most devastating diseases, AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It seeks to channel the funds to areas of greatest need. The GFATM project in the Islamic Republic of Iran involves numerous partners including governmental ministries, NGOs, private sector and  the UN agencies. UNDP’s primary objective in the partnership is to support the local entity legally responsible for the management of  the Grant in a recipient country.  Consequently, UNDP was chosen to act as the Principal Recipient (PR) of the Grant for he Global Fund’s project to fight HIV/AIDS in Iran in 2005. Since October 2008, UNDP in cooperation with the Government  of I.R. of Iran has extended the scope of the project on the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS to include Malaria and Tuberculosis through funding received from GFATM.

UNDP’s Role

UNDP, in its role as a trusted development partner, assists Iran in order to place the three diseases at the center of the national development and poverty reduction strategies, build national capacity to mobilize all levels of government and civil society for a coordinated and effective response to the epidemics. It also helps protect he rights of people living with HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.  In its capacity as the Principle Recipient (PR), UNDP oversees the execution of the program activities, insuring  that they are in accordance with the terms of its global agreement with the Global Fund.

What is being done?

In Iran, the country's successful health policy has controlled much of communicable diseases. Yet, infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, TB, and Malaria continue to be a real threat.

HIV/AIDS

HIV/AIDS affects people in their most productive years, and is exclusively devastatingas, as it increases poverty and reverses human development achievements.  Estimates indicate that 33.4 million individuals worldwide are infected with the Virus. HIV/AIDS has so far claimed the lives of more than 25 million people around the globe.  In 2008, approximately 2.7 million people were newly infected with the Virus and more than 2 million individuals died of AIDS-related causes. As HIV/AIDS is a worldwide problem, UNDP supports national efforts by offering knowledge, resources and best practices from around the world. Although the current HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Iran are low, the danger of cumulative processes taking hold are very real.   As a result, Iran has been gearing up to protect itself on its front. In order to support the Country’s effort in reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS on human development, UNDP promotes multi-sector responses that mainstream HIV/AIDS in national development plans, sector programmes and decentralized plans.

Tuberculosis

More than 2 billion people, one-third of the world's population, are infected with the TB bacilli,. Over 90 percent of the infected people live in developing countries. Globally, 9.2 million new cases and 1.7 million TB related deaths occurred in 2006. Due to a combination of economic decline, the breakdown of health systems, insufficient application of TB control measures, the spread of HIV/AIDS and the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), TB is not declining in many developing and transitional economies. Iran is not an exception and TB has been a longstanding threat to its public health.

TB is increasingly concentrated in vulnerable populations, including prisoners and people living with HIV. HIV/TB co-infection is an important problem, particularly among injecting drug users (IDUs). The overall goal of the program supported by the GFATM grant is to assist Iran in delivering on its commitment to dramatically reduce the burden of TB among the poor and vulnerable populations by 2015 in line with the Millennium Development Goals and the Stop TB Partnership targets.

Malaria

Malaria, one of the world's most common and serious tropical diseases, is a protozoal infection transmitted from human to human by mosquitoes.  In 2008, malaria caused nearly one million deaths, mostly among children under 5 years of age, and an additional 243 million clinical cases, the majority of which occur in the world's poorest countries.  Approximately half of the world’s population; 3.3 billion individuals are at risk of malaria infection. This number increases yearly due to deteriorating health systems, growing drug and insecticide resistance, climate change, and conflicts. High-risk groups include children, pregnant women, travelers and tourists, refugees, displaced people, and labourers entering endemic areas. Although less than other countries in the region, the malaria risk in Iran is not negligible. Approximately, 4 million people are at risk of contracting the disease. Several malaria outbreaks have been reported in recent years. The overall goal of the program supported by this grant is to assist the Government’s efforts to reduce local malaria transmission in the 20 target districts by 80 percent and to prevent from deaths caused by malaria.

On-going Projects

The Prevention and Control of Malaria in Iran

The Prevention and Control of Tuberculosis in Iran

The Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS in Iran

Scaling up HIV/AIDS Prevention Program towards Universal Access

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