More than ever before, the core challenge for the HIV prevention field is increasing access to available prevention methods, while also sustaining momentum for developing new biomedical prevention options — all within in the context of shrinking global resources for the overall HIV response.
IAVI is a founding member of the Coalition to Accelerate and Support Prevention Research (CASPR), which is designed to address this challenge through a network of strategic partnerships and activities, all oriented toward supporting and strengthening India- and Africa-led biomedical HIV prevention research, implementation, and advocacy.
Funded by U.S. Agency for International Development, and supported by the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, the CASPR network, led by AVAC, brings together several Africa- and India-based partners — including the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, WACI Health, HIV/AIDS Vaccine Ethics Group, the New HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Advocacy Society, and Advocacy for Prevention of HIV and AIDS — to accelerate HIV prevention research in Africa and India.
These groups, along with partners who have a longstanding engagement in these regions — including IAVI, FHI 360, Avenir Health, and Internews — work collaboratively to build a network dedicated to advancing advocacy, policy, regulatory, community engagement, and communications efforts that help accelerate biomedical HIV prevention research. Additional cross-cutting activities are focused on gender integration; capacity building; increasing coordination between research partners, governments, and civil society; and program monitoring and evaluation.
IAVI currently implements the following CASPR priorities in India and Africa:
- Ensuring research can be translated by and for a wide variety of stakeholders.
- Advocating for sustained and efficient use of resources.
- Supporting regional bodies to develop harmonized regulatory systems for HIV prevention R&D.
- Addressing site capacity for multiple trials.*
- Ensuring meaningful volunteer engagement, particularly for key population groups.*
- Advocating for new prevention technologies/combination approaches, specifically HIV vaccines and bnAbs.*
- Strengthening and expanding strategic partnerships.*
- Improving gender integration.*
* Conducted through IAVI's ADVANCE program
