The Philippines has a fantastic opportunity. It can end the AIDS pandemic by 2030, by letting communities lead.

Communities of people living with HIV or at risk of HIV are the drivers of progress in the AIDS response. They connect people to public health services, build trust, innovate, monitor the implementation of policies and services, and hold service providers accountable.

The contribution of community-led organizations in the AIDS response has helped tackle other pandemics and health crises, too, including Covid-19, Mpox and Ebola. Letting communities lead builds healthier and stronger societies.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the role of community-led services was instrumental in continuing delivery of HIV services while government facilities were focused on the Covid-19 response.

Community-led organizations such as the Rajah Community Center in Iloilo City and the HIV and AIDS Support House were able to continue providing HIV services to key populations. The use of telemedicine by these community-led facilities ensured that medical consultation for people living with HIV remains available even during the height of pandemic-related lockdowns.

But so many communities face barriers to their leadership. Community-led responses are under-recognized, under-resourced, and, in some places, even under attack.

Globally, funding channeled through communities has fallen in the past ten years from 31 percent in 2012 to 20 percent in 2021.

These funding shortages, policy and regulatory hurdles, capacity constraints, and crackdowns on civil society and the human rights of marginalized communities are obstructing the progress of HIV prevention, treatment and care services.

It is in everyone's interests to fully fund community-led organizations and remove the many obstacles they face. It is by enabling communities in their leadership that the promise to end AIDS can be realized.

This is why communities are at the center of World AIDS Day commemorations this year, including in the new UNAIDS report "Let Communities Lead."

The report sets out the facts and figures that demonstrate communities' impact and shares how progress is being driven by communities through case studies from across the world and through guest essays by nine pioneering community leaders. As the report notes, there is a need to recognize the contribution communities make and to pull down the barriers that stand in their way. This World AIDS Day is a call to action to support communities and unleash their full potential.

The leadership role of communities needs to be core in all HIV plans and programs and their formulation, budgeting, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

Communities need to be fully and reliably funded to allow them to scale up their services and for workers to be properly remunerated for their contribution.

(To be continued)

(Dr. Louie Ocampo is the country director of UNAIDS Philippines.)