Rio de Janeiro | AIDS 2026

For ITPC-MENA, being at AIDS 2026 was about more than attending a global conference. It was about making sure that the Middle East and North Africa MENA region — too often underrepresented in global HIV conversations — was visible, heard and part of the discussions shaping the future of the response.

Across six days in Rio de Janeiro, ITPC-MENA brought community evidence, advocacy priorities and regional perspectives into conversations on community-led monitoring, access to medicines, long-acting PrEP and partnerships.

Four areas, one shared question : how can communities in MENA have a stronger role in shaping the HIV response and ensuring that progress translates into equitable access ?

Community-led monitoring : turning community evidence into accountability

FORSS is the only Community-Led Monitoring observatory of its kind in the MENA region. Launched in 2018 amid skepticism, it has since gained recognition from the Ministries of Health in Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon and Mauritania.

That recognition marks an important step. But the next challenge is sustainability: ensuring that CLM is not limited to donor-funded projects, but becomes a permanent component of national HIV responses. Malawi offers a concrete example of what this can look like, with CLM operating across all 28 districts and close to $1 million in government funding to sustain it. This provides a model that MENA can work towards.

At the pre-conference session « HIV Treatment at a Crossroads« , ITPC-MENA Executive Director Hiba El Khamal highlighted the role of community data in maintaining civil society’s position as a credible interlocutor, particularly in contexts where civic space is shrinking.

ITPC-MENA also hosted a dedicated session on community monitoring in the region, while Hiba brought MENA’s experience into ITPC’s global CLM skills lab, alongside activists from South Africa, Malawi, and Guatemala.

The experience of FORSS points to a broader lesson: community-led monitoring is not simply about collecting data. It is about creating systems of accountability that allow communities to document what existing systems may fail to see.

Access to medicines: challenging the price of inequality

At AIDS 2026, ITPC-MENA also joined the Make Medicines Affordable coalition in bringing the question of medicine prices into the spotlight through Pharma Privé.

Designed as a luxury boutique, the installation deliberately presented medicines as high-end commodities — reflecting the gap between production costs and the prices at which people access them.

The figures speak for themselves: lenacapavir costs approximately $25 to produce, compared with $28,000 a year to access. Cabotegravir costs approximately $15 to produce, compared with $25,000 a year to access.

The boutique’s closing message captured the point: medicines are not handbags, watches or collector’s items. They are public goods that save lives.

By the end of the week, Pharma Privé moved beyond the booth and onto the exhibition floor, with engagements involving Gilead, ViiV and Merck. ITPC-MENA was part of the delegation, carrying the same message into these conversations: access to medicines should not depend on the country in which a person is born.

Long-acting PrEP: hope, and a region that refuses to be an afterthought

Morocco is about to become the first country in MENA to roll out injectable PrEP. For ITPC-MENA, this is an important milestone, but it also underlines the need to anticipate inequalities in access before they become entrenched.

At the GFAN Networking Zone, ITPC-MENA and ALCS co-hosted the session « What About PrEP in the Era of Transition in MENA?« 

The discussion focused on the specific challenges facing the region as long-acting injectable PrEP becomes part of the prevention landscape.

As Othmane Marrakchi, ITPC-MENA Advocacy Lead, explained, MENA faces specific obstacles in accessing new prevention tools, particularly long-acting injectable PrEP. Anticipating these challenges will be essential to avoid deepening existing access inequalities.

Dr. Fatim Zahra Hajjouji of ALCS highlighted the importance of adapting PrEP to the realities of populations in the region, while Kods Brahmi of ATL MST SIDA Tunisia stressed that the transition to new prevention modalities must happen with communities, not without them.

The challenge is therefore not only to introduce new prevention technologies, but to ensure that communities are involved in shaping how they are introduced and accessed.

Partnerships: connecting evidence, advocacy and action

Before the conference, ITPC-MENA met with ITPC Global and the Global Advocacy Data Hub to align advocacy efforts, share data and explore joint action across the pre-, during- and post-Rio phases.

Partnerships were also explored in relation to the upcoming rollout of injectable PrEP in Morocco. As new prevention options become available, reaching key populations with accurate information and connecting people to services will be critical. In Rio, ITPC-MENA held constructive discussions with Grindr for Equality on how digital platforms could help address misinformation, demystify PrEP and connect communities with services.

These conversations are not an end in themselves. They are part of building relationships that can support advocacy and access beyond the conference.

AIDS 2026 gave ITPC-MENA a platform to bring MENA’s community evidence, priorities and perspectives into the global HIV conversation. From community-led monitoring and access to medicines to long-acting PrEP and strategic partnerships, Rio reinforced one message: MENA cannot be an afterthought in the global HIV response.

The region has evidence to share, challenges to address and, above all, communities whose voices must shape what comes next.