Avahan

Āvāhan (Sanskrit): clarion call; call to action; summoning to duty

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India has one of the largest HIV/AIDS populations in the world. It affects an estimated 5.3 million of the country’s one billion citizens and is present in every Indian state. It affects all sectors of society, hitting four groups hardest: sex workers, their clients and partners, high risk men who have sex with men, and injecting drug users. Without effective prevention services persons at high risk of infection and HIV-positive persons have no way to stop the spread of the disease, risking an escalation of the epidemic.

To help address this challenge, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation established Avahan in 2003 – a national HIV prevention initiative that has scaled up prevention to persons at high risk resulting in the largest targeted intervention in the world. Through this initiative Avahan is working to expand access to effective prevention programmes in the six states with India’s highest infection rates, and along the nation’s major trucking routes. Avahan works with 290,000 sex workers and injecting drug users and six million men who frequent sex workers.

To date, Avahan has committed $258 million for the programme including $23 million to support the capacity development of the government. The Avahan team works close to the ground with grantees to review the impact of the programme and make real-time adjustments that improves its effectiveness. Avahan has developed this unique business model of execution with a unique team that has private-sector and public-health backgrounds. A unique mix that gives it the ability to scale up high-quality HIV prevention programmes more rapidly than has ever been demonstrated globally and do so through a community led approach. Avahan has established its footprint rapidly and is now working hand in hand with the government of India National AIDS Control Organization to see that the innovations of the programme are integrated into the governments National AIDS Control Programme (NACP III).