Stigma remains the Achilles’ heel in ending the HIV epidemic as it drives discrimination and inequity across sectors of society, including healthcare, education, workplace and justice systems.

Themed “Creating a Stigma-Free Asia: Collaborating for Equity in HIV”, the Gilead Rainbow Academy aims to deepen our understanding to intersectional socio-structural factors that impact HIV-related stigma and inequity.

The Academy explores how public-private-community collaboration can overcome the remaining roadblocks in stigma, and health equity in Asia to achieve the UNAIDS’ Fast Track 95-95-95 and Zero Discrimination targets. It also seeks to reinforce the connectivity of HIV change makers – from frontline workers, activists to community-based organizations (CBOs) – strengthen relationships with like-minded organizations/ individuals, and in turn, accelerate efforts to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.

Here are the highlights from the 2-day program, held for the first time in Singapore on 5-6 June 2023: