HIV2020 Online: Community Reclaiming the Global Response

The HIV2020 Conference was co-organized by key population-led networks including The Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP), The International Network of People Who Use Drugs (INPUD), and MPact.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the HIV2020 Conference was re-imagined as a series of 2-hour virtual sessions that took place on Zoom between the months of July and October. The virtual series retained the original goals and objectives of HIV2020:

1. To reaffirm the leading role key population and communities play in the global HIV response by centering them in a reimagined peer exchange about new research and its implications for policy and practice; and
2. To deliver recommendations to the International AIDS Society for how it could change its governance and conference structure to ensure key population concerns are heard, respected, and responded to seriously.

HIV2020 Online had a total of 7,397 participants from 131 countries who joined together for over 33 sessions to listen, participate, view, and interact with one another. All sessions were offered with simultaneous translation in five languages, which are now available online as video and audio recordings.

The virtual conference concluded with a plenary celebration on World AIDS Day in December of 2020 where a panel of community members and experts shared what they had learned and formulated their strategic recommendations for strengthening and expanding the engagement and leadership of key populations and communities in the global response to HIV & AIDS.