A glossary was produced by the regional networks of communities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia with the invitation of UNAIDS to develop a list of key Russian-language terms related to community leadership in response to the HIV epidemic. SWAN programme officer Kristina Mahnicheva and activist Shahnaz Islamova from SWAN member organisation Tais Plus were amongst the co-developers of the terminology as part of the working group on Russian terminology related to community leadership in response to the HIV and tuberculosis epidemics.
Why was this work necessary?
The need for such a document was apparent due to the development of community mobilisation and advocacy approaches, emerging HIV and TB services, and the introduction of digital technologies. New technical terms and language appear to be consolidated as official terminology. The community-based list of terms was particularly needed to assist UNAIDS in developing a new Global AIDS Strategy and setting new HIV targets by 2025 and the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS in June 2021 year.
Main terminology sections
The main sections of the document are:
- Names of communities affected by HIV and TB and key populations;
- Community organisations and the community leadership response to the epidemic;
- International goals;
- Stigma and discrimination;
- Gender issues;
- Violence;
- Criminalisation;
- Gender-sensitive vocabulary and feminitives.
The list includes terms in English and in Russian, and it is expected to be developed further by the key communities of the EECA region in the upcoming months.
We encourage our members, partners as well as all relevant stakeholders to make use of this document in order to create a inclusive common language.
The terminology can be found here.