No. 14: Out of the Shadows: Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GIPA) in Policy David Stephens (October 2004)  Full Document (English)      Order for free      email to me  The Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GIPA) principle has become the most enduring legacy of the Paris Declaration. GIPA has been incorporated into national and international program and policy responses and taken up as a model of best practice in the response to HIV/AIDS. Since the Paris Summit in December 1994, GIPA has been endorsed in numerous international statements, most recently by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on HIV/AIDS in its Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS (United Nations, 2001). Ten years after the Paris Summit, the issue of meaningful involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHAs) in policy development remains largely unexplored. A number of questions linger: Has GIPA become a “bandwagon” policy slogan without significant meaning? What are the benefits of adhering to the GIPA principle and does this lead to better policies? How do PLHAs and others measure and determine progress? To answer these questions, the POLICY Project conducted a study of PLHA involvement in five countries. This report seeks to address how PLHAs are meaningfully involved in policy formulation by exploring key issues related to the GIPA principle and its effects.