Russian Media Partnership to Combat HIV/AIDS (RMP) unites over 40 competing media companies in a coordinated campaign under one brand. Initiated in the context of the Global Media AIDS Initiative, the Partnership was recognized as best practice at the Special Session of the UN General Assembly on AIDS in June 2006, and is highlighted in Russia’s first Country Report on Response to HIV/AIDS as a key awareness-raising initiative. Partnership’s campaign, StopAIDS: Affects Every One, aims to slow the spread of the epidemic and build tolerance towards people living with HIV.

The StopAIDS: Affects Every One campaign includes:

• Development and placement of public awareness messages across television, radio, outdoor, press, cinema theaters, the Internet and consumer products;
• Integration of HIV/AIDS themes into analytical, entertainment and news programming and publications;
• Support of the on-line informational resource www.stopspid.ru;
• Special events targeted at engaging specific communities into the fight against HIV/AIDS;
• Briefings and trainings for journalists, editors and producers.

Since December 2004 RMP:

• recruited Russia’s major national media outlets, regional television companies, outdoor billboard platforms and movie theaters, celebrities (writers, actors, TV anchors, artists, designers and musicians), and regional AIDS centers;
• got into the contact with preventive HIV centers in each region of Russian Federation;
• launched eight waves of public service announcements across virtually all means of mass communication in Russia including multiple federal and regional television channels (CTC, MTV Russia, TNT, REN-TV, Domashniy and Euronews), radio stations ( Ekho Moskvy, NASHE radio, stations of Russian Media Group and Europa+ holdings), theaters and on plasma screens. Campaign prints appeared on over 1600 billboards of News Outdoor and Gallery in 2008, and in such publications as YES!, Afisha, Bolshoy Gorod, Rovesnik, Shtuchka and others. Total media commitment in 2006 was evaluated at over 8 million USD; in 2007-2008, the contribution is estimated at 24.8 million USD;
• achieved 85% StopAIDS brand recognition among the general Russian population in 2008 and demonstrated concrete impact of the campaign on its audience by reporting 40% of Russians taking concrete steps to learn more about HIV as a result of their encounter with the campaign;, those who saw at least one campaign PSA, more frequently report taking measures to protect themselves (76% vs. 64%); more frequently gets HIV-tested on her/his own initiative (44% vs. 26%); more frequently uses condom every time that has sexual intercourse (55% vs. 38%); rarer rejects meeting people living with HIV (14% vs. 19%).
• took concrete steps towards creating a public-private partnership between the Russian government. In 2008 Government Committee on HIV/AIDS devoted one of its sessions to public-private partnership in the context of public health in Russia and scrutinized the best practice of informational initiative in the contest of HIV/AIDS by the way of RMP example;
• initiated the process of replicating the RMP methodology in Ukraine and China.

StopAIDS and the Russian Media Partnership to Combat HIV/AIDS are coordinated by the non-governmental organization, Global Business Coalition (GBC). The Kaiser Family Foundation, Viacom, and UNAIDS provide ongoing substantive and communications guidance, as well as financial support for production of StopAIDS campaign messages. In addition, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank Group and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provide financial support to StopAIDS through separate grants to GBC.