Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM)

APCOM is coalition of governments, UN partners, donors, technical experts, non-government and community-based organisations, networks and groups that are directly working with men who have sex with men and HIV. Through increased participation and representation by MSM in regional and global bodies and conferences, APCOM seeks to scale up and increase attention to the needs of MSM in general and HIV issues in particular. Forums that APCOM has been, or will be, represented at include the International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), the 2008 International AIDS Conference in Mexico and ASEAN ministerial meetings.

By leveraging technical assistance, support and mentoring to MSM HIV projects, to state and national governments and to existing technical assistance facilities, as well as by identifying and assisting the development of MSM (and transgender) and HIV networks, APCOM strengthens community work and nurtures partnerships so that good practices and lessons learnt can be shared and programme results improved.

A critical role for APCOM is to assess and track country by country both the degree and quality of inclusion of MSM and HIV issues in national AIDS planning. APCOM also promotes the principles of good practice and lessons learnt to policy makers, service providers and MSM based on qualitative research and cost effective studies.