The participants to the Regional workshop on Networking, Partnership and Leadership for Civil Society Organisations on HIV/AIDS in the Arab States, held in Tunis by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 9-13 December 2002;
With the support of UNAIDS and UNFPA and the logistical help of the Tunisian Association against STIs/AIDS (ATL-MST/SIDA, Association Tunisienne de Lutte contre les MST et le SIDA);
And the presence of 51 Arab civil society organisations representatives coming from 14 countries including Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen ; and 5 regional or international orga-nisations, including CAWTAR, IPPF-AWRO, the Arab scout Bureau, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent,

After five days of exchange and deep and sincere discussions:

• Reaffirming their belonging to common cultural and social values;
• Assuming the necessity for the Arab Civil Society Organisations to reinforce in their respective countries the mobilisation against the AIDS pandemic;
• Conscious of the urgent need for these organisations to coordinate their efforts at national level within national net-works unifying the various community actors -including those non specialized in HIV/AIDS- in order to increase efficacy and synergy among their programmes and actions;
• Convinced that it is crucial to remain vigilant in facing the AIDS challenge within their on-going programmes;
• Conscious that the fight against HIV should not be limited within a single national territory;
• Convinced that the nature of this pandemic, which defies all borders, justifies strongly the combination of the civil society efforts across the region and the necessary coordination among them within a regional network;

Agreed on the following:
1) Re-affirm their joint commitment for reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS by mobilizing all necessary institutional, human, programmatic and financial means;
2) Decide –in respect to their expressed shared vision- to set-up a coordination mechanism at the regional level;
3) Announce the creation of an Arab civil society organisations network in order to coordinate their efforts in the fight and the prevention of STIs and HIV/AIDS;
4) Invite the regional/international organisations supporting or operating in the region and helping the national efforts against HIV/AIDS to support this initiative;
5) Ask the international organisations having put in their priorities the fight against the diseases, especially STIs/HIV/AIDS, to fully consider this Network as their partner and to support its development;
6) Commit themselves to establish a good flow of information and to ensure a total transparency in functioning the coordination mechanism and the Network governance;
7) Commit themselves to work at all levels to create a supportive environment for people infected or affected by HIV/AIDS in term to promote and preserve their rights and to firmly combat all forms of discrimination and stigma;
8) Commit themselves, back to their individual country, to organize a national workshop involving all the stakeholders for information and sharing of Tunis meeting content, results and decisions and to stimulate creation of -or strengthening- the networking process among civil society organisations participating in the AIDS work;
9) Commit themselves to undertake all needed alliances with the partner institutions and existing networks;
10) Decide to establish an Interim Secretariat, for a one year period, in order to concretize the Tunis Workshop recommendations and to execute its decisions according to the following Mandate adopted by the participants :

• To propose elements for a charter (internal rules) comprizing Guiding Principles, Rules for joining the Network and its functioning, etc;
• To establish a communication sys-tem ensuring a permanent and sustainable flow of information with the 17 countries of the region ;
• To raise awareness of Medias and other actors, at the regional and international level, about this process;
• To establish -and nourish at a regular basis- a regional Data Bank on organisations, resource persons and sources of technical/financial support in the area of HIV/AIDS;
• To launch a web site for our Network/coalition and to establish links with our partners sites (United Nations agencies & programmes, Networks, etc);
• To work for an adequate resource mobilisation and to prepare a General Assembly;
• To represent and advocate for our Network at the institutional regional/ international levels with a regular reporting to all members.

Therefore, participants gave mandate –with trust and confidence- to the Association Tunisienne de Lutte contre les MST/SIDA (ATL MST/SIDA) for running the Interim Secretariat, under the adopted goals & principles.

December 13th 2002 Tunis