Publications & Tools

This joint briefing paper by NSWP and INPUD highlights the specific needs and rights of sex workers who use drugs, as a community that spans two key populations. This document provides an overview of some of the most endemic and substantive ways in which sex workers who use drugs face double criminalisation and associated police harassment, intersectional stigma, compounded marginalisation and social exclusion, heightened interference and harassment from healthcare and other service providers, infantilisation, pathologisation, and an associated undermining of agency, choice, and self-determination. A Community Guide is also available.

This joint briefing paper by NSWP and INPUD highlights the specific needs and rights of sex workers who use drugs, as a community that spans two key populations. This document provides an overview of some of the most endemic and substantive ways in which sex workers who use drugs face double criminalisation and associated police harassment, intersectional stigma, compounded marginalisation and social exclusion, heightened interference and harassment from healthcare and other service providers, infantilisation, pathologisation, and an associated undermining of agency, choice, and self-determination. A Community Guide is also available.

Globally sex workers experience a number of barriers to comprehensive
sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, ranging from explicit
exclusion from international financing to discrimination within SRH
services leading to lower access rates.

This paper discusses the obstacles sex workers face when accessing
SRH services, and examines the quality of services available to them. It
also provides practical examples and recommendations for improving the
accessibility and acceptability of SRH services for sex workers.

A Community Guide is also available.

This Briefing Paper documents the stigma and discrimination experienced by LGBT sex workers and highlights differences in their experiences when compared with other members of their respective communities. It also includes recommendations for addressing the double stigma and discrimination experienced by those at the intersection of the sex work and LGBT communities.

Videos in a series from NSWP called Global Fund Basics.
Included are videos on:
The Board, Constituencies/Delegations, and Committees- you’ll hear about the history of the Global Fund, how it’s structured, how it works, the three civil society delegations and the three standing committees.
Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCM) – The CCM is responsible for identifying the work that needs to be done in HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and submitting technical proposals to the Global Fund, identifying the Principle Recipient and overseeing the implementation of grants.
Catalytic Investments – Catalytic Investments are a portion of funding for the Global Fund supported programmes, activities and strategic investments that are not fully covered through country allocations.

The videos are in English and is also available with Spanish, French, and Russian subtitles.

In 2013, The WHO together with UNFPA, UNAIDS, UNDP the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) and the World Bank published ‘Implementing Comprehensive HIV/STI Programmes with Sex Workers: Practical Approaches from Collaborative Interventions’ (or the SWIT as the document has become known). The SWIT reaffirms that the health of sex workers doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and that countries should work towards the decriminalisation of sex work, and the empowerment and self-determination of sex working communities, as a fundamental part of the fight against HIV.

The paper covers various areas of law and law enforcement practices that disproportionately impact sex workers, including immigration laws, policing of public spaces, anti-LGBTQ laws, HIV criminalisation and religious codes. A Community Guide is also available.

“Measures that restrict sex workers? movement and so-called “anti-trafficking” measures are connected. Sex work and trafficking are often conflated in law, policy and practice, including in border control and policing. Most of the discussion on trafficking in international policy spaces has ignored the impact of anti-trafficking laws and policies on sex workers’ mobility. Barriers to sex workers’ mobility make it harder for them to engage with politics and civil issues and impede their right to associate and organise. Sex workers around the world organise collectively to advocate for their human, health, and labour rights.”

Societal stigma and punitive legal frameworks often severely impede key populations’ rights to raise families free from interference and discrimination. The experiences of key population groups (gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, people who use drugs, sex workers, and transgender people) are diverse, and are informed by varying levels of criminalisation, stigma and discrimination, and individual factors such as socioeconomic status, gender, race, and health status. This paper explores these challenges, and provides recommendations for policymakers.
This Policy Brief is a joint effort by three global key population-led networks (INPUD, MPact, and NSWP) to bring attention to the lived experiences of key populations and their families, and highlight the ways that stigma and discrimination inform these experiences. A Community Guide is also available.

This joint briefing paper by NSWP and INPUD highlights the specific needs and rights of sex workers who use drugs, as a community that spans two key populations. This document provides an overview of some of the most endemic and substantive ways in which sex workers who use drugs face double criminalisation and associated police harassment, intersectional stigma, compounded marginalisation and social exclusion, heightened interference and harassment from healthcare and other service providers, infantilisation, pathologisation, and an associated undermining of agency, choice, and self-determination. A Community Guide is also available.

This ‘Smart Sex Workers’ Guide’ provides an overview of the advocacy tools and interventions used by sex worker-led organisations globally to combat violence against sex workers. It builds on the guidance provided in ‘Addressing Violence Against Sex Workers’, chapter 2 of the Sex Worker Implementation Tool (SWIT).

This Smart Guide identifies some of the current (2021) trends in the use of ICT, exploring good and bad practices, and examines the threats and challenges to sex workers’ safety, privacy, and well-being. It highlights the need for ICT developments that meet the highest security standards, are community-led and owned, that protect the health and other human rights of sex workers, and that do not replace essential face-to-face services for sex workers or undermine community empowerment at grassroots level. The Smart Guide draws on the expertise of sex workers and key informants and concludes with recommendations for different stakeholders.

Around the world, sex workers are organising to improve protection of their rights, end exploitation and violence, access appropriate and respectful health care and build movements for lasting change. The Smart Sex Worker’s Guide to Sustainable Funding contains practical information on funding strategies for sex worker organisations. It discusses developing a funding strategy, applying for grants, financial management and community-based fundraising.

This guideance note…is practical guidance for addressing the significant unmet needs and vulnerabilities of displaced persons engaging in sex work. It is a starting point. More detailed and comprehensive guidance is warranted and should be developed in the near future; it should be the product of thoughtful consultation and research, a collaborative process in which affected individuals and experts from across humanitarian and non-humanitarian communities participate.

Recent data indicates that, while there has been some progress in reducing new infections among some populations, 62% of new HIV transmissions in 2019 occurred among key populations and their sexual partners. Clearly, key populations continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV.