During a satellite session at the 2nd Asia-Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Se*ual Health (APCRSH), which was held in Bangkok on 5 October 2003, a Network on Social Science and HIV/AIDS was established.

The satellite session, called The Role of Social Science in the Response to HIV/AIDS, was co-sponsored by UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, the Asia-Pacific AIDS Society (ASAP) and the Asia-Pacific Network of the International Forum for Social Sciences in Health (APNET).

The overall goal of the Network on Social Science and HIV/AIDS is to contribute to more effective and appropriate HIV prevention and impact alleviation efforts in the Asia-Pacific region by promoting the application of social research and the dissemination and sharing of social research findings relevant to the response to HIV/AIDS.

Some of the Network's proposed objectives include the following:

1. To provide a platform for sharing experiences, methodologies and research findings related to HIV/AIDS and social science in the Asia-Pacific region;

2. To provide a link between social scientists and their research findings and action groups and NGOs in the field - in the future possibly 'repackaging' and summarizing academic research findings, making them accessible to people in the field who are not used to academic jargon, and on the other hand making reports from NGOs and action groups more accessible to academics;

3. To provide a link between social scientists and their research findings and relevant Government agencies, especially the National AIDS Program but also Ministries of Education, Social Welfare and Information, promoting evidence-based HIV prevention and impact alleviation strategies that correspond to the needs and the socio-cultural background of target audiences;

4. To advocate for social science evidence to be considered and utilized by HIV prevention and impact alleviation intervention designers in governments, donor agencies and NGOs/CBOs.