Challenges and strategies of civil society approaching the state: the case of ABIA (Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association) and the governance in the HIV/AIDS policy.

Abstract: The Brazilian HIV/AIDS policy faced a structural change with the political shifts that, starting in 2016, led to the election of a right-wing president in 2018. Focusing on the relation between the state and civil society, this work will help understand the evolution of the spaces for civil society to advocate for sexual rights related to HIV/AIDS. This research examines the case of the Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association (ABIA) and its relations with the different components of the state and other members of civil society. Data collection is built upon semi-structured interviews to evaluate factors that allowed the viability of a long advocacy trajectory and understand old and new strategies to face challenges in the social and political spaces. Further discussion concerns the strategies for the sustainability of advocacy in a field that has been threatened by national and international structural changes. The hypothesis is that thanks to the maturation of a solid network of intellectuals and activists, as well as figures from other fields, and thanks to strategical adaptation to changing times, ABIA has managed to fuel advocacy both within and outside institutional arenas, either on a more constructive or more conflictual level.