Conflicts and natural disasters, when combined with displacement, food insecurity and poverty, can lead to humanitarian emergencies that have the potential of increasing the vulnerability to HIV infection among affected populations and disrupt vital AIDS services.

During emergencies, vulnerability to HIV infection may be increased due to the loss of livelihoods and the disruption of family and social networks and institutions, forcing women and girls into transactional sex for money, food or protection. Drug use patterns may also change. 

Conflict also tends to increase gender based violence against women and girls. In some prolonged conflicts in Africa, HIV prevalence has nevertheless remained relatively low, for instance among refugees, indicating a complex relationship between gender-based violence and HIV transmission.

Unless adequate measures are taken, HIV transmission may well increase during post-emergency, recovery and reconstruction periods, as a result of increased mobility and population interaction, including between rural and urban areas.

AIDS has been identified as a multisectoral, cross cutting issue within humanitarian responses. In 2003, the Inter Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Task Force developed the IASC Guidelines for HIV/AIDS Interventions in Emergency Settings, which contains sections on coordination, assessment and monitoring, protection, water and sanitation, food security and nutrition, shelter and site planning, health, education, behaviour change communication and information education communication, and HIV/AIDS in the workplace. 

Prevention and protection programs have included AIDS information for emergency-affected populations, the supply of male and female condoms, and addressing gender-based violence. Post-exposure prophylaxis is now recommended as part of a minimum response to HIV in humanitarian settings. Voluntary counseling and testing, preventing mother-to-child transmission, anti-retroviral therapy, and community-based care have also been implemented in some humanitarian situations. 

In high HIV-prevalence countries in Southern Africa affected by recurrent droughts and chronic food insecurity, nutritional support to people living with HIV on anti-retroviral therapy and AIDS affected households with chronically sick members or orphans have been provided.

The recently reconvened IASC Task Force is in the process of revising these guidelines to include gap areas such as specific modules on antiretroviral therapy, HIV programming in the reintegration and recovery phases and the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the guidelines themselves.

Other guidelines and tools have also been developed or are in the process of development. These include the IASC Guidelines on Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings and a handbook outlining specific programming tools for adolescents in emergencies. Various non-governmental organizations have developed their own guidelines.

New, less labor-intensive agricultural practices have been introduced to facilitate rehabilitation and improve the livelihoods of women and child-headed households.

In addition, AIDS has been integrated into peacekeeping operations, including through the reinforcement of codes of conduct and condom promotion. The integration of HIV prevention elements into Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration program has begun in several countries.

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