The virtual session
Women4GF welcomes you to our virtual conversation about how to use Country Dialogues to advance Gender Equality through the Global Fund. We are pleased to welcome women in all their diversity, and men who support gender equality, to join in the discussion about how to move ahead.
This post supports the 10am (CET), 30 January 2014 conference call. We warmly encourage you to join in the discussion by posting comments before, during and after the call. This is your space so please use it to share your experiences and develop new ideas for your next steps. You can comment here or on Facebook.
The virtual session agenda
- Welcome and background: Robin Gorna, ASAP, W4GF
- Recent experiences in Indonesia: Sindi Putri, Indonesia Access Campaign, Global Fund Communities Delegation
- Experiences in Namibia: Jennifer Gatsi, Namibia Women’s Health Network, ICW
- Facilitated discussion
Sindi and Jennifer’s experiences
Recent experiences in Indonesia
Sindi Putri, Indonesia Access Campaign, Global Fund Communities Delegation
After participating in the Women4GF Asia workshop in Bangkok on November 2013, I applied to join the Communities Delegation to the Global Fund Baord. Arie T. Surya Mihari, who was also at the workshop, has worked closely with the Indonesia country coordinating mechanism (CCM) to obtain updated information about the Global Fund in Indonesia. I am also trying to communicate with members of the CCM who are from communities. Among the important priorities for me are receiving any updates regarding the national strategic plan (NSP), which is in the process of being finalized, and to know when Indonesia will start the country dialogue that is required under the Global Fund’s new funding model (NFM).
In January 2014, Arie and I attended a regional Global Fund workshop in Jakarta with young key populations regarding advocacy for HIV responses in Indonesia. We are in the core team for advocacy and one of our priorities is to encourage and increase the key population voices in the NSP and country dialogue. Arie will be the responsible person for NFM-related issues and I will support him in many ways because my responsibility is to conduct advocacy regarding the national budget for the HIV/AIDS response. Also, my new role as a member of the Communities Delegation will be useful in our shared effort to ensure an NSP and country dialogue that meets the needs of key populations.
Experiences in Namibia
Jennifer Gatsi, Namibia Women’s Health Network, ICW
Since the first Global Fund application in 2005 by the Namibian government, women living with HIV (WLHIV) have never participated in any meaningful way. WLHIV have not been represented on the Global Fund country coordinating mechanism (CCM); are not invited to sit on other decision-making platforms; and rarely have access to information on all developments related to the Global Fund. Lack of information is a major problem: How can they advocate being part of the Global Fund processes if they have little or no awareness of it, including within the country?
The situation began to change when, in 2009, the Namibian Networks of AIDS Service Organizations (NANASO) was named as a second principal recipient (PR) of the Global Fund grant, along with the Namibian government. The two PRs jointly applied for the Global Fund’s Rolling Continuation Channel (RCC) in Round 9 in 2009. The application was successful because they had included and engaged with key populations as per the RCC requirement of involving them. NANASO nominated a sub-recipient for “most-at-risk populations”, and at least this is now in place.
These developments are a good step forward. But WLHIV are still left out. Tangible changes are needed so that groups working with and representing them directly women are meaningfully, such as by being a PR or a sub-recipient.
Attending the Cape Town meeting was a good investment for me as I received new information from the Women4GF meeting which I intend to use for advocacy and education and information dissemination to WLHIV at country level. I also welcome the virtual dialogues as this will be a platform to share and strengthen the inclusion of all groups to benefit from Global Fund in my country.
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