A workshop on Supporting Gender Equality and Human Rights Champions in Global Fund Country Processes was organised by W4GF with support from the Stop TB Partnership, ViiV Healthcare, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria, and the Communities Delegation to the Board of the Global Fund. The workshop was hosted with the support by APCASO from 28 June – 1 July 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand.
33 participants gathered from communities and civil society, some from Challenging Operating Environments (COE) and key affected groups, and technical partners working in HIV, TB and malaria for this 4-day workshop co-facilitated by Sarah Middleton-Lee and Rachel Ong. Participants identified for this workshop were from countries that were identified with:
- Not meeting the 30% minimum requirement for gender balance on the CCMs;
- A CCM that did not have a woman representative from key populations/communities living with the diseases; and/or
- A high burden TB country.
A total of 17 participants through an application process were identified from Pakistan, Indonesia, Bolivia, Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia.
The workshop objectives were to:
- Strengthen the capacity of HIV, TB and malaria community and civil society gender advocates to engage in Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs), as well as relevant country processes, including National Strategic Plans (NSPs) development and Country Dialogues;
- Sharpen the advocacy skills of W4GF advocates on rights-based and gender-transformative HIV, TB and malaria programming;
- Foster solidarity and support amongst gender advocates engaged in CCM processes within and across countries and the three diseases; and
- Facilitate understanding of the 2017 – 2022 Global Fund Strategy: Investing to End Epidemics, and to develop an Action Plan for gender advocates to be involved in the next allocation cycle and/or related country level processes.
The summation through a statement from workshop participants is available here, and outlines what participants would like to see in the operationalisation of the new Global Fund Strategy 2017 – 2022: Investing to End Epidemics, and more specifically, as we move towards the new Global Fund allocation cycle 2017 – 2019 and related country and grant processes.
The final workshop report is available here
W4GF thanks all participants, co-organisers and donors for their participation and support
Photographs are available at the W4GF facebook page below.