Senegal’s civil society response a model of best practice, says Global Fund
26 February 2007
Senegal’s efforts to turn around their national HIV response have paid off and are now the “basis of much hope”, the Global Fund Board President Dr Carol Jacobs has said. She added that “Senegal has not only been able to overcome initial challenges, but today can also be considered as a model of best practice to be promoted elsewhere.”
In a letter to Alliance linking organisation Alliance Nationale Contre le SIDA (ANCS), Dr Carol Jacobs singled out the partnership between government and civil society for particular praise. The greater involvement of civil society in planning and managing the national response has been instrumental in maintaining the Global Fund grant following its threatened withdrawal.
Following serious concerns about how the national response to HIV was being managed, the Global Fund had given Senegal three months to resolve their difficulties. But happily when Dr Jacobs visited Senegal from 15 to 17 January 2007 to view progress on programme interventions supported by the Global Fund, she said she was “particularly impressed by the state/quality of the partnership and the high degree of mobilisation of all the actors involved at all levels”.
In order to maintain the Global Fund grant in Senegal, a new management structure has been implemented with two Principal Recipients, one of whom is responsible for the civil society component. ANCS has been selected for this role on behalf of civil society.
The co-management structure is already having a positive impact on Senegal’s ability to meet Global Fund objectives. It is improving programme management and implementation, influencing how the government carries out its commitments, and reinforcing the co-ordination of civil society actions.
Concerns had begun to surface in recent years over the way in which the HIV response was evolving in Senegal. There were worries about the financing of new programmes and projects whose quality had not been validated. In response, Senegal reviewed its HIV strategies and mechanisms and began to implement change. A civil society watchdog organisation, the Observatoire, was also set up by a group of NGOs in 2003 and helped influence this change in national response.
The Global Fund expressed “complete satisfaction” with recent progress on the programme interventions they support.
Letter from Dr Carol Jacobs to ANCS in French
