Exchange visits and virtual training boost gay and MSM advocacy workshops
27 February 2007
A regional programme with gay and other men who have sex with men (MSM) has shown that training workshops build capacity most effectively when they are backed up by virtual training and exchange visits.
The programme, led by the Alliance in partnership with gay and MSM network Asociación para la Salud Integral y Ciudadanía en América Latina y el Caribe (ASICAL) and the Centre for International Technical Cooperation (CICT) in Brazil, was designed to increase the capacity of gay and other MSM groups to engage effectively with Global Fund mechanisms.
Three consecutive workshops, held simultaneously across Latin America and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, trained 61 participants from 52 gay and MSM organisations in strategic planning and sustainability, designing focused prevention interventions and advocacy.
In between workshops, participants were able to exchange experiences with each other using a virtual platform. They were also expected to arrange exchange visits with host organisations, structured according to workshop themes.
The visits promoted effective south-to-south collaboration and allowed skills learnt during the training programme to be put into practice. They also helped create new partnerships between host and participant organisations.
Some participants accompanied host organisations to meetings to experience at first hand how they were advocating for the more meaningful participation of gay and other MSM. Others visited prevention projects to learn about their peer outreach activities.
The UK and German government-funded programme, which ended in September, has already chalked up successes:
- Three subregional gay and MSM networks have emerged to strengthen south-to-south collaboration, lesson sharing and co-ordinated advocacy work within each subregion.
- CONGA, the Central American subregional network, was launched at the first Central American and Caribbean gay and MSM conference.
- Ecuador now has a designated space in the Global Fund country coordinating mechanism (CCM) for gay and other MSM. Programme participant Neptali Arias, who occupies this seat, has been nominated vice-chair of the CCM.
- A participating Paraguayan organisation, Fundación Vencer, has contributed to the development of a successful Round 6 Global Fund proposal.
The Alliance and ASICAL have been funded by the UK Department for International Development to continue support for the emerging subregional networks during 2007. ASICAL is also set to bring out two toolkits for gay and other MSM groups derived from the focused prevention and strategic planning components of the training programme.
