Global Fund civil society delegations agree 2008 priorities
29 February 2008
In February 2008, for the first time, the civil society delegations to the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria organised a joint retreat. The two-day meeting, which was hosted by the Alliance secretariat in Brighton, enabled 35 delegation members to identify and define challenges, priority issues and opportunities for joint work in 2008. Participants also looked at how to strengthen the ways the three delegations work together – both at and between the Global Fund board meetings.
The civil society delegations represent the issues faced by people with HIV, tuberculosis and malaria to the Global Fund board (along with the realities of programme implementation). Three delegations are involved: the Developing Country NGO delegation, the Developed Country NGO delegation, and the Communities Affected by the Diseases delegation.
“It was one of the best activist meetings that I ever attended”
Khalil Elouardighi, Act Up-Paris
Through group work and plenary discussion, five cross-delegation working groups looked at and developed action plans for five key themes:
- demand creation*
- in-country processes*
- medicines (including the Malaria subsidy, in-kind donations and UNITAID)
- funding the Fund
- building partnerships and strengthening advocacy.
The meeting led to a large number of goals being prioritised and strategised, including opportunities for joint policy and advocacy work, additional joint areas of work, and agreement on how the three delegations should work together in the future.
Some of the specific action points from the meeting included:
- setting up working groups on community systems strengthening, gender and the malaria subsidy
- assessing and developing a policy on the participation of vulnerable groups
- a study on how Country Coordinating Mechanism funding is being used.
All of the issues and priorities discussed and proposed activities for 2008 will be included in a strategic document of the meeting (currently being finalised). The groups will use the document as a road map for 2008.
Contact Shaun Mellors, Communications Focal Point, for a copy of the full report.
*Background information
Demand creation
Demand creation is the process of developing and funding ambitious, high-quality national plans, programmes and projects at an appropriate scale – undertaken with the support of national and international stakeholders.
In-country processes
In-country experience shows that country coordinating mechanisms often lack independence and are dominated by the weight of governmental actors. Non-governmental country coordinating mechanisms members often become allies of the government and don’t adequately represent their constituencies. Government actors, however, appear better organised than civil society, and work according to a clearer hierarchy. Today, funding for country coordinating mechanisms is available, but the challenge will be to make the best use of this money and channelling it towards making the mechanism more representative
Vulnerable groups are typically excluded from meaningful participation on country coordinating mechanisms. Increased participation of vulnerable groups is urgently needed to ensure that country priorities are in line with the realities of country epidemics.
At the November 2007 board meeting, the Global Fund recommended that vulnerable groups be included in the 40% quota of representation by the non-governmental sector. The board also delegated authority to the Portfolio Committee to oversee the implementation of this recommendation.
