New funding opportunities for civil society to tackle HIV
03 March 2008 – for immediate release
The International HIV/AIDS Alliance today welcomed the call from the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria for new funding proposals to tackle HIV. Thanks to the introduction of some new measures, civil society and affected and marginalised communities (including sex workers, men who have sex with men and injecting drug users) will now have greater opportunity to access money from the Global Fund to support responses to HIV.
“The Alliance has been working with the Global Fund and partner organisations for 6 years and has helped the Fund’s money achieve more. These new measures are good news. They will help ensure that civil society organisations that are often the best placed to reach vulnerable groups have greater access to Global Fund money,” said Paul McCarrick, Head of the Global Fund Grant Support Team at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
For the first time Global Fund proposals are routinely required to include both government and a non-government organisation as the principal recipients of a grant.
Grant applicants also need to routinely include in their proposals measures to strengthen the community systems needed for effective grant implementation. These activities could include training organisations to strengthen their financial and organisational systems, HIV programmatic expertise, advocacy skills or developing collaboration between different groups. “Community system strengthening” will bolster the overall health system in a country.
The measures recognise the very valuable role civil society groups and affected communities are currently playing in implementing programmes that make a difference to stemming the epidemic.
“The [Round 8] focus on encouraging non-government principal recipients enhances the opportunities for nongovernmental organizations to become full partners in the planning and implementation of comprehensive responses to the disease(s)," said Rajat Gupta, Chair of the Global Fund Board.
Alliance linking organisations and country offices are principal recipients of Global Fund grants in Ukraine, India and Senegal, and receive grants in a further ten countries – with onward grants reaching over 700 partners implementing HIV prevention, care and treatment programmes.
The Alliance is providing financial and technical support to these grant recipients and local implementing organisations, supporting civil society partners to produce better quality funding proposals to deliver programmes that reach those most in need.
“The money is making a difference. Through Global Fund grants in Ukraine, which has one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics, the Alliance has been able to provide increasing numbers of adults and children with life-saving treatment. In 2006 prevention services reached 110,000 injecting drug users, 15,000 women involved in commercial sex, 7,000 men who have sex with men and 29,000 prisoners,” Paul McCarrick explained.
“We know that government and civil society working together and strengthening community systems is effective from our work with the Global Fund in Ukraine, India and Senegal. We welcome these developments which will encourage all funding applicants to include civil society as a key part of their proposals,” he said.
-Ends-
Editors Notes
- The International HIV/AIDS Alliance (the Alliance) is a global partnership of nationally-based organisations working to support communities to reduce the spread of HIV and meet the challenge of AIDS. Working for fifteen years we have provided support to organisations from more than 40 developing countries for over 3,000 projects, reaching some of the poorest and most vulnerable communities with HIV prevention, care, support and improved access to treatment. http://www.aidsalliance.org
- The Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria disperses money to tackle the three diseases through a partnership approach between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities. The Fund currently provides one-fifth of funding for HIV/AIDS. http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/
For more information or interviews contact:
Sarah Wheeler on: 01273 718949 swheeler@aidsalliance.org
Simon Moore on: 01273 718744 smoore@aidsalliance.org
