MEDIA RELEASE
Bangkok, Thailand, 3 March 2021– The Global Fund has launched a process to develop its new Strategy, which will formally take effect in 2023. Ahead of the 6th Partnership Forum 3: Asia & MENA II discussion taking place virtually 3-5 March 2021, APCOM and partners from 11 countries sent a letter to Peter Sands, the Global Fund Executive Director, and Donald Kaberuka, the Global Fund Chair of the Board to urge that the voices, priorities and needs of communities working on HIV, rights and wellbeing of gay men, other men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender people in Asia Pacific must not only be heard during the strategy process and the final document but also an operational plan so as to leave no one behind in the HIV response. The process of Strategy Development started in September 2020 and the Global Fund Board will approve the full Strategy in their 46th Board Meeting in November 2021.
The 6th Partnership Forums are designed to collect ideas, perspectives and guidance from across the Global Fund partnerships to feed into the post-2022 strategy. Which will replace the Global Fund’s current strategy called Investing to End Epidemics with four strategic objectives:
- Maximise Impact against HIV, TB and Malaria
- Build Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health
- Promote and Protect Human Rights and Gender Equality
- Mobilise Increased Resources
Starting with a Global Opening on 2 February 2020, then there are three Partnership Forums for the regions, and there will be a Global Closing on 15 March 2021.
Civil society and community members from around the world answered the question “What is my wish for the next Global Fund strategy?”, including a voice from our Executive Director, Midnight for the opening video calling “…for the Global Fund to invest in the sustainability of key population-led interventions and advocacy”.
“The Strategy development process allows a renewed interest to ensure that the investment of the Global Fund – crucial for our region in Asia Pacific to be put in areas for impact. We would like to see a more human-centered approach in the next Strategy that puts the key populations at the center of the response and that investment must increase for sustaining the communities that are providing key services to the most stigmatised groups, where laws and policies don’t support their access to services.”
Says Midnight, APCOM Executive Director.
“Since 2020 we have been very active in gathering and amplifying voices from our community with positive responses to the WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus, and UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, to not forget LGBTQI people in the Asia Pacific region,”
he added.
- Open Letter to WHO to integrate effects of COVID-19 on the LGBTQI communities gets response from Director General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus
- Response from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
- India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan Remind UNAIDS Executive Director to not forget the region’s Key Population needs for World AIDS Day 2020
In the advocacy letter to the Global Fund leadership, APCOM and country partners from 11 countries; Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Vietnam, put forward some practical considerations on how the Global Fund can more effectively operationalise the new strategy to maximize its impact on the response to HIV among gay men, other MSM and transgender people:
- Maximise Catalytic Funding Mechanisms, including the Regional/Multi-country Grants to Strengthen and Sustain the HIV Response;
- Develop Regional Investment Strategy for Each Region to Guide Country Prioritisation;
- Moving to Measuring Quality.
“Ground-level communities are working hard to overcome access to HIV services and reaching more harder to reach communities. Despite the Covid-19 situation community-led services have been able to adapt to new realities and provide other emergency services to the most marginalised. What we need is to have an operationalised plan for our region and with investment that goes into the sustainability and scaling up of innovative programmes led by key populations themselves,”
says Galsanjamts Nyampurev from Youth for Health, Mongolia.
To further contribute to the strategy development process, APCOM will assist partner organizations at the country level to do a country-specific advocacy letter, which will be shared with the Global Fund. This is an effort to ensure that the next strategy of Global Fund not only reflects communities’ voice but that the next strategy will truly be human-centered and addressing community needs.
Thank you to the following leadership at the country level for adding the voices from their communities to this important letter:
| Doan Thanh Tung | Executive Director | Lighthouse Social Enterprise & Lighthouse Clinic, Vietnam |
| Dr. Min Thet Phyo San | Network and Programme Coordinator | Myanmar Youth Stars Network, Myanmar |
| Lesley Bola | National Coordinator from KP Consortium | KP Consortium, Papua New Guinea |
| Maura Elaripe | GF SKPA Project Officer | KP Consortium, Papua New Guinea |
| Moon Ali | Director Programme | Khwaja Sira Society, Pakistan |
| Muhammad Usman | Program Director | Dareecha Health Society, Pakistan |
| Myagmardorj Dorjgotov | Executive Director | Youth for Health, Mongolia |
| Nyampurev Galsanjamts | GF SKPA Project Officer | Youth for Health, Mongolia |
| Ronivin Pagtakhan, RN, MAN, PhD Ed | Executive Director | LoveYourself Inc., The Philippines |
| John Oliver Corciega | Program Manager | LoveYourself Inc., The Philippines |
| Sanjay Sharma | Program Director | Blue Diamond Society, Nepal |
| Tengku Surya Mihari | Executive Director | GWL-INA National Network, Indonesia |
| Tenzin Gyeltshen | Executive Director | Rainbow Bhutan, Bhutan |
| Viengakhone Souriyo | Executive Director | Community Health & Inclusion Association (CHIas), Laos |
| Yashwinder Singh | Director Policies | The Humsafar Trust, India |
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