communities

ABSTRACT Several months before the International AIDS Conference (AIDS2022), community-led organizations received information about the difficulties in applying for visas, including the requirement of medical exams and rejections. A small team of activists has looked into why this happened and how it could be avoided in the future. It is to be hoped that the AIDS2022 organizers will take on board the lessons learnt for the next conference.

ABSTRACT The Global Fund has recently published two reports that highlight two areas of significant interest for its stakeholders. The first report describes the results of a Thematic Review of Global Fund Community Health Investments based on in-depth reviews of five countries. The second report presents the findings of a Global Fund survey that assessed applicants’ experience of the 2020–2022 country dialogue and the funding request development processes.

ABSTRACT The Asia Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organizations has published a report based on a survey across seven countries in the region, examining the degree and nature of civil society and community engagement in the Global Fund’s country dialogue processes. The report notes overall improvement compared to 2015, but highlights the persistence of some of the same issues, and makes recommendations to address them.

ABSTRACT The world has made progress in the fight against the HIV epidemic during the last decade. However, this progress is under threat as a result of dwindling financial resources and a growing epidemic in some regions. Recent global statistics of the HIV epidemic show that the world is unlikely to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. However, discussions at the 20th International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa underscored the need for countries to build on the achievements so far by raising more HIV resources domestically, stepping up HIV prevention efforts, and putting the communities at the centre of the response.

ABSTRACT Among the grants approved by the Global Fund Board on 21 December 2018 were two multi-country grants in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and one in West and Central Africa. An EECA TB grant was designed to improve early drug-resistant TB case detection and treatment outcomes. Another grant will support a network of supranational TB reference laboratories in the WCA. The third grant targets HIV-related key populations in the EECA.

ABSTRACT There was a strong focus on communities and key populations in Cameroon’s TB/HIV funding request. The Board approved two HIV grants and one TB grant in January 2018. Cameroon also submitted a malaria funding request, which led to approval of a malaria grant in December 2017. Some key initiatives were relegated to the prioritized above-allocation requests due to a lack of available funding.

ABSTRACT Two new publications on civil society and communities have been published by ICASO and the Global Forum on MSM & HIV.

ABSTRACT The Communities delegation is recruiting new members for the period August 2017 to August 2019.

ABSTRACT The Global Fund’s policies on the composition of CCMs have had a big impact in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The policies have resulted in increased participation of LGBT organizations on CCMs, and greater participation of LGBT representatives in the decisions of the CCMs and even of the governments in these countries, including decisions concerning prevention services, according to a new publication from the Eurasian Coalition on Male Health. ECOM also credits these policies with improving the quality of national HIV programs and with helping to combat homophobia.

ABSTRACT In many growing economies, the criteria that donors have laid out for eligibility have resulted in those donors pulling out, says a report prepared for the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board on challenges to financing the community response to HIV. But a growing economy does not automatically translate into growing domestic support for communities.