Recommendations for transitioning countries made available

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By David Garmaise

APMGlobal Health and Aidspan release a paper on transition

APMGlobal Health and Aidspan have jointly released recommendations for countries transitioning from Global Fund support. The recommendations are contained in a paper entitled Transitions from donor funding to domestic reliance for HIV responses.

APMGlobal Health is a social enterprise that works to improve the reach, quality and impact of HIV sexual and reproductive health and harm reduction programmes among marginalized populations.

The paper was written Dave Burrows, Gemma Oberth, Danielle Parsons, and Lou McCallum, and development of the paper was supported by UNAIDS. The authors suggest that transitions need to be based on three sets of principles: (1) transparency and predictability; (2) good practice; and (3) human rights. The paper is structured along these lines.

The section on transparency and predictability describes the need for systematic transition criteria, publicly available transition schedules, and coordinated donor decisions.

In the section on good practice, the paper explains the need for adequate time, high-level country commitment, country ownership of the process, and built-in monitoring and evaluation.

The section on human rights discusses how transitions can protect and promote human rights by maintaining and expanding access to essential HIV services for key populations. This is done through creating funding mechanisms for NGOs and increasing the capacity of NGOs; obtaining high-level political commitment to providing the services; improving the in-country capacity for advocacy; and ensuring funding for policy, security, and criminal justice reform.

“There is an increasing need for transitions that are predictable, effective and protect and promote the human rights of key populations,” said lead author Dave Burrows. “We are already seeing too many countries where exit from donor funding or even a substantial reduction has led to reduced or eliminated services for some key populations.”