Also available in: Español

Source: corresponsalesclave.org 

By: Constanza Armas 

Vía Libre – LAC Platform, the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), and Women 4 Global Fund (W4GF) organized a much-needed meeting space to discuss the needs and experiences of networks of women living with HIV in relation to the grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund). 

Thea Willis, Equality Advisor in the Global Fund’s Community, Rights and Gender department, mentioned that the goal of the organization she represents is to “maximize gender equality in health and human rights,” which means ensuring that the strategies and technical approaches proposed in various projects and programs are aligned with gender requirements. 

The speaker mentioned that the Global Fund’s Technical Review Panel examines each application to ensure that a broad vision of the gender perspective is included. Although she noted that 67% of the submitted applications take this approach into account —progress compared to the 58% from previous experiences— “we still have a long way to go” because most of them focus only on violence reduction and the labor sector—necessary but not sufficient aspects for the inclusion of women, girls and LGBTQI+ populations in projects and programs.  

In this regard, she highlighted several recommendations, such as conducting gender mainstreaming assessments with meaningful engagement of girls and women. “Many of the basic activities related to this theme are reflected in the budget, but they are put in the additional allocation requests. They must become part of the main budget,” said Willis. She also stressed the importance of considering existing guidelines (such as the one available here) that emphasize the importance of intersectionality and disaggregating data by sex and gender. 

“When we think about gender, it is usually in the context of access to services, but we are less aware of it when we talk about risk, vulnerability and outcomes of health care or services. (…) We should consider how this affects actual access to services (…) To maximize gender equality , we should try to have a gender transformative approach that considers the underlying causes of inequality,” said the speaker. 

In turn, Sita Shahi, Regional Coordinator of the International Community of Women Living with HIV in Asia and the Pacific (ICWAP), began her contribution with the question, «Why was the current movement created?» She pointed out that “the movement of women living with HIV emerged after the COVID pandemic as a way of trying to provide long-term care and support to these women because their needs were ignored in the medical field (…) Networks of women face challenges in getting engaged in global funding.” In this regard, Shahi noted the importance of technical assistance to support the engagement of women living with HIV in global funding at all stages of the country-level funding process. 

Olena Stryzhak, from the organization Positive Women in Ukraine, noted that including a gender perspective in the requests to the Global Fund has been a long process that continues to be thought through and renewed. As she pointed out, the regional strategic initiatives must include women in the working groups as well as in the main and secondary budget allocations. 

Stryzhak described a country that is invaded and at war, where refugee women have all kinds of needs. She mentioned that the funding request development process “took five months of listening to women in very complex situations. But it was possible, (…) we were able to raise our voices and show our needs.” She also reiterated the importance of intersectionality for greater inclusion of people with disabilities and other characteristics or conditions. 

Similarly, Sveta Moroz, chair of the Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS (Ukraine), shared examples of women-led activities to access documentation and systematize “human rights violations by the Russian Federation.” In this context, she mentioned the importance of collecting disaggregated data and recording HIV discrimination, especially among women, and systematically documenting the impact of stigma on their lives. 

Another critical aspect mentioned by Moroz was the organization of roundtables to identify key decision-makers. She highlighted women-led research on sexual and reproductive rights and the large-scale risk assessment focused on women living with HIV, sex workers and people who use drugs, covering 15 countries in Southeast Europe and Central Asia. Moroz also drew attention to the low engagement of women sex workers in various spaces and called for increased visibility. 

Ángela León Cáceres, the W4GF Global Coordinator, said that the organzation “aims to enhance awareness, understanding, and advocacy among women advocates regarding the Global Fund’s processes, policies, and investment support, with a special focus on the importance of gender-transformative actions, indicators and advocacy strategies for a meaningful participation.” This objective includes adolescent and young women who are underrepresented in networks. 

Likewise, León Cáceres emphasized the need to focus on “monitoring practices to ensure meaningful engagement throughout the whole development and application process, as well as during the grant implementation phase.” 

Among her key recommendations, the speaker argued that “projects should be based on data and assessments.” As she pointed out, for Global Fund grants, “preparation is essential to ensure partner engagement (…) as well as having clarity on key dates for the application window.” She also mentioned the need to map out key partners and stakeholders “to know who can support and strengthen advocacy capacity at different levels, (…) and to ask the Country Coordinating Mechanisms about the Technical Working Groups that will continue the advocacy strategy.” 

According to León Cáceres, there are two essential points to consider when developing funding requests. First, it is crucial to remember that Grant Cycle 7 allows for the intervention of multilateral organizations, such as the STOP TB Partnership, to ensure that the request is based on global guidance. Second, it is crucial to include gender equality markers from the Modular Framework. “Use the information to be empowered! This information is on the web.” 

Finally, Helen Aphan, from ICW West Africa, emphasized women’s resilience. Women have been in a constant struggle to improve their health, she said, because “we have not had the opportunity to get funding to help us deal with the three diseases (TB, HIV and malaria).” 

This women-led and women-driven event was an insightful and necessary gathering to build bridges and produce relevant information for all stakeholders involved in Global Fund grants. Increasing the engagement of the most vulnerable populations and those involved in caring for people living with or affected by HIV, malaria and tuberculosis is clearly a global priority. 

To access the webinar, please click in the next screen:

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