Partnering to increase funding for the integration of sexual and reproductive health and rights with HIV and malaria
31 January 2007
From 4-6 December 2006, a partnership of organisations aiming to increase the level of funding for the integration of sexual and reproductive health and rights within the HIV and malaria components of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria’s round 7 proposals organised an advocacy summit in Geneva, Switzerland. Alongside the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, other partnership members include the Global AIDS Alliance, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Interact Worldwide and Population Action International.
Participants from sexual and reproductive health networks and organisations, UN agencies such as WHO, UNFPA and UNAIDS and representatives of the Global Fund attended the summit, which aimed to increase the level of funding through a one year joint advocacy strategy supported by high quality documentation and tools. To achieve this aim, two strategies were suggested:
- To stimulate demand for integrated sexual reproductive health and rights inputs in HIV/AIDS and malaria component proposals from country coordinating mechanisms
- To catalyse Global Fund policy, institutional and operational reform that optimises the integration of sexual and reproductive health and rights in HIV/AIDS and malaria component programmes.
Representatives of the Global Fund confirmed that it would fund technically sound proposals that include integration, but it would be crucial to outline the rationale for integration by highlighting the benefit to HIV, tuberculosis or malaria outcomes.
Civil society partners shared their experiences on the development and implementation of Global Fund proposals, in which integration has been occurring where it makes sense. However, challenges remain in ensuring support from the Global Fund for scaling up these initiatives and ensuring adequate representation and involvement of sexual and reproductive health organisations in national Global Fund processes.
Outcomes
The one-year advocacy strategy includes:
- National Action Plans
These outline the activities in the lead up to the call for proposals and during proposal development, with the aim of including sexual and reproductive health integration into malaria and HIV components. In many cases, the country action plans include activities that would in the first place establish or increase the role of civil society organisations working in the SRH field in the national Global Fund processes. The UN partners at the summit committed to communicating the outcomes of the summit to the respective country offices to highlight the possible need for technical assistance over the coming months.
- Influencing the Global Fund at the institutional and operational level
Members committed to various steps, such as trying to influence:
- the Technical Review Panel of the Global Fund
- the Portfolio Committe
- the selection process of the new executive director
The NGO and Affected Communities’ Delegations will be updated on the summit and be able to support the agenda.
- Motivating other countries
All organisations present committed themselves to disseminate the outcomes of the summit and to promote the agenda through their networks. More specifically, the Global AIDS Alliance is taking the lead on the development of proposal development for Round 7 and on guidelines on SRH-malaria integration. The UK Department for International Development and the WHO will be circulating these to its advisors and country offices respectively.
For the final report of the meeting, with detailed outcomes and follow-up activities, please join the partnership’s listserve at GFR7-SRH_HIV_AIDS-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Further information
Why integrate sexual and reproductive health with HIV?
The Alliance’s position on integration
In response to learning from the field, the Alliance has begun to place much greater emphasis on the integration and linkage of HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) programmes and policy. A focus on integrated and linked work responds to organisational needs as well as the needs and desires of the communities that we work with. The Alliance has committed to programmatic and policy work that integrates and links with SRHR in proposals to donors.
