Global Fund-Related Events at the Toronto International AIDS Conference

The Toronto International AIDS Conference will take place from this coming Sunday (August 13) to Friday August 18. The events that specifically deal with the Global Fund are listed below, in date order. All sessions will be in English. The only one that will offer translation (into French and Spanish) is the session on 16 August on The Global AIDS Architecture.

Two of the events will be organized by Aidspan, publisher of GFO. The first is item (A) – an informal get-together on Sunday to which all readers of GFO and of the Aidspan Guides are warmly invited, both to meet each other and to provide feedback. The second is item (F), on Tuesday, a skills-building session on how to participate in the development of proposals to the Global Fund

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A: Sunday 13 August, 11:00 to 13:00 – Reception

Session title: Informal get-together for readers of Global Fund Observer (GFO) and of the Aidspan Guides.

Venue: International Living and Learning Centre (London and Paris rooms), 240 Jarvis Street, Toronto. (From the Metro Toronto Convention Center, go about six blocks East on Front Street to Jarvis St., then six blocks North on Jarvis St. Or take the Yonge St. subway line to the Dundas stop, then walk two blocks East on Dundas St. E. to Jarvis St., then turn North on Jarvis St. The meeting location, at 240 Jarvis St., is between Dundas St. E. and Gerrard St. E.)

Organizer: Aidspan (publisher of GFO)

Session description: This informal get-together is intended to enable readers of GFO and of the various Aidspan Guides to provide feedback to Aidspan (specifically, to Bernard Rivers, editor of GFO, and David Garmaise, author of most of the Aidspan Guides). All readers of GFO and of the Aidspan Guides are warmly invited (no RSVP needed). Light refreshments will be provided.

GFO now has a circulation of over 10,000, but Aidspan receives very little feedback from readers. Aidspan would therefore like to hear comments on the strengths and weaknesses of GFO, and suggestions regarding topics for future issues.

Feedback is also sought on the most recent Aidspan Guides (The Aidspan Guide to Round 6 Proposals to the Global Fund and The Aidspan Guide to Developing Global Fund Proposals To Benefit Children Affected by HIV/AIDS), and on earlier Guides on (a) building effective CCMs, (b) implementing Global Fund grants, and (c) obtaining technical assistance. Aidspan would like to know whether readers found the Guides helpful, how they could be improved, what topics should be covered in future Guides, and other services and products that Aidspan could usefully provide.

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B: Sunday 13 August, 14:45 to 16:45 – Satellite session

Session title: Supporting civil society engagement in Global Fund implementation: sharing experiences and perspectives

Venue: Session Room 9

Organizer: International HIV/AIDS Alliance, in collaboration with the Global Fund

Session description: This session will examine lessons from civil society involvement in managing Global Fund grants and sub-grants. The session will also consider the perspectives of the Global Fund, the United Nations Development Programme and international civil society advocates on strengthening the meaningful contribution of civil society to Universal Access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care and support.

Co-Chairs will be Fareed Abdullah (Director of Technical Support, International HIV/AIDS Alliance) and Jacob Gayle (Member of the Private Foundations Delegation to the Global Fund Board). Speakers will include Alvaro Bermejo (Executive Director, International HIV/AIDS Alliance), Andriy Klepikov (Executive Director, International HIV/AIDS Alliance in Ukraine), Magatte Mbodj (Executive Director, Alliance Nationale Contre le SIDA, Senegal), Promboon Panitchpakdi (Executive Director, Raks Thai Foundation, Thailand), Duncan Earle (Team Leader, Operational Partnerships and Country Support, Global Fund), Elhadj As Sy (Director, HIV/AIDS Group, UNDP), Luiz Loures (Associate Director, Global Initiatives, UNAIDS), Richard Burzynski (Director, International Council of AIDS Service Organisations), and Christoph Benn (Director of External Relations, Global Fund)

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C: Sunday 13 August, 17:00 to 18:30 – Satellite session. (Note: This event occurs at the same time as the next event in this list.)

Session title: From the workplace to the community – Co-investment to access prevention, treatment and care in public-private partnership

Venue: Skills Building Room 4

Organizer: ILO and GTZ, supported by Global Fund and Global Business Coalition

Session description: Over the past few years, many companies have started to provide HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and support services to their workers. Some companies have found the need to extend these services so that they are also provided to family dependents and community members. This extension has been conducted, in part, through partnerships with other stakeholders, both within and outside the private sector. This coordinated joint investment of public and private resources has become known in recent years as “co-investment”.

This session will describe practical experiences of successful co-investment projects such as those involving Lafarge in Nigeria and Unilever in Kenya. The objective is to provide a good understanding of the meaning of co-investment, and to introduce newly developed guidelines on co-investment.

Topics to be discussed include “Opportunities for co-investment partnerships in the different phases of the Global Fund grant process” and “Examples of successful co-investment partnerships involving the Global Fund in Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi”.

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D: Sunday 13 August, 17:00 to 18:30 – Satellite session. (Note: This event occurs at the same time as the previous event in this list.)

Session title: The Role of Innovative Financing in Achieving Universal Access

Venue: Session Room 12

Organizers: Global Fund and Friends of the Global Fund Europe

Session description: Given the enormous financing needs for the global fight against HIV/AIDS, it is increasingly accepted that national health budgets and overseas development assistance must be supplemented with funding obtained through innovative financing mechanisms.

This session will bring together government and NGO experts on new sources of finance. These speakers will provide the latest information on mechanisms such as the international solidarity levy on airline tickets, and the International Finance Facility pilot project to raise funds for the Vaccine Fund. A panel discussion will include representative from countries benefiting from and implementing innovative financing initiatives, and will look at the use of these additional resources for financing treatment through the International Drug Purchase Facility (IDPF).

Speakers will include Richard Feachem (Executive Director, Global Fund), Michel Kazatchkine (France’s Ambassador on HIV/AIDS), Carole Presern (UK Foreign Office, and Global Fund board member), Sylvie Chantereau (Managing Director, Friends of the Global Fund Europe), Robert Filipp (Head of Innovative Financing, Global Fund), Peter van Rooijen (Global Fund board member representing Developed Country NGOs), and Christoph Benn (Director of External Relations, Global Fund).

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E: Monday 14 August, 18:00 to 20:00 – Satellite session

Session title: Response to Emerging Epidemics: Global Fund Experience

Venue: Session Room 11

Organizer: Global Fund

Session description: This session will focus on the emerging AIDS epidemics in three regions that are too often neglected in AIDS debates: the Middle-East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and South Asia. Speakers from India, Russia and Saudi Arabia will speak briefly about the emerging epidemics in their regions and the urgent need for a comprehensive response that includes strategic prevention programs. This will be followed by a panel discussion by representatives from Global Fund-financed programs in India, Jordan and Russia who will share their first-hand experiences of delivering services for the prevention and treatment of HIV. Innovative HIV prevention ads and short videos showing country programs will also be screened during the session.

Panellists will include Richard Feachem (Executive Director, Global Fund), Peter Piot (Executive Director, UNAIDS), Prince Walid bin-Talal (Saudi Arabia, to be confirmed), Vladimir Pozner (Journalist, Russia), Nafisa Ali (Chair, Action India), Lieve Fransen (Vice-Chair, Global Fund), Sujatha Rao (Director General, National Aids Control Organisation, India), Ali As’ Ad (Secretary General, Ministry of Health, Jordan), Alexey Bobrik (Deputy Director, Open Health Institute, Russia), Hind Khatib Othman (Interim Deputy Chief of Operations, Global Fund), Nafis Sadik (UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia), and Lars Kallings (UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe).

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F: Tuesday 15 August, 14:15 to 17:45 – Skills-building workshop

Session title: How to Participate in the Development of Proposals to the Global Fund

Venue: Skills Building Room 10

Organizer: Aidspan

Session description: This workshop will discuss the process for developing proposals to the Global Fund, with particular emphasis on how NGOs can be involved in the preparation of the proposals. Because the vast majority of Global Fund proposals are submitted by CCMs, the workshop will focus primarily on CCM proposals.

The workshop will describe the basic philosophy and principles of the Global Fund, the types of initiatives the Global Fund will support, and who can submit proposals. The workshop will discuss the Global Fund’s applications process, and the proposal development process that CCMs should follow. About half of the workshop will consist of guidance for both CCMs and NGOs concerning how NGOs can be involved in the CCM’s proposal development process. Participants will be asked to share their experiences regarding the Global Fund’s application process.

One of the most common weaknesses of proposals to the Global Fund is that applicants only start thinking about what the proposal should focus on after the Fund has issued its formal Call for Proposals. Although the deadline for submitting Round 6 proposals has only just passed, CCMs and NGOs are encouraged to start thinking now about their focus for proposals to be submitted in future rounds.

The workshop will be led by David Garmaise (author of The Aidspan Guide to Round 6 Applications to the Global Fund) and Bernard Rivers (editor of Aidspan’s Global Fund Observer).

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G: Wednesday 16 August, 10:45 to 12:15 – Skills-building workshop

Session title: Managing Implementation Challenges in Global Fund Grants

Venue: Skills Building Room 5

Organizer: Global Fund

Session description: Global Fund grant recipients often run into similar challenges when implementing programs. This interactive workshop presents participants with the five most common implementation challenges that grant recipients face, looks at how to identify problems early on, and talks about how to manage them – and even how to avoid them from the start.

The workshop, facilitated by the Fund’s Christoph Benn (Director of External Relations), will include information on the ways in which the Global Fund helps grant recipients to deal with implementation problems with the support of its technical partners. Global Fund Operations staff, representatives of technical partners and grant recipients that have successfully dealt with implementation problems will be in attendance to answer questions.
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H: Wednesday 16 August, 16:15 to 17:45 – Panel discussion. (Note: This event occurs at the same time as the next event in this list.)

Session title: Global Fund: Current Developments and Resource Mobilization

Venue: Global Village – SH 2

Organizer: NGO members of Global Fund board delegations

Session description: This panel discussion will have two main themes. First, it will review the outcomes of the Fund’s recent Partnership Forum in Durban, focussing on ways in which civil society can be more involved in Global Fund processes. Second, it will review the Fund’s current resource mobilization situation, focussing on developments at the recent Replenishment meeting and on whether or not there is likely to be sufficient funding for Round 6.

Speakers will include Mandeep Dhaliwal (lead facilitator of the recent Partnership Forum), Christoph Benn (Global Fund Director of External Relations), Liz Mataka (Global Fund board member representing developing country NGOs), Asia Russell (Global Fund alternate board member representing developed country NGOs), Shaun Mellors (International HIV/AIDS Alliance), Bernard Rivers (editor, Global Fund Observer), and Peter van Rooijen (Global Fund board member representing developed country NGOs).

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I: Wednesday 16 August, 16:15 to 17:45 – Symposium. (Note: This event occurs at the same time as the previous event in this list.)

Session title: The Global AIDS Architecture: Where Do We Go From Here? The Impact of Global Policies and Initiatives on Country and Local Responses to HIV/AIDS

Venue: Session Room 2

Session description: This session will examine the extent to which affected countries are more able to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic as a result of global policies and initiatives such as the Global Fund, the “Three Ones” and the Global Task Team, “3 by 5”, Universal Access, PEPFAR, and the World Bank MAP. It will examine the current state of the Global AIDS architecture and will review what more needs to be done to deliver the needed response.

This session will be a roundtable in which leaders from health ministries, national AIDS programs, global initiatives, multilateral and donor agencies and civil society will discuss the impact (both positive and negative) that these policies and initiatives have had on country-led responses.

Participants will include Richard Burzynski (International Council of AIDS Services Organizations, ICASO), Olive Edwards (PLWHA, Jamaica), Elhadj As Sy (UNDP), Charity Ngilu (Minister of Health, Kenya, to be confirmed), Michel Sidibe (UNAIDS), Richard Feachem (Global Fund), Robin Gorna (DFID, UK), Mark Dybul (PEPFAR), Mariângela Batista Galvão Simão (Brazil National AIDS Commission), and Sisonke Msimang (civil society, South Africa).

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J: Wednesday 16 August, 18:00 to 20:00 – Satellite session

Session title: Scaling Up Towards Universal Access – The Role of the Global Fund

Venue: Session Room 11

Organizer: Global Fund
Session description: This session will be divided between speakers sharing their first-hand experiences of treatment scale-up in Global Fund-financed countries (including Ethiopia, Malawi, Haiti, Russia and Thailand), and a panel discussion between these speakers and representatives from UNAIDS and the Global Fund. The focus of this session is to examine progress towards universal access (and obstacles encountered) in countries with a range of prevalence rates, with the aim of showing that universal access is in many cases absolutely possible if we work together.

The session will conclude with a short reception to allow speakers and conference attendees to continue the discussion in an informal manner.

Speakers will include Richard Feachem (Executive Director, Global Fund), Stephen Lewis (UN Special Envoy on HIV and AIDS in Africa), Daniel Low-Beer (Senior Manager, Performance, Evaluation and Policy, Global Fund), Paul Farmer (Partners in Health, speaking on Haiti and Rwanda, to be confirmed), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Minister of Health, Ethiopia), Dr. Erik Schouten (HIV/AIDS Coordinator, Malawi Ministry of Health), Alexei Bobrik (Deputy Director, Open Health Institute, Russia), Dr.Taweesap Siraprapasiri (Ministry of Public Health, Thailand), Bernhard Schwartländer (Director of Performance, Evaluation and Policy, Global Fund), Kevin de Cock (WHO), and Christoph Benn (Director of External Relations, Global Fund).

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K: Thursday August 17, 10:00 to 12:00 – Dialogue

Session title: Overcoming Challenges and Reflecting on Best Practices: Strengthening NGOs’ Involvement with the Global Fund at the Country Level

Venue: Radisson Admiral Hotel, 249 Queen’s Quay West (Rain Dance Meeting Room)

Organizer: Open Society Institute (OSI), jointly with three delegations to the Global Fund board (Developing Country NGO, Communities, and Developed Country NGO), and the Program on International Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Session description: The session will provide space for NGOs, Global Fund representatives, and other actors in the process to reflect on NGOs’ experiences in engaging in Global Fund processes at the country level, and to discuss factors that inhibit or enable civil society participation in CCMs and access to funds. (As space is limited, kindly RSVP to Lila Elman at lelman@sorosny.org by Wednesday, August 16th.)