Meeting of Minds on health, Civil Society Makes a Statement, Health Financing and the HIV Response – April was a busy month!

Author:

Madhuri Kamat

Article Type:

Article Number: 1

What was on offer last month? Conferences and meetings of AFRAVIH, the Global Fund, the World Health Organization among a few. There’s a report on sustainability and the RISE study on country coordinating mechanism, presented at the Global Fund Board meeting as well as the statement of the Developing Country NGO delegation regarding the key outcomes of that meeting. We take a behind-the-scenes look at AFRAVIH pre-events, and then report on the Asia-Pacific regional meeting of the World Health Summit. We have an interview with Chris Alando who shares his rich experience on health financing from a health advocacy viewpoint and also dwell on the UNAIDS Primer towards a sustainable HIV response. We end on the developing story of Georgia’s regressive law on foreign influence, which is another strike against human rights.

Sustainability is a recurrent theme in the health sector and we report on the Global Fund’s Sustainability, Transitioning and Co-financing policy as well as the UNAIDS primer on how to shape a sustainable HIV response. We interview Chris Alando who shares his rich experience in the field of health financing and emphasizes the need for trust.

 

With participatory co-designing becoming paramount in health interventions, the RISE study is one of the exemplars of how civil society can go about designing a research study. Gathering feedback through surveys across 83 countries on the Global Fund’s Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM), the study offers a roadmap on how to improve CCM working. Alana Sharp and Jennifer Sherwood on behalf of the RISE Study Group provide an inside peek on how it all began and dwell on the way forward. The participation of civil society and community engagement is also underlined by the statement of the Developing Country NGO delegation regarding the key outcomes of the Global Fund Board meeting.

 

Last month was a very busy one for those who matter in the health landscape. Besides the Global Fund Board meeting, which we covered in our last issue, there was AFRAVIH and the Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting of the World Health Summit. Serge Douomong Yotta writes for us on the pre-events of AFRAVIH that are often overlooked in the focus on the main event. We bring highlights and incisive points of the Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting of the World Health Summit that throw light on the future direction of health initiatives.

 

And we end with the very disturbing legislation in Georgia that seeks to adopt a Russian law against foreign agents through its Transparency of Foreign Influence Bill. It has sparked concern for civil society and public health. The President Salome Zourabichvili has vetoed it but Parliament supports it. Civil society organizations are opposing it tooth and nail warning of harm to HIV prevention efforts and potential human rights violations and calling upon the international community to raise its collective voice against it.

 

So, that’s our wrap for the month of May!

 

And any thoughts about which aspect in the global health initiative sector you’d like to see covered in our newsletter are always welcome and we’d really appreciate suggestions on who can pen an article on it! Anyone who wishes to voluntarily contribute as a guest columnist and provide an incisive analysis or first-person account of what is happening at micro or macro levels in the field of global health interventions is also welcome. Any feedback and suggestions in French, Spanish, English can be sent to Ida Hakizinka ida.hakizinka@aidspan.org and/or in English to madhuri@aidspan.org

 

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