A large symposium session on “The Global Fund: Proving Impact, Promoting Rights” will be held at the upcoming XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) in Vienna, Austria, on 18-23 July 2010.

According to the conference programme, the symposium will discuss the impact that the Global Fund is having on preventing new infections and reducing mortality. In particular, it will focus on the role of the Fund in scaling up more effective responses to HIV, and on the importance of Global Fund financing of human rights-based programming and advocacy. Finally, the symposium will discuss the

future role that the Global Fund needs to play in the AIDS response to attain universal access, and what might be achieved through a fully funded replenishment in October 2010.

Panellists will include Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund, and Joanne Csete, long-time AIDS and human rights activist from the U.S. The symposium is on Wednesday, 21 July at 14:30.

This is the only large session completely devoted to the Global Fund in the conference proper. However, there are two satellite sessions on strengthening the capacity of CCMs, organised by the Global Fund and Grant Management Solutions ” one in French on Sunday, 18 July at 11:15, and one in English in Thursday, 22 July at 18:30. In addition, the Global Fund is presenting a satellite called “Are We Winning the War Against HIV in Asia?” on Sunday, 18 July at 15:45.

The Asian People”s Alliance for Combating HIV/ AIDS (APACHA) is organising a satellite called “A Consultation to Identify the Gaps in Good Governance in Country Specific GFATM Grants” on Thursday, 22 July at 07:00.

A presentation on the Global Fund ” “Effective Use of Global Fund Funding for HIV/AIDS” ” will be included in a symposium on “When Does HIV Funding Strengthen Health Systems?” on Wednesday, 21 July at 11:00.

There are two workshops on Global Fund-related topics: “How to Develop Proposals on Community Systems Strengthening for the GFATM” ” Tuesday, 20 July at 11:00; and “Practical Tools: How Positive Women can Get Funding from the Global Fund” ” Wednesday, 21 July at 14:30.

A special session on “Funding Global Health: Can Innovative Mechanisms Save the Day?” on Wednesday, 21 July at 13:00 may be of interest to people working on Global Fund issues. Michel Kazatchkine is one of the panellists. Finally, UNITAID is presenting a satellite on “Innovative Financing Impacting on Global Health” on Monday, 19 July at 18:30.

Check the conference programme for more details, including the location of each session.

Posters and Exhibits

There will be a number of posters on Global Fund-related issues. The following are some examples, selected from the conference programme:

” “The role of INGOs in capacity building of governments and local NGOs through Global Fund awards” (19 July MOPE0780)

” “Has the Global Fund strengthened civil society HIV advocacy in the former Soviet Union? A study in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine” (19 July MOPE0966)

” “Community involvement in CCMs in ten countries have proven to be not meaningful as some barriers impede their effective engagement in policy development at country level” (19 July MOPE1027)

” “Country experiences with Global Fund national strategy applications ” what worked, what didn”t?” (19 July MOPE1045)

” “The Global Fund has improved the institutional capacity: experience of national NGO as PR of Global Fund Round 7 grant in Nepal” (20 July TUPE0889)

” “The formulation of HIV-related proposals to the Global Fund: contrasting intentions with realities – the Peru GHIN study” (20 July TUPE0902)

” “Does civil society have a meaningful voice in CCMs? Findings from a qualitative study conducted by the Civil Society Action Team (CSAT) measuring the civil society participation in CCMs” (21 July WEPE0921)

” “Addressing obstacles to producing high quality data for GFATM programmes targeting DU, SW and MSM in Zanzibar” (22 July THPE0441)

” “How the Global Fund and PEPFAR impact national and sub-national policy implementation processes ” evidence from anti-retroviral (ART) scale-up in Zambia and South Africa” (22 July THPE0884)

The Global Fund will have a booth in the Exhibits area (No. E-461).