Our Executive Secretary, Elena Reynaga, attended the meeting organized by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Colombia, which dealt with the optimization of the response to HIV in Latin America, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
The workshop, with 120 participants from various sectors involved in the HIV response, aimed to socialize the new processes and policies, sharing of best practices of strategic alliances and following up coordination agreements between cooperation agencies.
The workshop provided the opportunity to present the changes in the Fund’s Secretariat and the new funding model. In the presentation, Silvio Martinelli, Team Global of the Fund Leader for Latin America and the Caribbean, said that the new model is aligned with the national programs and strategies. However remains the biggest challenge ahead: getting effectively ensure an HIV response through national plans, including new ministries other than health and improve their work in the HIV response.
On the second day of the Global Fund Regional Workshop, innovative experiences of funding and technical assistance in health were addressed, such as “Treatment 2.0”, strategy that seeks to ensure and accelerate universal access to HIV treatment, works by cooperation South-South-North, where they associate to improve the response to the epidemic through the strengthening of health systems, among other initiatives.
Data were also presented on investing in high-risk populations in Central America by HIV programs and was striking to the audience that in 2010, only the 6% of economic investments were aimed at men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people and female sex workers.
At the end of the meeting some issues became clear: it is essential to work on reducing stigma and discrimination and a greater commitment of governments in the response to HIV and support for key populations, such as female sex workers. On our part, the organizations of civil society need to keep pressure for not allowing investment distortions.
