[NEWS] Asia Catalyst Letter on the New Funding Model for the Global Fund

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Below is the letter Asia Catalyst Executive Director Sara “Meg” Davis sent October 5, 2012 to Michael O’Connor at The Global Fund, commenting on the Fund’s new funding model.
Dear Mr. O’Connor,
Thank you and Ms. Wong for sharing the Global Fund’s new funding model and inviting us to join the call this week. We strongly support the Global Fund’s efforts to redesign the funding mechanisms and as part of the Developing Country NGO Constituency, and appreciate the opportunity to comment on he proposed new plans.
As you know, Asia Catalyst works with networks and CBOs led by sex workers, drug users, MSM, people living with HIV/AIDS, ethnic minorities and other communities directly affected by the three diseases in China and Southeast Asia. Our work focuses on capacity-building of these groups and networks, especially in the areas of nonprofit management, community mobilization, and human rights. Civil society is growing rapidly in East and Southeast Asia, thanks in part to the Global Fund’s financial support and to its promotion of the principle of community consultation.
Most of our work is in China, where Global Fund support has helped to develop a flourishing
community of CBOs. Based on our consultation with these groups, we are encouraged that the new funding model will include a band of funding for Most At-Risk Populations (MARPs) and we urge the global Fund to ensure that funding is available for MARPs in countries that may not be eligible to submit proposals, such as China.
The Global Fund’s planned exit from China has not yet inspired the national government to rush to fill the gap in civil society support. Given the widespread and severe restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of association in China, it is extremely challenging for Chinese activists to advocate on their own behalf. When we meet Chinese CBOs in workshops, conferences and other settings, they express great anxiety about the future and about their ability to continue to provide treatment, care and support to their communities once the Global Fund leaves. Please do all you can to ensure that the new funding model includes these past GF partners.
We will share this letter with our CBO partners and we thank you in advance for taking these
recommendations under consideration.
Sincerely,
Sara L.M. Davis
Executive Director

[COMMENTARY] 10,000 Smiles: A Chinese Campaign Against HIV/AIDS Discrimination

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By Yu Fangqiang
 
Chinese civil rights activist Yu Fangqiang tells the story behind his “10,000 Smiles” campaign, which collected over 12,000 photos of people holding up signs in English and Chinese with slogans against HIV-related discrimination such as “People with HIV/AIDS have the right to work.” The photos included a diverse group of individuals including government officials, students, people on the street, and U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke, and they were shared online through social media and news reports in China’s official news organ, People’s Daily.
 

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[COMMENTARY] Chinese Drug Users Have to Protect Our Own Rights 成瘾者：维护自身权益还得靠你自己

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By Wang Wen 
王文 
Recently, I read a short piece with no headline that was posted to an email group. The author, one of our fellow drug users in Kaiyuan City, Yunnan Province, said that when he took a make-up test for one part of his driving license exam on September 6, the local traffic management department told him that his license has been revoked based on The Notice about Strengthening the Management of Automobile Driving for Drug Addicts. Because he had been detained by the local police station on August 21, 2012 for using drugs, the police labeled him as an unreformed drug user. 
日前我从一个邮件组里看到一篇没有标题的短文，里面讲述了9月6日云南省开远市一位成瘾者同伴去补考驾驶证的一项科目，被当地交管部门告知，他2012年8月21日在某地吸食毒品被当地公安机关某派出所抓获，所以，已经将他定为吸毒成瘾未戒除人员，他的驾驶证已经按照公安部《关于加强吸毒人员驾驶机动车管理的通知》吊销了。

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[COMMENTARY] South Korea Gets Unearned Praise, Again, For Lifting HIV Travel Ban

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By Ken Oh

At the opening ceremony for the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington DC, UNAIDS chief Michel Sidibe announced that the South Korea had just lifted its travel restrictions on people living with HIV. The announcement met with a wave of applause. Hours before the speech, Kim Bong-hyun, Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs, had announced that the South Korea had lifted travel restrictions on HIV-positive travelers to the country. There were only two problems with this momentous announcement: first, South Korea had made more or less the same announcement in 2010; and second, it is not clear that South Korea has made any of the needed legal reforms since then. Numerous discriminatory restrictions on visitors living with HIV/AIDS remain in place.

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[COMMENTARY] Where Are the Key Affected Populations at the International AIDS Conference?

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By Sara L.M. Davis 

 
Background 
This spring, when the International AIDS Society announced the program for AIDS 2012, the big HIV/AIDS conference that recently concluded in Washington D.C., the MSM Global Fund expressed concern that “only a fraction of high-quality abstracts” from men who have sex with men (MSM) had been accepted. Other activists and networks representing Key Affected Populations (KAPs) concurred in emails sent to the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) list that they too felt they were being excluded from the program.

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