Gender, rights and diversity: connecting the pieces, making the Global Fund work for women

Gender, Rights and Diversity: Connecting the Pieces was launched by ATHENA Network and AIDS Legal Network in New York during the Commission on the Status of Women 2015. This is a learning paper looking at how we can strengthen women’s engagement with the Global Fund, and support the implementation of  the Global Fund’s gender equality strategy.

The paper draws on a collaboration between ALN and ATHENA, in partnership with Access Chapter 2 (AC2), South Africa, the International Community of Women Living with HIV East Africa (ICWEA), Uganda, and the Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (COWLHA) in Malawi, which aimed to strengthen women’s engagement with the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as it implemented a new funding model. The work was supported by German development agency GIZ’s BACKUP Initiative, and took place from June to December 2014.

Activities included:

  • Country-led activities spanning from workshops to raise awareness of Global Fund structures and processes at country level
  • Dialogues highlighting the need and urgency for prioritization of women’s issues in relation to HIV
  • Support for the participation of women living with, and most affected by, HIV in country dialogues and concept note development processes
  • A stakeholder dialogue on gender, rights and diversities in the Global Fund new funding model convened in London, in partnership with STOPAIDS, to share and distil lessons from country experiences, and challenge development partners to define their role in transforming the lives of women and girls in all of their diversity.