PartnersGF - 2004-11-22 

Further comments on civil society CCM participation
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Moderators’ note: While we wait for specific details of the decisions made by the GF board re. requirements for CCM participation by affected communities and civil society [from those who were present in Arusha last week - thanks folks] postings have been sent from Bolivia, Sudan, the Philippines and Pakistan that take the CCM theme forward...

Violeta Ross, Bolivia
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Dear all

The participation of civil society in CCMs is something that has to be cared [for], like a little plant. Bolivia had a great experience involving PWAs in CCMs. However, once the money is there, the participation of civil society, not only PWAS, is at risk because of the extreme terms of reference for the sub-recipients which may block access to the funds for civil society groups.


Please consider these issues in next discussions

Best regards

Violeta Ross

Email: 28510@upch.edu.pe


Hajhmad, Sudan
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Dear all,

It is good it hear such hopeful scientific information on the progress made in both making drugs cheaper and philanthropic resources available for African countries. What remains is the most difficult: making these facilities reach the needy people.

Governments in Africa are insensitive to peoples needs .If a government (like the one in Sudan) is spending about 85% of its annual budget and for last decade and more in military and security, and any person who claims they will deliver such services he/she should convince us that his intentions are humanistic and not taking chances of profit-making at the expense of people in perpetual misery.

CCMs in such countries are fully dominated by government organisations and its various profiteers. Those who think such gathering will come out with good governance should look for other means than such governments.

Thanks
Hajhmad

Email: sahdcg@sudanmail.net


Celina Castro, the Philippines
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How do you empower a CCM that does not even have any accountability to the Fund?

If anyone tries to look at the flow of how the Fund works down to the recipients and then back, CCMs do not directly deal with the Fund. It is the Principal Recipients (PRs) who are answerable to the Fund.

Are CCMs created for purposes of fostering partnerships of stakeholders within countries as required by the Fund. If this is the case then, truly, CCMs are just for formality and compliance.

Until now nothing has been done since the July Bangkok Partners Meeting. There were a lot of recommendations from the participants on how the CCM systems within countries and within the Fund itself can better work and improve, and work differently from bilateral and multilateral funding.

Also it is not clear what the role of the Local Fund Agent (LFA) is. For instance in the Philippines, we do not have any LFA to date. They said it used to be Chemonics but now there is still none.

[It is] Indeed true that CCMs are still government heavy and dominated, limited NGO and people with the disease involvement, does not have any transparent and clear criteria of how the CCM members had been chosen. The initial CCM was said to be ad hoc or interim but to date it is still the same composition, nothing has been changed and nothing has been shared in terms of information required to be disseminated to the rest of the communities.

Celina

Celina Castro
Email: palliativerp@yahoo.ca


Dr. Syed Amer Raza, Pakistan
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This is with reference to your interview with Mr. Yuvaraj, representing communities living with the diseases.

Interestingly the point raised on the token representation of the diseased persons on the CCMs is very true and has made the purpose of such a presence non-effective. These people can neither comprehend the politics played in public sector to set priorities nor can they understand the intricacies of UN bodies in such gatherings.

To make the matter worse, CCM meetings take place in language (mostly English) for the benefit of UN and INGOs delegates in the CCM, which is not understood or spoken by the diseased persons.

We need to ensure that the full purpose of such a presence takes effect and therefore a separate report should be requested from representative of diseased person by the global fund for each meeting, reporting etc., coming through respective CCMs.

Dr. Syed Amer Raza
Program Manager Health-HIV/AIDS
Catholic Relief Services Pakistan
Email: araza@crspk.org