The Global fund secretariat is centre part of the project formulation and implementations. GF should have specific, confident guidelines and proper monitoring mechanism for measuring the indicators services and products. Frequent communication from GF to LFA, CCM. PRs and  srs. GF secretariat ion have to think with private public, Government & Non Government bodies for easy implementation of the welfare services or mobilizing funds for the projects Regarding administration proper structure have to be adopted for such divisions / departments Time frame should be clearly and flexible During monitoring the projects, they have to clearly verify the indicators, experiences have to be exchanged and suggestions may be given for better and proper implementation of the program GF must be a transparency and responsible for all activities which is carried by the participants of GF secretariat should give equal importance to all 4 dispense is, HIV/ AIDS / Tuberculosis and malaria Trans mission of TB & malaria is varied form HIV/AIDS I appreciate Global fund Which organise the participants to fight against HIV/AIDS/ TB/ malaria Throughout the Global level at same time.

Thank you,

C.RAVICHANDRAN

INDIA        

Dear Ali, Jarved and Marcela,

While I was reading your posts, something poped like a light bulb in my head and I wondering why I never thought about it!

But at the same time it goes on to butress the point that I have been making that something will just have to be done about us the men!!

Dear members, Global fund should put more emphasy on women simply because of our culture that makes women more vanerable to the disease Women should be empowered through micro finance,sensitisation so that they are able to support their families with income genrating activities Men need a lot of sensitisation because our culture allows men to marry more than one wife and also to inherit the brother wife or close relative so for a woman you have no voice to refuse because the elders of the clan will say they have already married you in the clan Thanks Collins Kidega Radio KING UGANDA

The issue of 56% women as compared to men being treated and the concept of adbandoning their plat is unrealistic; as such , it should not be applied. What i would suggest is to re-enforce the treatment of women and girls survivors while more emphasis be placed on the prevention aspect as it is in the case of men. Thanks

Stephen M.G.Quoi
SAVE AFRICA INTERNATIONAL INC.

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Thank you very much for your response to my comments. Ghana is fine and Hon Churcher is also fine.

1. The question you are addressing is :  women and child having access to ARV versus men receiving ARV? Why not improving also the access for men to ARV ? Targeting a certain geographic area with universal access( women, child and men)  will have better impact on prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS at target sites. The question that we should ask before the question you are addressing  is how much resources we have to allocate for the access to ARV in a certain region ? With the resources available what are the major strategies.  The strategy of providing access to ARV to only women and child need to be discussed in a larger view of public health. Infected men or men living with AIDS without access to prevention and  treatment will infect other women and children.
2. Considering that I am starting to participate in that process  perhaps I need to know more about the previous discussions;

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this El e- foro 2008.Regards,

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The following contribution is from Beatrice Minja:

 

With the majority of people on antiretroviral treatment being women (56% at the end of 2007), should the Global Fund's gender strategy focus more on men rather than concentrating on women and girls?

No! 56% of the drug users are women because it is the group which is more vounerable and greater in numbers. Vounerability in the sense that  unlike male most women mostly in surbubs and rural ares do not have resources to private practitioners whose data are not recorded  and included in the countries health information systems.

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The following contribution is from Esther Sempiira:

Majority at 56% may not be statistically significant to warrant a focus more on rather men.  We already know that more women access testing, more women access other forms of care and therefore the same holds for access to ARV.  Need to understudy the present reasons for access, prevailing conditions before a strategic thinking, otherwise may loose the effort so far realized.

Esther

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The following contribution is from bantirgu_hmariam:

Dear members of the Global Fund Facilitation Team,

This question that is now raised deserves a direct answer of "YES". It has become apparent that men are predominantly the first hand transmitters of the HIV/AIDS in this country to most innocent and culturally subjugated women though women practicing commercial sex could be seen separately.  Even then we should be cognizant of the fact that there are a lot of cultrural factors that still affect the women in their sexual relation with men and thus the strategic approach of intervention should not isolate women. The awareness raising, condom distribution, VCT and anti-retroviral therapy aspects of the intervention should be for both sexes with greater emphasis on the male group than the females as of now while the other interventions as PMCT, Care and Support should focus more on women.

Thanks

Bantirgu

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The following contribution is from Michael Otieno:

Hi, its true the focuss on ART on women has been soo much till men are now invisible. The idea of changing focus on men now, to my opinion i feel its an idea that has come rather late though never too late. However, there is need to be carefull on this move in order for the women not to take the position taken by men currently. Why is this important? Men especially on the african contents play agreat role on sexual matters. Thus, when left out on ART, HIV infection still will be on the increase since it is the men who initiate sexual advances on women regardless off whether they are infected or not. Therefore, a women who is on ART will on many occasions have her viral load on the increase due to re-infections from the male forks who are not on ART.

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The following contribution is from Kisumu Children Centre and School:

Thanks to the question, i contribute by saying that lets focus gender across board for we are one and will remain one we can not do with the other that was the purpose of creating both man and woman. Always remember and support Kisumu Children Centre and School whic is caring for the needy children and put a smile to one or two kids. thanks.

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Agenda Item 15: Integrating Gender Issues More

Substantially in the Global Fund’s Policies and

Operations

1. In remarks introducing the topic, the Board Vice-Chair highlighted the importance of the issue in terms of empowering women and girls economically so that they can make better choices about their lives. In many parts of the world and in Africa especially, women cannot act independently as in doing so they would lose access to all the support systems needed to survive.

2. In discussion, several delegates expressed their support for this initiative and their gratitude to the Global Fund for their leadership on this issue. It was noted that HIV/AIDS is having a devastating impact on women and girls in some parts of the world with disease prevalence rates three times higher than that of men and boys. Delegates overwhelmingly agreed that the Global Fund has a significant role to play in supporting women and girls by funding more programs aimed at preventing mother to child transmission of HIV and reducing female vulnerability to the three diseases. Delegates applauded the inclusion of the term sexual minorities in the decision point as these are often neglected groups. The decision point was approved.

Decision Point GF/B16/DP26

The Board recognizes the importance of addressing gender issues, with a particular focus on the vulnerabilities of women and girls and sexual minorities, in the fight against the three diseases, more substantially into the Global Fund’s policies and operations. The Board authorizes the Secretariat as a matter of priority to immediately appoint senior level “Champions for Gender Equality”, with appropriate support, who will:
a. Work with technical partners and relevant constituencies to develop a gender strategy.

b. As an immediate priority, provide guidance to the Portfolio Committee on revisions to the Guidelines for Proposals for Round 8 to encourage applicants to submit proposals that address gender issues, with a particular reference to the vulnerability of women and girls and sexual minorities.

 

The Board requests the Policy and Strategy Committee to review the Gender Strategy and present it to the Board for approval at the Seventeenth Board meeting.

Thank you Marcela. At this point I just want to mention my impression that our discussants have by and large focused on their experience in HIV/AIDS area. I have noticed very little, if any, mention of the other two diseases, i.e., tuberculosis and malaria. I am sure all topics included them too. Through your good offices, I would like to elicit Forum friends' experience, observations, suggestions, policies, and stories that clearly distinguish these other diseases from different perspectives. For example, are gender policies for HIV/AIDS also applicable toTB and Malaria? I am not sure. Mode of transmission of TB and malaria are totally different than for HIV. Similarly, how important is community participation for controlling TB and malaria? and so on. Please correct me if I am missing something. Thanks. Javed

the majority of people on antiretroviral treatment being women (56% at the end of 2007), should the Global Fund's gender strategy focus more on men rather than concentrating on women and girls? In my point of veiw the issue of gender strategy is some thing needed to be discussed early time. As we see the report of 2007, the women are more sussebtable than men. for me i support to focus on women and children more than men. because men are stronger than women, girls and children. i suggest 60% fund's Global Fund to establish projects helping women, girl, and children. Men to be allocated 40% of genaral Budget. To establish small projects helping women in order to build their trust and life style.

Dear Brother, I applaud your submission and want to encourage and at the same time challenge you on elaborating some more on this critical point of dialogue. Firstly, please convey my love to Hon MP Christine Churcher a wonderful sister to me who has taken good care of me during my official visit to Ghana. Being of Akan Ghanaian heritage myself I had the honor of working with your MPs during the first forum of the African Parliamentariens for Education (FAPED) and MINEDAF VIII. The honorable minister also endorsed my research and work in 2004. I enjoy tremendous respect from the African continent's policy makers and also from many I have met from the entire British Commonwealth during official conferences in Distance Learning and Higher Education. As a researcher that believes in a tight linkage between sound public health policy, practice and epistemology I concur with you that a Gender Strategy should be based on emperical data as part of the evaluation criteria in the implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes for the achievement of objectives. As you stated: "There is sufficient imperical data to show that females are more susceptible to HIV/AIDS than males so we will be reducing the overall incidence if we give more emphasis to the point that gives rise to more infections". However, in as much as data serves as a compass to credible and epistemological based research outcomes, it must be said that we are dealing with real life situations of of real people "faceless and nameless people out there that number in the hundreds of millions" that are semiliterate, illiterate and hold a-scientific believes. These people live in The Caribbean such as Haiti, South East Asia in countries such as India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, in Australia -the Aboriginees and then the South Pacific Islanders, in Africa - Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, the Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Namibia, Djibouti, Lesotho, Swaziland, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Angola, Gabon, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Western Sahara- The Polisario, Sierra Leone, Liberia, The Comoros Islands, Zanzibar, Cameroon and Egypt. Then we also have an astounding illiteracy in some Eastern European countries such as Romania and some newly independed breakaway states. We need to start looking at how data may include these critical variables for beneficial research outcomes. We don't need further marginalization and disenfranchisement of these people. We need to consider areas where customary law rules. "The Gap between commitment and implementation remain a concern, contradictions exist between customary laws and, representation of women remain below target(20% regional average) and high levels of poverty among women and girls remains a major obstacle for gender equality." (SADC Stakeholder Conference on the Draft Protocol on Gender and Development and the Regional Gender Policy, April 16, 2007) We cannot accurately quantify the people's believe systems and clump them in SPSS or other programmes and further marginalize them because there are many other variables that will work against them to that data will not be able to capture. I believe that a quantitative analysis must be complimented with a qualitative analysis and carefully weighed. How will you quantify Customary Law? A country's Customary Law has a profound impact whether an externally imposed gender strategy will be effectively implemented or not. The country I would like to respectfully submit to you is Swaziland part of SDAC. If the country itself doesn't have mechanism that facilitate the legal and constitutional redress of Gender issues, we have to be sensitive how we impose a Gender Strategy on such a country even though our strategy matters based on a critical need, an ethical and humanitarien perspective and also a research perspective. One such has already been introduced upon this 40 year hegemony and it was greeted not greeted with enthusiams but with anger. What I am trying to say brother, is that in as much as your data segregation may work in theory in practice you are dealing with real people and real situations where that worldview that I have talked about since April must be transformed before we even start thinking of implementing any gender strategy in any country. Thank you the opportunity of sharing with each other how to best serve the Global Village. Fenna E. Bacchus

On the issue of "Gender Strategy" I wish to comment as follows: First of all what is the benefit of segregating data? Data segregation is to help breakdown data to see what the whole is composed of. This is necessary to be able to give emphasis where it is due and required in the implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes for th achievements of objectives. In the light of this, I am of the view that both age gender must be considered as important variables in the screening of HIV/AIDS proposals. I proposal may be sound on the basis of the evaluation criteria that was considered in weiting the proposal. For that matter, if gender is an important criterion for evaluation, a proposal cannot be "sound" if it does not meet such criterion, the more so if so much emphasis is put on gender. There is sufficient imperical data to show that females are more susceptible to HIV/AIDS than males so we will be reducing the overall incidence if we give more emphasis to the point that gives rise to more infections. However, I am not by this saying that other variables are not important.

Dear Javed, It is important that we note that as we reflect on a "Gender Strategy focus" we need to know that a whole lot is at stake. We, the esteemed members of this e-forum must be in a frame of mind that is conducive to critiquing, learning and rational thought. No one can engage in creative and critical thinking in which they have to function if the environment is restrictive, repressive, threatening and intimidating. It is no different than living in a police or military state which I am all too familiar with in Africa and South America. We cannot build or strengthen meaningful capacity if we our thoughts are focused on having our submission censored. Censorship sends a message that we are still children and need to be told by parents what to say. It signifies that we are too illiterate to read and understand the rules. The control of the the mindset and subsequent action as done by the colonial masters has absolutely no place on this e-forum. If needed, information in the public domain can be used judiciously and appropriately to bolster our arguments. However, the evolvement of a Gender Strategy is not only a very culturally sensitive issue, but also highly political and will single-handedly affect every other policy or strategy we seek to implement. I have provided examples on how uncomfortable this policy will be in Swaziland, where a very oppressive monarchy has no intent to change from its 40 years of hegemony. In order for this policy to be introduced the Swazi government must embrace democratic institutions. We will see that the implementation of a regional Gender Policy block strategy may hit many snags because the SDAC strategy didn't incorporate worldview transformation to functionalize this strategy. This is a reality that they don't even know yet. This will also hit snags in a few other jurisdictions in that regional block. When we look at countries where more female parliamentariens were voted into public office we don't necessary see huge gains and strides in Women Empowerment, Inheritance and Property Rights and changes in areas of Customary Law. You may ask why, and I will tell you that patriarchal societies resist any change. This is what my passion is in explaining to this e-forum why I think the way I do because what I do is grounded in epistemology. We need not just look at the Gender Strategy, but need to take a serious look at the political implications of such a strategy. Having a strategy at TGF level doesn't mean a country should accept or implement it...take for example Saudi Arabia. How are women viewed in that society? Women are not viewed with high respect. Now we will look at the reverse in Lesotho. The women are highly literate whereas the men are herders in the mountains and mostly lack literacy skills. Now how do you think a gender strategy should be developed for that small kingdom whose Deputy Prime Minister is my mentor and friend? What I want to say is that we also need to know how black women are viewed in South Africa. How many rape cases are successfully prosecuted in South Africa and Namibia? If you know the answer to that you will already know how a Gender Strategy will be strengthen the cause of women. In societies where FGM is widely practiced the Gender Strategy will also we also be very different. So we will find that a Gender Strategy in certain countries have to lay greater emphasis on women, whereas in other countries they have to protect the men and hence have more emphasis on men. Now if we look at the situation of HIV/AIDS in Lesotho it is very complex...far more women are infected, whereas the men that infect them lack literacy skills...A gender strategy here has to favor both sexes because those that infect the women are disempowered while the women who are highly literate as claimed are still disempowered. It leaves us with the perception that someone out there is encouraging exploitation of our brains under the disguise of an e-forum. They have received hundreds of thousands of $$$$ of consultations called "ideas" free of charge while all of us stay poor. Our consultations value so much while the beneficiaries are their consultants that read it and draft policies to enrich their pockets. Dont forget TGF paid consultants have access to this forum to steal ideas and make it their own. What should have been done for such hectic topics...an RFP should be put out to encourage entrepreneurs to provide consultancies. I am very humbled by your thoughts. I realize that I am a power player on this e-forum and there is not questions about that. My last contribution on this e-forum before I re-joined this discussion was likely some long weeks ago when I received a letter from Robson Olwe. When I responded to his letter in accordance to the topic under discussion for that week it too was removed. This sort of primitive and repressive behaviour has not place in a highly civilized society. When people totally miss the point and don't have my background to understand why I bring in terms of expertise to TGF and how crucial this is to dialogue I simply gave up and said I am not participating anymore. I knew that the world would loose out on critical information since I have been told privately and publicly in this e-forum that I bring a very unique perspective to the e-forum. I had to regroup myself and I know when I am ready emotionally and physically. It will never be business as usual again because the winds of change are blowing... You are en elder to me Javed and I can never disrespect you. You have taught me so much and I'm indebted to you. I have also been taught by each member on this e-forum and accept this in all humility. This e-forum missed out on some of my strongest discussions because the e-forum facilitators felt that certain postings of mine where fit for the garbage can or needed to be referred to the Inspector General Office. Worse yet, when members such as Robson Olwe from Uganda and Asima Chakraborty would write me on the e-forum, and I would respond to them, their postings would be removed as well as my response to them. This now is a very serious case of repression of speech not just against me but other members of this esteemed forum. We are not in Myanmar, China or Zimbabwe, but are experiencing these obnoxious behaviours on a forum which supposed to be a safe place to air one's views. If they want to use their ammunition at liberty to gun me down they should think twice. I have to remind each of us on this e-forum whether you are a part of the CCM structure or part of that network, when you accept US tax payers $$$ like PEPFAR and other funds they come with obligations of serious accountability. Any United States Citizen on this e-forum has the right to publicly call upon anyone to full accountability once you touch our tax payers money. Our United States Senators need to be apprised of this development with great haste before liberally disbursing PEPFAR funds. We urgently need another bill of stringent accountability sponsored. I'm calling on all US citizens on this e-forum to support this initiative. That is our only hope to hold TGF accountable for our hard earned tax payers $$$$. The marginalized communities that have been neglected need to be assured of services and things are getting worse instead of better. This is our only way to ensure that quality services such as ARVs, Malaria treatment and TB meds along with educational materials are delivered and matched with the CCM Report. Its time for a congressional hearing into accountability of all involved. Fenna E. Bacchus

Hi Fenna, I have read your latest post with concern. I am sorry to read that some of your posts were not published by the Forum. I have seen that you have ben pouring your heart out with wisdom, passion and generosity. Your contributions have elicited many others and thus enriched the discussion enormously. However, to be fair, I would like to put in a word for the Forum organizers and GF. The fact that your very critical post has been allowed says that the Forum is not stifling altogether. GF deserves to be commended for launching such forums to elicit views of people whose voice is not normally heard. It is unfortunate that so few people have taken advantage of the opportunity. But even so, a broad spectrum of views has been covered. You are such a prolific writer and devoted to the cause that this platform is surely inadequate for you. I hope you do not get discouraged from expressing your thoughts, ever. May be you should also have a blog of your own because that may benefit a lot more people than the limited canvas of GF Forums. I also appeal to the Forum organizers not to stop your inputs for any reason because you often represent the voice of Africa, the poor and the marginalized. Such voices are going to be bitter at times and even odd because they mirror a reality that some of us do not want to face. I hope you do not mind my comments, Fenna. All the power to you! Javed