Participation of civil society and people affected by the diseases in the CCM.

The Global Fund finances programs that focus on the development and expansion of partnerships among all relevant players within a country. Emphasis is on the scale-up of programs through a multi-sector approach, and on strengthening the participation of communities and people, particularly those affected by the three diseases. The CCM is at the centre of these partnerships and so the participation of all constituent members of CCM in CCM meetings and activities is an important element for these partnerships. Bearing this in mind:

Q. What are some of the key contributions that civil society and people affected by the diseases bring to the work of your CCM?

Suggestions: your answers could include (but not be limited to), the ingredients for a successful multi-stakeholder CCM based on experiences from your own country; ways in which you think participation could be improved; work methodologies; challenges you had to overcome; and others.

N.B. The topics and questions posted in the forums have been compiled from contributions received from CCM members and other Global Fund stakeholders. If you wish to contribute new topics for discussion, please visit the Topic Suggestions Forum.

nothing makes the civil society work than the individual behind the CSO, only humans count, association do nothing, so lets get down to work, who is behind the CSO, is he a real people oriented activist or a hungry person seek for where to eat from, the spirit of CSO is in the soul of the persons hiding behind the organization, love your poeple and go to work, they will love you in return, and together all of you can make a difference.

i look forward to a team of men and women who are ready to turn their land to the promise land, enough of the long paper works, can we still have the likes of mother theresa, florence nightengale, desmond tutut, and lots of men and women who went out of their way to make a difference, to me there is more than enough to make the world a lot peaceful place to be, let us the activist go on doing our bit, with or with out the politicians, some day the books will be opened for the politicians, at least in nigeria today books are been opened for the shady politicians of yester- years, so the right days are near in my beautiful country, nigeria and i see same in other african countries.

get to work my fellow activists, the future is closing up on all wrong agents, tommorrow is bright.

The role of CSO can not be over emphasized in both developed and developing countries in speaking for the voiceless, bringing hope and a future and calling for social justice. It is a personal great joy to see CSO featuring strongly in Global Fund activities.

The CSOs have the passion to reach out to the hard to reach communities and have greater output where other sectors are either not willing or not able to work and raise the necessary resources. There is the need for stronger CSOs in sub-Saharan Africa. A better organization and a well developed structure if they are to play a more useful role.

The role of CSO goes beyond participating in decision making or voting on issues that are raised by other sectors representatives. Active participation is key and sub-structure organization and development is a must. Whose responsibility is it? CSO contribute to development of country proposal but do not change the focus, they participate but do not lead. Why?

The Global Fund finances programs with emphasis on scale-up. This implies it should have been started by mostly the government and or follows the government’s agenda or a multilateral agency. However, even if the CSOs want to lead the development of the national proposal, how do they finance the consultant(s) who must write the proposal according to the acceptable language of the TRP or risk loosing the funds which is badly needed to reach out to the dying people especially women and children?

The CSO must be seen, heard and influence agenda and decisions. They need to play major roles and not compliment major roles. Their capacity need to be built. The platform for CSOs needs to be raised higher in especially sub-Saharan Africa in becoming a stronger watchdog and participate fully in bringing a live-reality to the work of GF.