Summer 2015 Update
Gillian Dolce, GYCA Program Manager, Moving On
to do make sure that young people are heard in the HIV movement.
Dear GYCA family,
Warmly,
With very mixed emotions, and after three years of working in the youth HIV movement, I will be moving on to take a position as Senior Advocacy and Communications Associate at Global Health Corps. This next step is an opportunity for me to continue to hone my skills and to stay committed to the youth leadership work that has become so important to me through my work at GYCA.
Gillian
Global Fund Partnership forum – A Youth Advocate’s experience Musah Lumumba, a GYCA member and GYCA’s Link Up Focal Point for Uganda, recently participated in the Global Fund Partnership forum. His report follows.
It has been such a pleasure to get to know you all, and I so appreciate your commitment to working with GYCA. Our network of incredible youth advocates, who care so passionately about the health and human rights of ALL people, is proof that young people are an unstoppable force. It has been a privilege to learn from you all about the amazing work that young people do all over the world to make the HIV response one that meets the needs of young people in all our diversity. Thank you. The good news is that I will still be part of the GYCA family! I'll be joining GYCA's Advisory Board and continuing to support the GYCA network from that post.
Under the theme of “Shaping our Future: Collaborating for a Healthier World”, the forum brought together over 200 advocates, policy makers, programmers, donors and government representatives. The forum focused on developing an impactful Global Fund Strategy in the post2015 world. In the pre-meeting, I was part of the panel that discussed and reflected on the role of civil society and communities in Global Fund institutions and processes. I represented a perspective of a young Global Fund advocate, building on experiences from the Global Fund youth tool workshops, my engagement in Link Up as well as my connection with the broader youth HIV and SRHR movements (such as the PACT, GYCA, Y+, CYSRA-Uganda, EAYASRHR, etc.). Seated among senior advocates working on, and influencing, Global Fund processes at global and regional levels, we developed key messages to guide our contributions in the main partnership forum.
Julie Mellin, GYCA's Lead on the Link Up project, will be taking over management of GYCA, and since we have been working together at GYCA every day, Julie will be able to carry on without skipping a beat. Thank you in advance for continuing to be a thoughtful and warm community as we go through this transition!
They were:
I've learned so much from my work with GYCA, and I'm grateful that it's not over yet. I look forward to joining the Advisory Board and staying actively involved. Thank you, again, for all we've learned from each other and for all you
GYCA
The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria held its 5th partnership Forum in Addis Ababa at the beginning of May. A two-day civil society pre-meeting, organized by the Community, Rights and Gender department of the Global Fund Secretariat, preceded it.
Ensuring access to quality and comprehensive services for all key populations by developing a key performance indicator/s disaggregated by gender and by ensuring direct funding to their programmes e.g. through special initiative funding to adolescent and young
Summer 2015 Update key population programmes
Deploying gender and human rights experts to provide technical assistance at country level with CCMs and other entities
Responding to the sexual rights and needs of adolescent and young women in Sub Saharan Africa
Professor Nantulya Vinand (Uganda AIDS Commission), Shaun Mellors (International HIV/AIDS Alliance), and Musah Lumumba (CYSRA-Uganda/Y+) at the Global Fund Partnership Forum in Addis Ababa
Ensuring government compliance with the five human rights standards especially where funding doesn’t reach key populations Developing components within the strategy on how the Global Fund will respond not only to politically challenging operating environments but also to legally challenging environments too- such as where key populations are criminalised.
I also attended a meeting between the chair of the Global Fund board and civil society representatives. The Chair asked us what the Global Fund strategy should do for civil society and communities and what Global Fund money should be used for. On behalf of the youth sector, I said there was a need to invest in adolescent and youth-specific programmes at country level including capacity building and that they should make use of the Global Fund youth tool ‘Making the money work for young people’. I also recommended key performance indicator/s are developed for adolescents and young people across the three diseases. Finally I suggested the Global Fund should invest more in diagnostics to monitor HIV treatment outcomes especially in Sub Saharan Africa (viral load and CD4 machines). The partnership forum gave me the chance to contribute the youth voice and also work with other civil society actors to influence the GF strategy development processes so that the 20172021 GF strategy responds to the needs of those most impacted by the three epidemics including adolescents, young people and key populations. However we still to continue mobilising and supporting young people to participate in the remaining two face to face partnership forums in Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
GYCA
GYCA Members and Staff Advocate for Young People at the United Nations Part of GYCA’s work is to continuously advocate for the rights of young people living with and affected by HIV within global processes, and supporting young people to participate directly in the development and implementation of policy affecting their lives. To that end, we have supported some incredible young leaders and advocates to participate in global advocacy meetings in the past several months. Some of those meetings included:
March 2015 - The 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in New York: GYCA co-organized an intergenerational discussion among activists who work for health, rights, and justice for all people – particularly those who are most marginalized. The event also served as the official launch for our new Link Up report on the visions, voices, and priorities of young people who are living with and most affected by HIV. Read more about the event here.
May 2015: GYCA member and youth advocate for the Link Up project Brant Luswata participated in the World Health Assembly in Geneva and spoke in a side event on the SRHR needs of young LGBT men and the anti-gay bill in Uganda. Read some of Brant’s blogs about young people and HIV here.
May 2015: Rewan Youssif, GYCA’s Regional Focal Point for the Middle East and North Africa, spoke at the UN General Assembly Informal Interactive Hearings with NGOs, CSOs, Major
Summer 2015 Update Groups and the Private Sector on the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Rewan represented GYCA and the UN Major Group on Children and Youth, and spoke about the need to prioritize SRHR for young people, particularly young people from marginalized groups.
A link to your organization website or activity website A link to your social media or LinkedIn profile or website
June 2015: GYCA supported Nicholas Niwagaba, Programme Manager with the Uganda Network of Young People Living With HIV and active Link Up youth advocate, to apply for the European Development Days Future Leaders Programme. Nicholas was selected and spoke on the on the high-level panel Realising the right to health for all by 2030: Time for a paradigm shift towards equity in healthcare. He also had the opportunity to meet Ban-Ki Moon and to meet with Kristian Schmidt, the EU’s Ambassador to Uganda, about the health needs of young people living with HIV in Uganda.
Send your submissions to info@gyca.org at any time! All submissions should be emailed as an attachment that can be edited for grammar (.doc or .docx file – PDF will not be accepted). We look forward to sharing your incredible work with the world! Thank you, The GYCA Team
Call for Submissions: GYCA blog! Have you represented a youth organization at an HIV/AIDS education conference recently? Or organized an event to celebrate International Women's Day? Or have major plans for the International AIDS Conference? If you’re an active GYCA member and have participated in an event, activity, or conference recently that showcases your HIV and AIDS or SRHR activism, the GYCA community wants to hear about it! We also welcome submissions that share your views on the youth HIV movement, your personal or local experience in advocating for young people sexual and reproductive rights, or any other relevant ideas you have and would like to communicate. You can share your story by contributing to the GYCA blog! Here’s how: Submit a piece in narrative format of between 300-500 words. Briefly introduce yourself, and describe your involvement with the relevant event, activity, or conference (if applicable). Include the following: A photo that can easily be turned into a thumbnail (i.e. jpg format)
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