04 April 2019
ICASO and APCASO are proud to announce a partnership to provide technical assistance to implementers of Global Fund-supported programs to reduce barriers to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria services. In March the organizations were jointly awarded an “indefinite quantity contract” to provide services through the Global Fund’s Human Rights Strategic Initiative.
“Although today we are two separate organizations, ICASO and APCASO have shared roots and a long history of partnership to advance the engagement of communities in the global response to HIV,” said Mary Ann Torres, ICASO’s executive director. “To combine our organizations’ experiences and talents to protect and promote human rights in the context of Global Fund programs at this critical juncture is a welcome and natural evolution of our partnership.”
For this program, ICASO and APCASO will coordinate and deliver short-, medium-, and longer-term technical assistance to support the effective implementation of programs to reduce human rights-related barriers to services, as well as monitoring and evaluating mechanisms to assess progress made. The two organizations submitted a joint proposal to the Global Fund earlier this year.
“APCASO and ICASO have worked together for more than 20 years to drive action and accountability in the responses to HIV, TB, and malaria,” said RD Marte, APCASO’s executive director. “As organizations committed to both the Global Fund and human rights, we see in this program an opportunity to provide much-needed support to those on the front-lines around the world.”
The program is the next step for the Global Fund as it pursues its strategic sub-objective to “introduce and scale up programs that remove barriers to accessing HIV, TB and malaria services.” For now, technical assistance will be available to implementers in 20 focus countries[1]which have received human rights matching funds and other intensive supports from the Global Fund.
To access these services, Global Fund grant implementers—including principal recipients, sub-recipients, and sub-sub-recipients—can request support through their respective country teams at the Global Fund Secretariat.
Collectively, ICASO and APCASO will field nearly 75 staff and consultants with expertise in human rights and gender in the contexts of HIV, TB and malaria programs. These experts will be available to provide technical assistance to organizations such as the development of training curricula and advocacy campaigns and the collection and analysis of evidence related to human rights barriers, among other services.
“Supporting civil society to break down barriers to human rights has been a core area of work for ICASO and APCASO for as long as we’ve each existed,” said Torres. “I’m thrilled that the Global Fund has stepped up again to put resources behind this critical aspect of ending the AIDS epidemic.”
ICASO: Mary Ann Torres, Toronto, Canada +1 416 419 6338 | [email protected]
APCASO: RD Marte, Bangkok, Thailand +66 93 014 4052 | [email protected]
[1]The 20 countries are: Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo (province-level), Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Honduras, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Mozambique, Philippines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, and Ukraine.