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Created on Apr 26, 2012

Pangaea’s Vice President of Research and Programs, Dr. Megan Dunbar, is presenting at a policy event in Washington, DC “Promoting Gender Equality in National Responses to HIV/AIDS, ” co-organized by the International Council for Research on Women, Pangaea and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. 

Dr Dunbar is presenting recent findings from Pangaea’s evaluation of the Global Fund’s Gender Equality and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Strategies (SOGI), developed to ensure thatservices and programs funded by the Global Fund would equitably serve girls and women, and sexual, and other, minorities. 

These strategies were ground-breaking when first approved by the Global Fund in 2008 and 2009 - as the first thematic priorities for the world’s only financing mechanism established to fund technically sound country proposals for AIDS, TB and Malaria. Through these strategies, the Global Fund sent a strong message to implementing countries, of the importance of meeting the health needs of populations too often overlooked in general population-based infectious disease strategies.

Civil society representatives have recently written to the Global Fund, concerned that shifts within the Global Fund Secretariat to eliminate civil society support teams, and gender and SOGI policy advisors will undermine these commitments. 

Dr Dunbar said, “Precisely because of the challenges faced by the Global Fund and others in securing adequate funding, we consider that the Global Fund must continue to prioritize proven interventions for specific populations most affected by HIV in different parts of the world, including: girls & women; men who have sex with men; transgender individuals; sex workers; and injection drug users.” 

Further, the continuing challenges to development financing, highlight the even more critical role of the Global Fund’s technical partners, in particular UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF. They must prioritize immediate, coordinated support to the Global Fund and implementing countries, as existing AIDS, TB and Malaria grants are reprogrammed, to ensure that the rights and needs of women and girls, and sexual minorities, in programs to fight AIDS are met.