Over the past year, GAA combined media outreach and public education with targeted coalition-building and grassroots mobilization in order to raise awareness and inspire activism in support of advocacy to advance these policy objectives. Following are highlights of our program accomplishments during 2009. Click here to download a detailed summary of GAA's 2009 program accomplishments.
Strengthen the U.S. Global AIDS Initiative
• GAA, Health Gap, Africa Action, and the Treatment Action Group published a World AIDS Day report card assessing President Obama's response to global HIV/AIDS, and calling on the U.S. to (1) provide increased funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria; (2) set a target of doubling the number of people on treatment to 6 million by 2013; and (3) eliminate funding for HIV prevention programs that are not evidence-based (http://aidsalliance.3cdn.net/31ffb18c0f31b270fc_j9m6bq07a.pdf).
• In response to the Obama Administration's proposed Global Health Initiative, GAA and 25 civil-society partners co-authored a policy paper that outlines a joint vision for a robust, fully funded initiative that supports integrated programs, sets measurable targets, and focuses on the synergies between HIV/AIDS and maternal, reproductive health, child, and primary health care (http://www.theglobalhealthinitiative.org/documents/report.pdf).
• GAA played a key role in developing the Global AIDS Roundtable's goals and recommendations for PEPFAR prevention guidance and program implementation, which outlined reforms related to establishing gender-specific indicators; monitoring the access of women and girls to prevention programs; targeting violence against women and girls as an integral component of prevention; and integrating sexual and reproductive health services with HIV prevention services.
Strengthen Health Systems
• On June 20, The Lancet published an assessment of interactions between global health initiatives and country health systems that called for a new framework in which in which
disease-specific and health-systems approaches are mutually
interdependent and support the shared goal of improving the health of
all people (http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/ PIIS0140-6736(09)60919-3/fulltext). To build the evidence base for this article, GAA and Health GAP supported research in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, and Malawi that filled a critical gap by prioritizing data collection among people living with HIV/AIDS, civil-society implementers and advocates, and community-based health workers and volunteers.
• GAA Executive Director Paul Zeitz co-wrote an article in the May 1, 2009, issue of The Lancet, which argues that evolving the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria into a new global financing mechanism to advance all of the health-related Millennium Development Goals would help address key health systems bottlenecks and achieve measurable improvements in health outcomes, including reduced child mortality (http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/page/-/PDFs/Lancet_Global_Fund_Health_MDGs.pdf).
Prevent and Treat Pediatric HIV/AIDS
• Together with key partners, including selected African advocacy organizations and networks, the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, and UNICEF, GAA launched a three-year Campaign to End Pediatric HIV/AIDS that focuses on overcoming policy and implementation bottlenecks to scaling up prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT+) and pediatric diagnosis, treatment, and care programs in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Nigeria, and Mozambique.
• GAA's advocacy helped persuade the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria to undertake a new reprogramming initiative to implement Decision Point #34 calling on the Fund's Secretariat to identify countries with a high pediatric HIV/AIDS burden and low coverage rates for PPTCT+ and pediatric treatment, and accelerate implementation of WHO guidelines endorsing highly active antiretroviral therapy as best practice for prevention of mother-to-child transmission. (GAA also helped persuade the Fund's board of directors to adopt the initial decision point in May 2009.)
• In March 2009, GAA published an advocacy brief urging the PEPFAR Public-Private Partnership for Pediatric Treatment to promote new technologies that will help expand family-centered care, accelerate task-shifting, and address shortfalls in service quality (http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/ page/-/PDFs/PEPFAR_Pediatric_Partnership_Report_March_2009_FINAL.pdf).
Accelerate Universal Basic Education
• GAA continued to play a leadership role in efforts to advance a new Global Fund for Education, including meeting with President Obama's transition team and other high-level U.S. government officials; persuading Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY) to champion the Global Fund for Education; and mobilizing G-20 leaders in support of a multilateral funding mechanism for global education.
• In advance of the G8 Summit in July 2009, GAA, Global Campaign for Education, and RESULTS Educational Fund coordinated a public letter from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson, and Muhammad Yunus, calling on G8 leaders to support the creation of a new Global Fund for Education, and co-hosted a media teleconference that generated media coverage in The Guardian, Voice of America, Huffington Post, and elsewhere.
• GAA continued to advocate for FTI's leadership to proactively address the recommendations of a critical mid-term evaluation in order to demonstrate its intention to reform FTI's governance structure and fix ongoing problems with funding disbursement.
Ensure Care and Support for Orphans and Vulnerable Children
•
GAA and Global Action for Children played a lead role in advocating for
a new Emergency Presidential Initiative for the World's Children that
would operationalize the Assistance for Orphans and Other Vulnerable
Children in Developing Countries Act and more effectively integrate
U.S.-funded programs for children. Unfortunately, these efforts stalled
when Congress decided to prioritize rewriting the Foreign Assistance
Act over promoting development sector legislation that would be
impacted by foreign assistance reform; however, GAA continues to engage
with congressional staff on the links between foreign assistance and
health, with a focus on the special needs of children and young people.
Reduce and Respond to Violence Against Women and Girls
• GAA worked with over 200 organizations to secure bipartisan support for the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA) in the House of Representatives and Senate-efforts that resulted in the first-ever full Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on gender-based violence. If passed, IVAWA will integrate efforts to reduce violence against women and support effective community-based programs.
• GAA's advocacy for robust implementation of the Global Fund's gender equality strategy helped ensure the release of a new action plan that includes gender-based violence.
• GAA's advocacy helped ensure that the new UNAIDS Joint Action for Results outcomes framework prioritizes eliminating VAW/G as a key component of the global AIDS response.
• GAA convened nearly 25 U.S. and international civil-society advocates in October 2009 to lay the groundwork for a joint advocacy strategy to advance a Sub-Saharan Safe Schools Initiative that seeks to reduce gender-based violence in schools and school-related settings.
• GAA played a supportive role in securing United Nations approval for the creation of a new U.N. women's agency that is expected to play a critical role in advancing a comprehensive response to gender-based violence.
Mobilize Increased Financial Resources
• GAA's advocacy helped persuade Congress to allocate $5.709 billion in FY2010 global AIDS spending, including $750 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The total FY2010 contribution to the Global Fund was $1.05 billion, the largest ever.
• GAA's advocacy helped persuade Congress to allocate $5.5 billion in FY2009 global AIDS spending and an additional $100 million for the Global Fund.
• GAA, Health Gap, Africa Action, and the Treatment Action Group published a World AIDS Day report card assessing President Obama's response to global HIV/AIDS, and calling on the U.S. government to provide increased funding for PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (http://aidsalliance.3cdn.net/31ffb18c0f31b270fc_j9m6bq07a.pdf).
• When the White House released its FY2010 budget on May 7, GAA and several African advocacy organizations, including the Kenya Treatment Advocacy Movement and Treatment Access and Literacy Campaign of Zambia, organized a press conference to highlight the U.S. government's failure to provide full funding for PEPFAR and the Global Fund. These efforts generated press coverage from the Daily Telegraph (U.K.), Inter Press Service, Los Angeles Times, and Voice of America.
Expand and Reform U.S. Development Assistance• GAA's response to the Obama administration's proposed FY2010 budget highlighted its failure to honor President Obama's campaign pledge to double foreign assistance by 2012.
• As Congress begins to rewrite the Foreign Assistance Act, GAA continues to advocate for more effective development strategies with outcomes linked to country-driven approaches, as well as more efficient distribution of resources.
• GAA is working with allies such as RESULTS, Treatment Action Group, and Physicians for Human Rights to ensure that the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator maintains its authority, autonomy, and prominence, regardless of how foreign assistance is reformed.
Strengthen the Global Fund and Monitor Other Stakeholders
• GAA's behind-the-scenes advocacy helped ensure that the new UNAIDS Joint Action for Results framework prioritizes several key objectives, including scaling up prevention of mother-to-child transmission services as part of comprehensive reproductive health programs, more effectively integrating SRH and HIV/AIDS services, and eliminating violence against women and girls.
• GAA continues to prioritize efforts to secure increased contributions from the U.S. and other donor governments in order to enable the Global Fund to renew existing, successful grants and implement new funding rounds, and we are working to generate increased country-level demand for expanded Global Fund investments.
• GAA continues to advance an advocacy agenda to strengthen the Global Fund and maximize its transparency and accountability, primarily through our role as a member of the Developed Country NGO delegation to the Global Fund's Board, which puts GAA in a strong position to navigate relationships with the Fund's Secretariat.
