The International Community of Women Living with HIV have played critical role in providing technical support during the PEPFAR COP18 process for Uganda and Tanzania. During the PEPFAR COP 18 regional Planning meeting held in Johannesburg, South Africa in March with support from ICWEA, AVAC and MSM Global Forum, several commitments were made by the Government of Tanzania and PEPFAR team which need to be critically followed up. These included:
• Supporting 45,704 health workers in COP 18 (compared to 30,469 in COP 17); Increase community lay workers from 21,000 to 31,500 in COP 18.
• The Minister of Health in Tanzania committed that the government of Tanzania would revise the laws that created barrier to HIV prevention, care and treatment including the provisions around self-testing. Laws to be reviewed include the law on self testing.
• The commitment was made to include allocation for treatment literacy led by communities as part of TLD transition and demand creation, with total investment of USD$779,000 which seemed to be inadequate given the fact that it has to be divided across adults, pediatrics, women, men and testing. During in-country debrief session, the Director of Nationanal AIDS Control Programs informed that a meeting was to be held on Friday 22nd March on TLD transition.
• CSOs demanded for community based ART services delivery to be considered in COP18. However, the government representative committed that if community based ART services are to be delivered, it has to be in line with the government policies. The health workers will deliver the services to the community. In other word, it won’t be led by the community.
On the other hand, with support from ICWEA, AJWS, and Health Gap, the government of Uganda and PEPFAR team made several commitments which also need to be critically followed up. These included:
• The Amb. Deborah Birx made a commitment that PEPFAR will cover all funding gaps for ARVs so as to avoid stock outs in Uganda
• Programmes that target adolescent girls and young women will target those who are HIV negative and those living with HIV
• The Minister of Health committed that the Comprehensive Sexual and Reproductive Health guidelines would have been approved by April, 2018
• The Global Fund Country Portfolio Manager for Uganda committed that issues of human rights, stigma and discrimination were to be addressed by the investment in Global Fund for the 3 diseases
• PEPFAR made allocations in COP18 for OST for the people who use and or inject drugs
ICWEA at the Centre of PEPFAR COP18 processes
