strategic framework 2012-2016

7/31/2019 Strategic Framework 2012-2016

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until weend aids

VisionOur vision is an end to the AIDS pandemic through universalaccess to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support within ahuman rights framework.

MissionOur mission is to mobilize and support diverse communities

for an effective response to end the AIDS pandemic.

PrefaceIn 2011, the ICASO Board of Directors, staff and partners from around the

world came together to review and reect on where ICASO was then and how

the organization might best evolve to contribute to ending the HIV pandemic.

Through a rigorous months-long process, they created a bold new strategy to

guide the organization for the next ve years.

At all stages of the development of the new strategy, visionary thinking from

diverse stakeholders enabled ICASO to determine how its core strengths

could best be channeled in an HIV programming and policy landscape that has

changed considerably since ICASOs founding in 1991. The strategy reects

consensus on three major principles. As a movement, we must expand theght against HIV in the face of economic constraints. We must consolidate our

gains in building community-based organizations focused on health and human

rights. And we must transform our organizations to improve efciency, reduce

redundancy and capitalize on new science and new funding realities.

ICASOs willingness to rethink its role and to restructure its approach has

carried the organization to the threshold of a new era, and it is now poised to

help civil society assume its central role in a transformed global response to

HIV and AIDS. This document summarizes how ICASO will pursue four central

goals through the end of 2016 working with communities to hold governments

accountable; working with communities to ensure that efforts are evidence-

based and human rights-based; strengthening community involvement in

program implementation; and fostering the development of strong, exible

community-based alliances.

At the outset of the strategic planning process, it was anticipated that invaluable

leadership would come from ICASO Policy and Advocacy Director RobertCarr, a longtime and passionate advocate for the participation of marginalized

populations in the global response to HIV and AIDS. Roberts untimely death

in May 2011 was a huge blow on both a professional and personal level.

Participants in the strategic planning process remained greatly inspired by

Roberts unfailing belief in the power of community-based advocacy to bring

about a more just world. We will continue to honor Roberts memory by working

to achieve our goals.

International Council of AIDS Service Organizations

Strategic Framework 2012-2016


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Global, regional and national leaders

fulll their commitments and apply

evidence-based approaches to end

AIDS and promote health, gender equality

and human rights.

Context and rationaleDuring the past decade, the world has made signicant progressin mobilizing international funding for HIV and AIDS. Today, the

global response to HIV and AIDS has unprecedented institutionalcapacity to improve health and protect human rights. The nations ofthe world have committed themselves to ambitious global targets.Millions of people now have access to HIV treatment and preventionservices. Furthermore, 2011 brought the promise of effective newHIV prevention technologies. We have a greater opportunity nowthan ever before to push ahead for an end to the pandemic.

Communities have a crucial role to play in making this happen,and they therefore need support to monitor and evaluate theperformance of national and global responses against national andinternational commitments. They also need support to increasevisibility of broader community health, gender and human rightsissues, leading to political and social action on these issues.

Strategies

ICASO will help to ensure that community advocates haveadequate technical, nancial and political support to demand thattheir governments and the international community achieve HIV-related targets and commitments. These include commitments incurrent national AIDS plans and commitments made during the2011 United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting onAIDS. DETAILSINBOX1

ICASO will help to ensure that community leaders have access to thetechnical, nancial and political support they need to advocate forevidence-based and human rights-based programming. This means,for example, advocating for adherence to global standards such asthose set out in the 2011 Strategic Investment Framework and in therecommendations of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law.

ICASO will help identify advocacy opportunities, focusing onthose entry points to maximize community input into HIV policiesand programs. This includes ensuring that community advocatesare aware of entry points and opportunities at country level, aswell as helping advocates engage with regional and global policyforums (for instance, by collating and channeling their inputs, or byensuring their direct participation).

goal

goal

goal

goal

goal

Approach and GoalsICASO facilitates the inclusion and leadership of communities inthe effort to bring about an end to the pandemic, recognizing theimportance of promoting health and human rights as part of thisundertaking. Our approach is based on our theory of change, whichis made up of four core components: policy analysis and strategicinformation-gathering, with a particular focus on community-basedresearch; building the capacity of community leaders to act asstrong advocates and as stewards of community-based structuresfor HIV mobilization and engagement; advocacy for accountability,for evidence-based and human rights-based approaches, andfor the strategic use of HIV resources for maximum impact; anddeveloping networks to support an HIV movement that contributesmore broadly to health, human rights and gender equality.

The theory of change is dynamic and interactive, with all of thecomponents working together to achieve ICASOs four goals for2012-2016:

Global, regional and national leaders

fulll their commitments and apply

evidence-based approaches to end

AIDS and promote health, gender equality

and human rights.

Community perspectives and experiences

guide all major global, regional and nationalHIV policies and programs.

Community systems for health and human

rights are strong, well linked and well

integrated with health systems.

ICASO plays a strong leadership role in

supporting community engagement in the

global response to HIV and AIDS

All of these goals need to be achieved in order for ICASO to realizeits vision. They combine a call for strong political and nancialcommitments (Goal 1) with the well-established but still under-applied principle of meaningful community involvement in deningpolicies and programs (Goal 2) and with recognition of the centralrole of communities in the provision and monitoring of services(Goal 3). Efforts to achieve the rst three goals are underpinned byICASO helping to build a strong HIV movement (Goal 4).


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Community perspectives and experiences

guide all major global, regional and national

HIV policies and programs.

Context and rationaleThe coming years will see a transformation in policies andprogramming related to HIV. Researchers will continue to identifypromising new HIV treatment and prevention technologies.International and national funding agencies will change how theyfund HIV programs, driven both by economic constraints and by

stronger evidence about what is and is not working to curtail theepidemic. Community advocates and service providers will needinformation and training to adopt, adapt and integrate these newapproaches in their local settings.

At the same time, new technologies and strategies can present newrisks, particularly in relation to human rights and to the principle ofcomprehensive programming. The perspectives of key populationsin the HIV epidemic, in particular, people living with HIV, people whouse drugs, sex workers, transgender individuals and men who havesex with men, as well as young people and women, must continueto inform the global response. These groups require support toenable them to speak out for their human rights and to advocate forpolicy reform and well-targeted programming at the country level.

Strategies

ICASO will strengthen community capacity by building knowledgeabout emerging policy and programming issues. Through directmentoring, ICASO will help advocates improve their ability tounderstand and represent the perspectives of communities. Withthe growing recognition of the role of the community sector, thereare opportunities at the national, regional and global level forcommunity representatives to inuence policy and programmaticdiscussions and decisions. However, community actors often haveweak capacity, a direct consequence of the lack of support to thesector and the marginalization of some key populations.

ICASO will maintain its longstanding role as a provider of timely,accessible information, analysis and tools to community-sectoractors. It is essential to support community engagement inadvocacy and program implementation by helping communityactors respond to relevant policy and programming issues andopportunities. They also need tools to help them plan and evaluatetheir work.

goal

ICASO will use its close links with global, regional and nationalpartners to identify key and emerging policy issues andopportunities for instance in relation to new technologies, and tochanges in international funding modalities. ICASO will facilitatecommunity engagement with these issues and opportunities byproviding community actors with up-to-date information, and withtechnical and nancial support. Forums where the communitysector can have a major impact include international and regionalAIDS conferences, as well as United Nations meetings that focuson HIV.

goal

Community systems for health and human

rights are strong, well linked and well

integrated with health systems.

Context and rationaleTo control and end AIDS, health services need to be improved andscaled up, such that all people living with and at risk of HIV haveaccess to quality HIV prevention, treatment, care and supportservices. This expansion requires the use of community-basedhealth service providers, integrated within or linked to health

systems, to offer a wider range of services and access pointsthat are safe, condential and cost-effective. Community-basedproviders have a unique ability to help people learn how to protectthemselves from HIV, and how to live longer and healthier lives withHIV.

Recognizing the need for community-centered health programming,international funding agencies, including the Global Fund toFight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, have created new fundingopportunities for health systems that are based in or interfaceclosely with communities. Community-based organizationsneed support to engage with these funding streams and to workseamlessly with health systems. Communities also need supportto advocate for the continued transformation of national healthsystems and international funding for health so that they moreeffectively fulll the right to health.

Strategies

ICASO and its partners will continue to emphasize the role ofcommunities and to identify and promote practical models thatgovernments and donors can adopt in order to enable a strongcommunity contribution. ICASO will also provide advice, funding


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goal

and capacity-building to advocates working in this area. Thisapproach is needed because donors and national health policy-makers seldom consider the central role that the community sectorcan play in improving health, and community engagement inservice provision is rarely supported in a systematic way.

ICASO and its partners will provide mentoring and brokeringservices to help community organizations gain greater access tofunding and technical support. ICASO will also work with donorsand policy-makers to improve the systems for provision of supportto community actors. This strategy addresses the tendency for HIVfunding and technical support systems to favor government-ledprograms. Community and civil society organizations, particularly

grassroots groups and groups for key populations, often struggleto navigate these systems and to obtain predictable funding andreliable technical support.

ICASO will continue to support watchdog activities in the globalAIDS response. ICASO and its partners and allies will identifyprogress, problems and lessons learned, with the larger aim ofimproving governance and implementation of HIV programs.ICASO will call for and conduct research and analysis to guide theexpansion of community-based HIV services and task-shifting ofHIV services to the nongovernmental sector and to community-ledgroups in particular.

ICASO plays a strong leadership role insupporting community engagement in the

global response to HIV and AIDS.

Context and rationaleSince the start of the HIV epidemic, community service providersand advocates around the world have sought to supporteach other and coordinate their work toward common goals.Community mobilizing, networking and organizing have changedconsiderably in recent years. Greater use of the internet, mobilephones and social media in resource-limited settings has madeit easier for people to interact and collaborate. Governments andnongovernmental organizations are adjusting to a world in whichnew coalitions and civil society leadership can rapidly emergewithout requiring the support or sanction of formal intermediaries.

Organizations are still required, but these must be highly responsiveand rapidly adaptable to emerging issues and needs. At the sametime, funding constraints and a maturing of the HIV movementhave led donors and advocates alike to call for a consolidation offormal organizational structures to reduce administrative costs andduplication of effort.

Strategies

ICASO will expand its network to meet the evolving commitmentand growing demands of the global AIDS response. ICASO willcontinue to develop requests for funding to support its work andthe work of its partners based on ongoing assessment of theissues facing the global response. At the same time, ICASO willpursue options for consolidations, mergers and other forms ofcollaboration with key partners.

ICASO will work with community actors on the issues that theyprioritize. By maintaining close ties to a broad range of networks,organizations and advocates, ICASO will be able to collaboratewith those most invested in resolving specic emerging issues. Aswell as nurturing long-term partnerships, ICASO will develop newalliances.

ICASO will work closely with other community-based networks,particularly those representing key populations affected by HIV, tolearn from them and to act as both peer and mentor. ICASO plansto develop new programs in collaboration with these networks inorder to respond to the priori ties identied throughout this StrategicFramework.


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until weend aids

65 Wellesley St. E., Suite 403Toronto, ON Canada M4Y 1G7

[email protected]

www.icaso.org

June 2011 United Nations General Assembly

High Level Meeting on AIDS

Among the commitments made by United Nations Member States

at this event, the following are a central focus for ICASO and itspartners and allies:

Universal access to treatment and access to life-savingmedication to 15 million people living with HIV by 2015;

a 50% reduction in sexual transmission of HIV by 2015,supported by a commitment to ensure that national preventionstrategies comprehensively target key populations which arehighly affected by HIV and AIDS;

a 50% reduction in HIV transmission among people who injectdrugs by 2015;

a pledge that by 2015 no child will be born with HIV, and thatmaternal deaths will be substantially reduced;

a 50% reduction in tuberculosis deaths in people living withHIV by 2015;

closing of the global resource gap for the response to HIV andAIDS and work towards increasing funding in low- and middle-income countries according to UNAIDS estimates of betweenUS$22 billion and US$24 billion per year by 2015; and

advancing human rights by creating enabling legal, socialand policy frameworks to eliminate HIV-related stigma,discrimination and violence.

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strategic framework 2012-2016

Documents