Tbilisi hosts the first regional advocathon on HIV and advocacy
On July 15-17, Tbilisi hosts the regional #Advocathon 2019 “Advocacy and HIV” , the first event of this format to be held in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Eight country teams representing #SoS_project from Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will get together to develop advocacy plans to ensure the sustainability of HIV services in the EECA region.
The non-standard format of the event will allow to unite the unique experience of representatives of NGOs, governments, the expert community and PLHIV to create innovative solutions to problems in the field of public health financing and HIV-prevention projects in the EECA region.
Dmitry Sherembey, Head of the Coordination Council of the CO “100% Life”: “Here we gathered the leading experts in the field of HIV / AIDS from the EECA region, who do very important work every day. Our work has a human dimension and very concrete result – the saved lives of patients. The goal of our meeting here is to unite all parties concerned to write a victory plan, a plan that will help us stop the epidemic. And we will not look for patterned and simple solutions, because we are realize clearly for whom we work and the scale of the problems we are facing. And those problems require innovative approaches and thinking outside the box. ”
It should be noted that the teams will consist of representatives of NGOs, associations of HIV-positive people, community-led organizations, key groups representing participating countries, as well as representatives of the public sector.
Sergey Filippovich, Director of the regional #SoS_project at the Alliance for Public Health: “This is one of the key activities of #SoS_project in the context of budget advocacy building the understanding of the problems we are facing and supporting the public sector to mobilize national resources. To support advocacy efforts of countries we will direct all available resources, including regional information campaign to be launched in autumn. The main goal of the information campaign is to change the format of communication and build a new history of dialogue between the state and the civil sector. ”
As the result of their work the teams will present specific budget advocacy projects in the field of HIV financing aimed at strengthening the capacity of the communities and achieving the sustainability of HIV response programs in the countries of the EECA region.
Advocathon is an interdisciplinary workshop event, during which participants specializing in various issues will work in mixed teams to solve problems related to the topic of the event with the direct mentoring and support of leading experts of the region.
The event was organized in the framework of the project “Sustainability of Services for Key Populations in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Region” (aka #SoS_project), implemented by a consortium of organizations from countries of the EECA region under the leadership of the Alliance for Public Health in partnership with the charitable organization “100% of Life”, Central Asian Association of People Living with HIV and the Eurasian Key Populations Health Network.
