Gender Equality Fund proclaims funding partners – press releases

Gender Equality Fund proclaims funding partners

June 13, 2024

– The Gender Equality Fund announced its inaugural set of funding partners, including organizations, networks and consortiums operating in seven countries. Over the following three years, partners will receive grants totaling $7.5 million to speed up progress towards gender equality through community engagement and empowerment.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the “Global Fund”), in partnership with GSK and ViiV Healthcare, established the Gender Equality Fund last yr in recognition of the critical importance of gender equality in ending AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria as epidemics. This is especially essential at a time when fragile progress on gender equality is threatened by a worldwide backlash against gender and human rights.

Women and girls are sometimes at greater risk and susceptibility to infections; barriers to access to health information and services; and lack of decision-making power and insufficient control over resources. Additionally, rigid gender norms, roles, and relationships around masculinity and femininity contribute to poorer health outcomes for men and boys, in addition to women, girls, and gender-diverse communities.

Partners who will receive funding include: Focus Droits et Accès; Y+ Global and TB Women consortium; a consortium of the African Sex Workers Association (ASWA), the ATHENA Network and the Nala Feminist Collective; and the consortium, amongst others Voice of our Voices, Eswatini AIDS Support Organization and Positive Women Together in Action. Organizations represent women, girls and transgender and gender diverse communities within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia.

The Global Fund is committed to gender equality, working to finish the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It just isn’t enough to answer manifestations of gender inequality; additionally it is needed to handle the basis causes of the disease to attain a stronger response to HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. The Gender Equality Fund will do exactly that – provide resources to those that are leading the fight for gender equality and human rights of their communities.

Selected partners reflect the depth of data of every organization. The funds will support women’s and girls’ rights by working with men, boys and community leaders on a spread of community-based activities aimed toward changing behaviours, perceptions, attitudes and practices around gender-based violence. The funds will strengthen the leadership and participation of ladies and girls living with and affected by TB and HIV in decision-making processes at local level, and improve their knowledge and access to details about their rights.

Other areas that might be supported by the investment include increasing access to and uptake of inclusive HIV, TB and malaria prevention; referrals to testing and treatment centers for ladies who use drugs, transgender women, and lesbian, bisexual and queer women; and supporting women and girls as community organizers.

“Advancing gender equality is a moral imperative and an essential precondition for ending AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics. Communities are on the front lines of the fight for gender equality and human rights, facing an opposition that is better funded, better organized and more aggressive than ever before,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “The Gender Equality Fund provides vital resources directly to communities to support their critical work. The rich diversity of partners announced today and the work they do are essential to tackling the injustices that leave some people particularly vulnerable to disease and unable to access the health services they need.”

Funding will support the engagement and leadership of ladies, girls and gender-diverse communities in national decision-making, in addition to advocacy and accountability activities to influence the event of relevant laws, policies, programs and budgets. It will even support the event and implementation of interventions that address and overcome gender-related health barriers at community level and promote gender-transformative and gender-affirming approaches to health.

Deborah Waterhouse, CEO of ViiV Healthcare and president of GSK Global Health, said: “Creating spaces and platforms that elevate and empower women, girls and gender-diverse communities is critical to delivering better health outcomes. The number of funding applications confirms the significant opportunity we have to ensure these important voices are heard. The diversity of organizations geographically and in terms of focus areas means that the Gender Equality Fund will have a wide-ranging and positive impact on these communities. I can’t wait to see the audience grow.”