On October 27 - 28th, a group of 35 advocates from around the world attended a meeting, Financing HIV and TB Services and Advocacy in Middle Income Countries: Developing an Action Plan sponsored by ICSS and Open Society Foundations to develop an Action Plan to address funding withdrawals for HIV and TB in middle-income countries (MICs).
The meeting focused on the need for global solidarity and advocacy to oppose funding cuts in MICs, the need to provide support to advocates within MICs to increase domestic spending and ensure responsible funding transitions, the impact of MIC status on drug pricing, the need for safety net funding to fill gaps in essential services, the need to protect the human rights and health of key populations, and the need for a communications platform to facilitate advocacy around the world.
To set the stage for the on-going work, the meeting participants developed a Call to Action. The list of participants is available here. The Call to Action will be followed by a detailed advocacy strategy to mobilize and unite the communities and fight the failures of the governments from both north and south to honour their commitments. If you want to add your name to the Call to Action, please reply to the MICs mailing list: mics-transitions@dgroups.org*
* To join the list, you just need to send a request to that address. The request will need to be approved by the administrator (David Barr, Fremont Center). The list is limited to civil society members and no donors or representatives from government or multilateral agencies are allowed to join.