Over the past two years, the Collaborative Fund has initiated a global, community-driven funding mechanism to support treatment access and education efforts on a local, regional and global level. The Collaborative Fund provides funding in nine funding regions and one issue area:
- Southern Africa
- West/Central Africa
- East Africa
- Southeast Asia
- China
- South Asia
- Caribbean
- Latin America
- CIS/Baltics
- Women and Families in Africa
Each region develops a Regional Advisory Committee comprised of diverse membership reflecting the epidemic in each region. RAC members are all members of the ITPC. The RAC members set priorities for funding their regions and develop mechanisms for regional communication and support.
The Collaborative Fund activities include:
- Regional planning processes that convene a diverse array of community leadership to develop agendas and strategies to address HIV treatment and care needs;
- Small grants to community-based organizations selected by Community Review Panels in each funding region.
- Regional network support allocated by ITPC Regional Advisory Committees (RAC) for regionally-based treatment advocacy and literacy and community mobilization activities.
- Technical Assistance support to grantees in each funding region and allocated by ITPC RAC.
In addition, funding is provided to a community organization selected by the RAC for regional coordination. Funding is also provided for program monitoring and evaluation and to support the ITPC International Steering Group, the global coordinating committee. In this way, funding is provided for local activities (small grants), regional activities (network support, coordination, and technical assistance), and global activities (ITPC Steering Group).
The program was initially piloted in the CIS/Baltic region, where a third round of grant making was just completed and over $600,000 has been distributed to date. A first round of grant making will be completed in all other regions by the end of 2005. Approximately 80% of all funds are spent within the funding regions.
In each funding region, Community Review Panels, comprised of leading community-based treatment advocates and educators, set funding priorities and select grant applications for funding. Each Community Review Panel develops policies to ensure transparency in its funding process, protect against conflicts of interest, and to gain input from the communities they represent. All planning bodies and review panels are led by people living with HIV/AIDS and include a geographically diverse group of people affected by HIV in their regions, including drug users, sex workers, men who have sex with men and other affected groups. At least half of the participants are women.
