Partnership Forum 2011
Sao Paulo, Brazil 28 – 30 June 2011
Working together, Shaping our Future
Access, Accountability, Rights
The Global Fund’s 4th Partnership Forum was convened from March till June 2011 and included three consultations, an e-survey, an e-Forum and a main conference in São Paulo, Brazil from 28 – 30 June. This year’s Forum occurred during the development of the Global Fund’s 2012-2016 strategy, and served as an important platform by which to obtain important stakeholder inputs into the strategy.
The recommendations that arise from the consultation and discussions will provide guidance to the Board.
Voices heard
Unique in its model, the Partnership Forum 2011 welcomed a total of about 350 participants that represented diverse constituencies from each of the eight regions in which the Global Fund provides funding, and representatives from the Global North. Leading up to day 1 of the Forum, there were a series of pre-meetings to facilitate and ensure effective participation during this consultative meeting. During the opening plenary, Jacqueline Lima, a young Brazilian, shared her moving story as an HIV positive mother who gave birth to a HIV negative boy. The story resonated with the participants and highlighted the importance and need for collective action through partnership to fight the three diseases: AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Jacqueline Lima’s story set the tone for the rest of the two days as participants formulated strategic propositions to feed into the strategy. The second and third days (Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30 June) combined plenary and breakout sessions focusing on the selected sub-themes, which provided participants with a critical opportunity to have their voices heard and to ultimately contribute to the work of the Global Fund.
Outcomes
The strategic recommendations emerging from the Forum are testament to the shared concerns and involvement of all of the participants. As one Principal Recipient noted: “… all the participants had chances to contribute to the development of the new strategy. All the comments, concerns were taken into consideration.” An evaluation of the Partnership Forum is currently underway, and it will encompass findings on the Partnership Forum’ process and provide recommendations on improvements. The early findings of the evaluation once released will be available here.
In an early September 2011 Partnership Forum Steering Committee (PFSC) report to the Global Fund‘s Portfolio and Strategy Committee (PSC), the PFSC will report the Forum’s details outputs and recommendations -- mapped to one of three broad categories: operational policy, Comprehensive Plan for Reform, and inputs into the 2012-2016 Global Fund’s strategy – which will be considered by the Board for inclusion in the Global Fund’s strategy 2012 – 2016. The report will outline the intended process by which the recommendations received at the Forum will be integrated into the strategy. In addition, the report will also provide summary information on a number of key topics, including the extent to which the e-Consultations were integrated into the main conference in Sao Paulo, and how the 2008 lessons learned were incorporated into the 2011 Forum’s planning and processes.
The PFSC report to the PSC is a critical part of the reporting back process and will serve as the channel through which the recommendations received at the Forum are fed back to the Board. With a proven record of past Partnership Fora recommendation’s shaping the Global Fund’s work, it is expected that many of the recommendations from this year’s Forum will be included in the next strategy