Involvement of Key Populations and People Living with the Diseases: Achieving Inclusiveness of Country Coordinating Mechanisms

A recent audit of Country Coordinating Mechanisms by the Global Fund’s Office of the Inspector General acknowledged that “significant improvement has been made in the involvement of civil society and affected communities in designing and implementing programs” while at the same time concluding that “membership and meaningful engagement of civil society and key populations is not optimal.” The case studies contained in this collection help illustrate how that significant improvement has been made in specific country contexts.

They are presented here in the hope that they may be an inspiration to Country Coordinating Mechanisms in other country contexts. They also illustrate some of the complexities around achieving the participation of key populations and people living with disease in Country Coordinating Mechanisms. In particular, they demonstrate that "adequate representation" and "meaningful engagement" are not the same thing. While the former might lend itself to being measured by membership quotas, the latter most certainly does not.