ECOM received a unique chance to strengthen community response to the HIV epidemic among MSM and transgender people in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Eurasian Coalition on Male Health (ECOM) was thrilled to learn that its recent Expression of Interest (EoI) to request funding was accepted by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. ECOM is invited to work on development of a full proposal. While this is not a confirmation of funding, it is an important opportunity for ECOM to enhance gay, bisexual and transgender community organizations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) in their work on protecting men who have sex (MSM) and transgender people (TG) from the negative consequences of the HIV epidemic.

ECOM will now begin working on a detailed concept note to submit to the Global Fund in February 2016.

In March 2015, ECOM submitted to the Global Fund an Expression of Interest for a regional program “Community Actions to Increase Access of MSM and Transgender People to HIV Services in Eastern Europe and Central Asia”.

A growing body of evidence suggests that the HIV epidemic is rapidly increasing among MSM and TG in the region. However, although MSM are recognized as a key population in most national HIV/AIDS programs, national budgets allocate little to no resources to HIV interventions targeting them. Transgender people are effectively ignored in national HIV responses. Thus, access to HIV services for MSM and TG is disproportionately low.

ECOM’s program will aim to improve HIV programming for MSM and TG through community-led advocacy, evidence building, and best practice collection and dissemination. It will seek to create enabling environments for HIV services targeting MSM and TG by addressing problems such as stigma, discrimination, and human rights violations. The program will also serve to increase capacities of community organizations to facilitate a sustainable response to the HIV epidemic.

To proceed with the concept note development, ECOM will soon launch a broad regional dialogue with involvement of its members, allies in other key populations' networks and broader civil society, technical partners and key stakeholders in our region. ECOM will be publishing regular updates on the concept note development and the application process for the Global Fund funding.

For further information or in the case of any questions, please email  vitaly@ecom.ngo, Executive Director, or marcus@ecom.ngo, Program and Advocacy Officer.

The text of the press release is also available in .pdf form here.