Consortium Meetings in 2003

The meetings listed below are in addition to the regular Quarterly Meetings held at the London Lightouse or our various Working Group meetings.

20 November 2003: Meeting with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the International Development Minister Hilary Benn, US President George Bush, Colin Powell and Head of the US Global AIDS programme Randy Tobias. Cabinet Room, 10 Downing Street.
The Consortium Co-ordinator was invited to attend on behalf of the UK Consortium on AIDS & International Development membership.

13 November 2003: Richard Feacham, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Richard is the CEO of the Global Fund. We have facilitated two meetings with Richard and Global Fund Secretariat Staff for UK based NGOs. Whilst the meetings have not had specific agendas there was comprehensive discussion about the role of the Fund, resource mobilization strategies, fund eligibility criteria and more particularly the political climate regarding support for the Fund and what role NGOs can play in advocating support.

13 November 2003: 'loveLife' South Africa
Meeting with loveLife ceo, Dr. David Harrison, 'loveLife' Board Member, Dr. Mercy Makhalamele, and Micheal Sinclair on loveLife's strategy and progress and to engage with participants on the challenges of HIV prevention among youth globally. loveLife--South Africa's national HIV prevention programme for youth--uses a sustained high profile media awareness and education campaign to mobilize young people, together with youth friendly clinical services in government clinics and countrywide outreach and support programmes.

15 October 2003: HIV/AIDS & Human Rights in India
The Consortium on AIDS, in conjunction with Human Rights Watch, hosted a meeting with Meena Seshu and introduced by Joanne Csete, Director HIV/AIDS & Human Rights Programme, Human Rights Watch. Meena Seshu is one of India's most compelling and creative human rights and AIDS activists. The success of her organisation in fighting AIDS comes from approaching the HIV/AIDS crisis as a human rights issue. Ms. Seshu is the general secretary of SANGRAM, an organisation in Sangli, India that has helped stem HIV/AIDS through empowerment of women in prostitution, enabling them to organise both for protection of their rights and to become agents of HIV prevention. Human Rights Watch worked with SANGRAM in 2002 and documented how the Indian police and local thugs obstructed the group's life-saving work through harassment and abuse of its AIDS outreach workers. Ms. Seshu, who has endured personal attacks by local authorities, has not
let that stop her from working on behalf of some of India's most marginalised people.

8 October 2003: Department for International Development
The Consortium organised a broad and representative group of UK based development NGOs to meet with Gareth Thomas, the Development Minister and other DFID HIV/AIDS staff. Issues agreed by both parties for discussion were: UNGASS Commitments; Access to Treatment and Care - role of NGOs, generic drug use, donor directives; Vaccines; Microbicides; Global Fund - money absorbtion at Country level (but not exclusively related to the Global Fund); User Fees; Sexual and Reproductive Health; Orphans & vulnerable children; HIV and Ollder People; Immigration. The premise of the meeting was to inform the Minister on the key issues identified by NGOs and to discuss the current DFID thinking on those issues.

18 September 2003: Human Rights Watch Report on HIV/AIDS in China
Speaker Meg Davis, researcher and author of the report, Locked Doors: The Human Rights of People Living with HIV/AIDS in China. Human Rights Watch, September 2003. The report states that widespread discrimination against people with HIV/AIDS is fueling the spread of the epidemic in China. The 94-page report is based on more than 30 interviews with people with HIV/AIDS, police officers, drug users, and AIDS outreach workers in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Yunnan province.

Regular meetings: Hélène Rossert of the GFATM
Hélène Rossert is the Northern NGO representative to the Global Fund Board Meeting. As a part of the ongoing dialogue among UK based NGOs, facilitated by the Consortium, and as support for the NGO representative, around the Global Fund pre Fund Board Meetings are regularly arrange with Helene. The premise is to provide input on specific agenda issues and identify points that need further work or support for the NGO representatives as well as informing Global Fund Forum Members of key issues relating to the Fund.

16 July 2003: Chung To, an HIV activist from China
Chung is a founder and leading light in the Chi Heng Foundation, set up in Hong Kong to promote advocacy and programmes within China on AIDS. A special focus of the Chi Heng in the past couple of years has been the situation in Henan province where large numbers of people became infected through giving and receiving blood in a scam that lacked any measure of hygiene. Chi Heng's work has been particularly with the AIDS orphans in this province, with programmes to help them, and campaigns inside and outside China drawing attention to the problem, in the face of official attempts to hide the issue. Chi Heng also tries to work on other issues, including MSM and HIV/AIDS within China - something rarely addressed by other organizations. Chung himself has been active on AIDS issues for many years. Since he returned to Hong Kong from the United States in 1995, he has worked with various groups, including for a few years as a volunteer with the Hong Kong AIDS Foundation. In recent years he has been on the Board of the NGO AIDS Concern (also as their Chair), and is on some sub-committees dealing with aspects of HIV/AIDS of Hong Kong's Department of Health.

March 2003: Dr David Gisselquist
Dr David Gisselquist met with Consortium members to discuss the policy implications of his recently published and controversial research into the spread of HIV in developing countries via unsterilised needles and contaminated blood.

February 2003: Richard Feachem
The Consortium hosted a small meeting with Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to discuss UK NGO responses to the UK governments position on the Fund.