Youth LEAD Mongolia Holds First YKP Country-Dialogue on The Global Fund Proposal
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia | 22 February 2020
Youth LEAD Mongolia recently conducted Mongolia's first country dialogue for young key populations (YKPs) on the Global Fund process for the "2020-2023" proposal. The consultation focused on the mission of activating youth participation to implement the upcoming HIV, TB related projects of the Global Fund in a more effective manner than previous rounds that concerned YKPs.
The core objective of this meeting was to make sure YKPs voices are reflected in the reference letter that would be delivered to the Concept Note writing team. The implementation of this meeting also fulfils Youth LEAD Mongolia's long-term objective of building sustainable youth-oriented systems in the fight against HIV.
The meeting called on a total of 26 young people aged 16-25 who represented the various key populations' groups, which included MSM, FSW, TG and migrant workers. The country-dialogue was facilitated by Global Fund CCM member T. Legee and the coordinator of the NGO “Youth for Health” D. Myagmardorj.
During the meeting, participants were divided into four groups that corresponded to the four priorities of the project. The four priorities are, increasing the detection rate of hidden HIV cases for MSM; keeping a low transmission rate amongst FSW; building effective healthcare services dedicated to at-risk populations, for example, PWID, TG, migrant workers and lastly, to strengthen the interconnection of health institutes and healthcare system policies. Participants were asked to discuss the current situation concerning these priorities and solutions on how to tackle these issues.
After hours of deliberation on the four priorities, the group came up with several ideas to improve the current situation regarding HIV and SRHR in Mongolia. One of the ideas included uploading a series of educational vlogs that would incorporate popular content and icons. Youth LEAD Mongolia have in the past been successful in releasing social media campaigns with informative content. Other ideas included training a core group of YKPs outreach workers under specialized physicians and conducting monthly health surveys, using the percentage results to assess the employment and mobility situations of migrants on the possibility of receiving HIV and TB healthcare.
"The first time YKP country dialogue has swimmingly built the bridge between the young high-risk population and The Global Fund, where we are coming together to shape the better future with less or even zero cases of HIV/AIDS infection" – T. Legee, Global Fund CCM member
The one-day meeting resulted in participants being fully aware of the Global Fund processes and using it as a basis to suggest more grounded and impactful proposals. This ensures that not only this round but future rounds of country dialogues to come that YKP voices are not only heard but incorporated into decisions that will affect their livelihoods. In the next steps, the proposal from the country dialogue will be submitted to the CCM, and three YKPs from the meeting will attend the final integrated country dialogue.
After the successful YKP country dialogue that took place in February 2020, two intervention programs for YKP were included in the main country proposal that was submitted to the Global Fund. Youth LEAD conducted a case study on the YLM engagement at the GF funding request process, to serve as a guideline and inspiration for YKP and youth-led organizations to engage in national processes related to HIV.
Edited by: Legee Tamir (Technical Advisor, Youth LEAD Mongolia) & Vanessa Monley (Programme Officer, Youth LEAD)