October 2013
Call Notes – National Grassroots Conference Call, Global Campaigns
Dr. Joanne Carter, Executive Director
Welcome everyone to the RESULTS Global Conference Call for October 2013. And a special welcome to anyone who is on for the first time—it’s great to have you!
Today we’re focusing on the Global Fund to Fight AIDS TB and Malaria and the enormous importance of US leadership to achieve critical funding for the Global Fund at the donor replenishment or pledging conference in early December.
In a few minute you’re going to hear from one of our most powerful and knowledgeable advocates on the Global Fund—Carol Nyirenda from Zambia.
I’m in South Africa right now for meetings early next week with the Minister of Health on how we can work with him to really turn around the TB epidemic in Africa and globally. But I also just spent the last week at the Global Fund in Geneva because I sit on the Global Fund Board Strategy, Impact and Investment Committee. I want to share a bit of my perspective as to why our efforts on the GF matter so much—both what we are aiming to achieve in the world and also how the Global Fund is getting even stronger in how it does its business.
First, the Global Fund has a strategy with a bold target to save 10 million lives between 2012-2016.
As we’ve learned from years of working on development, it’s not just about getting more money but ensuring those resources are invested to create short-term impact and build long-term systems for the future. The GF is implementing stronger ways of doing business that will allow the it to have even greater impact to get to that target—a grant making process that won’t be just a yes or no but will strengthen country proposals, will build on national strategies and reward and encourage them, AND will push country programs to make sure they are even more focused on highest impact interventions, leverage co-funding through countries domestic budgets.
And we’re not only building ways to fight the three diseases but a much broader platform for health:
The Global Fund is planning innovative work with UNICEF to take advantage of Global Fund supported programs to tackle child health even comprehensively. Because of the massive scale-up bednets to prevent malaria, and the scale-up of health workers and drugstodiagnose and treat malaria,fewer kids are dying of malaria. Anda child with a high fever in Africa is less likely than previously to have malaria and more likely to have pneumonia. Now the Global Fund will be working with UNICEF so that that when a child with a high fever isfound not to have malaria, they will have access to the inexpensive antibiotics to treat their pneumonia and save their lives. The Global Fund and UNICEF are also exploring how to usemass bednet distribution campaigns to also distribute other key interventions likevitamin A.
The exciting news since our last call is that we’re already seeing the US take key leadership by announcing it will host this Global Fund replenishment meeting in Washington DC the first week of December. Today’s call and our work over the next two months will focus on acknowledging and supporting the leadership that the US is already showing and encouraging the US to use all the tools we have to lead and that includes critically, coming to the replenishment with our own 3-year commitment of $5 billion for the Global Fund.
So, at the UN General Assembly two weeks ago, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the U.S. would host the upcoming Global Fund replenishment in early December. This is really significant because it not only demonstrates strong U.S. Leadership on the Fund, but it means the U.S. will be using its diplomatic leverage to urge other donor countries to increase their contributions. We’ve already seen encouraging signs of this, with significant increases promised from the Nordic countries with US encouragement, and from the UK.
Taking a step back, it’s important to recognize how instrumental you all have been in bringing us to this moment - just a handful of US orgs are working on the Global Fund, and none with more effectiveness than all of you.
In one of the very first budget President Obama submitted to Congress, he actually proposed a $50 million cut to the Global Fund. Then, in 2010 - after your smart work to generate media and get members of Congress to speak out - the administration made a historic 3-year, $4 billion pledge to the Global Fund, and has stuck to that promise. This year, in a very challenging FY14 budget, both the Republican House and Democratic Senate voted to fully fund the Global Fund at $1.65 billion. And now the Adminstration is hosting the next Global Fund replenishment conference. This turn-around in US support for the global fund would not have happened without your advocacy.
In our advocacy over the next few months—in our media work and potential work with Congress it will be really important that the administration get very strong positive support for what it’s done already—agreeing to host and use its leverage with other donors is huge. Positive feedback will get the US to do even more. And to fully achieve its leadership it’s critical to have a US commitment of $5B or one-third of the replenishment target.
Now I want to introduce our wonderful guest whom many of you know, Zambian TB and HIV activist Carol Nyirenda.
Carol has lived with HIV for many years and has also survived TB. She has been able to transform this personal experience into a political campaign to address TB/HIV, and has incorporated TB advocacy into her national and global HIV activism. She heads an organization focused on advocacy and oversight on Zambia’s efforts on TB, HIV and malaria and she has been a crucial global spokesperson and advocate who has changed global TB-HIV policy, helped convince donors to invest hundreds of millions of dollars and played a key role in ensure that community advocates—especially patients have a central in decision-making and oversight of programs and policies in Zambia and internationally.
Carol has served as Global Fund board member for CommunitiesAffected by the Diseases,and also sits on her Zambia’s Country Coordinating Mechanism.
And one other very, very exciting piece of news is that Carol and her whole team just hosted and participated in a training this past week in Zambia to learn and share and adapt the RESULTS model in Kenya and Zambia. And given the success of the training, I am sure Carol and us will be expanding to other countries as well!
Carol Nyirenda, Executive Director of CITAM+ Zambia
-Holding breath for Global Fund replenishment – really is a matter of life and death!
-Proud to host the recent advocacy training in Zambia to learn how to bring grassroots advocacy to life there. Critical to have Global South voices. We are committed to having RESULTS groups in Zambia and Kenya!
-Hospital closures left more than 100,000 people without access to HIV/AIDS treatment. Children being taken out of school. People fearing treatment failure. Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria supports organizations like CITAM+ Zambia so they can train others to be treatment supporters. We even translate critical documents so that local people can understand what’s happening with the issue of treatment/care of these diseases. All this and more is brought to life thanks to the Global Fund.
-The Global South medical community is currently overwhelmed. Without funding, we could lose the traction we’ve gained. We could undermine our investment up to now.
-I almost died, and I must keep on treatment to say alive. But my life now has been saved and improved, and I can help my country, thanks to the Global Fund and, in part, thanks to the work of RESULTS. Truly, you are helping a community. Thank you!
Q: Is Zambia a PEPFAR country? What’s the synergy between PEPFAR and Global Fund support? And what other resources does the Zambian government provide?
PEPFAR concentrates on working directly with the government and doesn’t engage the affected community at the level of the Global Fund. PEPFAR also concentrates mostly on HIV/AIDS. The Global Fund always requires co-financing from recipient countries.
Crickett Nicovich, Senior Policy Associate
As we have just heard from Carol - the upcoming replenishment of the Global Fund will be an important turning point in the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria. In a bit, I will talk about our opportunity to generate media in local papers to support a U.S. pledge of $5 billion to the Global Fund over the next three years.
But first, I want to give you a quick update on a few other issues we've been working on.
Since the RESULTS International Conference in July, we've been asking our members of Congress to co-sponsor two important, bipartisan measures: the Education for All Act and House Resolution 254 calling for greater U.S. leadership and accountability on global nutrition. And thanks to all your work - Even with the government shut down, we have successfully added cosponsors.
Just since our conference call in September, we've added 14 cosponsors to the Education for All Act which gets us now up to 36 cosponsors. And on the nutrition resolution, we've added 22 cosponsors since our last call, for a total of 40. Good work, folks! Just to say -with the shutdown, many congressional staff are furloughed, so if you have a request out to an aide on either of these items, it may take them some time to get back to you.
Another legislative update that many of you took quick action on is a bipartisan bill to enhance the transparency and oversight of PEPFAR, our bilateral AIDS program. The PEPFAR Stewardship and Oversight Act was introduced in both the House and the Senate by the leadership of the Foreign Affairs and the Foreign relations committees. We were really very encouraged by this legislation –it shows the incredible bi-cameral and bi-partisan support that our global AIDS work enjoys. This bill would basically extend the current program and enhance the transparency and oversight of PEPFAR. However early drafts did not include important reporting requirements on TB-HIV co-infection. Tuberculosis, as you know, is the leading killer of people living with HIV/AIDS.So we really wanted to get the reporting on the co-epidemic included.
And, we did it! Byworking with those of you who have members on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, we were able to ensure the bill was amended before it passed out of Committee to include tough new reporting requirements for PEPFAR on its efforts to fight TB-HIV co-infection. The hope in both the House and Senate is that the bills can be passed by an expedited process, and we will keep you updated about its progress.
I also want to add that this Wednesday - October 16th is World Food Day - many REAL Change groups of young RESULTS volunteers - are teaming up with the organization stop hunger now to host outreach events in their communities or on their campuses to bring attention to our work on poverty and nutrition. In addition to that, RESULTS Global will be teaming up with our domestic poverty colleagues and other anti-hunger groups for a call in day of action on World Food Day to weigh in with congress about protecting poverty focused and anti-hunger programs in whatever negotiations happen on the budget, the debt-ceiling, and a continuing resolution. We'll be sending out some talking points and an action alert at the beginning of this next week - so be on the lookout for that. This is a great opportunity to mobilize your action networks on an issue that everyone is hearing about in the news.
Now, I'd like to turn to our primary campaign this month, and next month: generating media to support the Global Fund's replenishment, and specifically, to urge the U.S. to make a 3-year, $5 billion commitment to the Fund.
It has been announced that in early December, the U.S. will host the Global Fund's replenishment meeting, where donors from around the world will announce their funding commitments. The Global Fund is seeking to mobilize a total of $15 billion to fund its strategy to defeat these diseases of poverty - AIDS, TB and malaria. This replenishment conference represents a real fork in a road, where donors will collectively decide whether to seize the opportunity at hand - to defeat AIDS, TB and malaria - or let it slip by.
As the Global Fund's executive director Mark Dybul has said, the choice is to “invest now, or pay forever.”
We do want to applaud the Obama Administration's decision to actually host the replenishment, and through media, really raise the expectation and pressure for the U.S. To deliver a $5 billion pledge. So on the goal of getting Global Fund media.We have a number of tools to support you to generate media:
- We have an Editorial Packet on the Global Fund replenishment, which is a brief document outlining what's at stake, designed for you to share with your editorial board. can send it directly to your editorial board as part of a request that they write an editorial.
- We also have a laser talk, which will be taught at the end of this call, to practice pitching your editorial writer and asking the paper to write.
- We have an Action Sheet to guide you, your group, and other in your community in writing a letter to the editor in support for the Global Fund.
-There is also recording of a webinar that John Fawcett and Ken Patterson did where they discuss more about our media strategy, and discuss hooks and angles for successfully placing media.
To find these resources:
-Finally, and most excitingly - we are planning on bringing some of our powerful partners from Africa –some of which are patient advocates - to the U.S. to work with you in your communities to meet with your editorial boards. Many of our most successful Media generating groups –have had initial success in getting in with their editorial boards, by having a guest advocate attend that meeting. So I highly encourage all groups to take advantage of this opportunity! If you are interested in hosting one of these amazing advocates, please contact Lisa Marchal (), Carly Pildis (Outreach & Advocacy Associate – ) or talk to your Regional Coordinator.
Grassroots Café
Lisa Marchal, Senior Global Grassroots Associate
1. The Champion Scale always applies to our work. Has your member of Congress said “yes” to your request? Wonderful! Encourage him/her to influence a colleague. There are always more ways to support your MoC to move up in their championing of our work.
2. Global Fund blog post featuring a media push editorial packet, an issue briefing recording, an action sheet, an action alert, an education & action meeting sample agenda, and today’s conference call recording and PowerPoint: Our goal is to get pieces in print by Thanksgiving.
3. Shares – Willie Dickerson of RESULTS Snohomish and Joe Riffe of RESULTS Columbus. Thanks to you both!
Thanks and greetings fellow poverty enders:
2030 that's our date
write a letter, don't hesitate
How do you get 3 letters published in a week?
Over a dozen in a year?
Write them and send them in. Open a word document and begin: Dear Editor,
You never have to write those two words again, they will be there for your next letter.
My goal is to write one a day. Every letter makes a difference, published or not. It is viewed by at least one pair of eyes, plus practice makes better. But send it in.
Get support. I send every letter I write to my brother Bob and my group leader Teresa. Bob often gives me feedback and sometimes I resubmit the letter. Both Bob and Teresa cheer me on and inspire me to keep writing.
Write to any publication that prints letters. Find hooks or just send in a letter from the heart about one of our RESULTS' causes. Hooks are everywhere:
Back to school = education for all
SNAP legislation is a hook for food stamps and globally increasing our food aid to the world
When a disease scare comes up Like SARS I talk about the Global Fund
The story of Nelson Mandela's health often mentions his TB
Pope Francis always talks about helping the poor- Microcredit
Currently Malala is in the news, education for all again
I write to small town papers who love letters. Larger city papers with international coverage and of course the big papers like the New York Times. Also magazines. I have a letter soon to come out in my UW alumni magazine. Traveling like I am today, I picked up a Spokane paper and found a Malala article and sent a letter: Visiting friends in Spokane, I saw your article... This article appeared from a national wire service, so it will be in other papers, write a new letter, perhaps another angle to one of these other publications... and so on.