Year: 2019

APCASO BACKUP Health Project

CSO and KP representing CCM Pakistan, CCM Srilanka, CCM Papua New Guinea and CCM Nepal gathered together to learn and share their working experience for CS engagement. The learning visit was held in Kathmandu, Nepal from 19^th to 21^st November 2019.

The event was facilitated by Ms. Mangala Namasivayam from APCASO. There was delightful presence of Ms. Jennifer Ho, Deputy Director and Ms. RD Marte, Executive Director of APCASO.  

Day 1:

All the country representatives shared about their CCM working at their respective countries. There was discussion among participants about the BACKUP Health Project undergoing through support of APCASO, working modalities of CCM, spaces provided to the KP/CS representatives.

Representatives from FHI 360 and Principal Recipient (Save the Children) shared the information on LINKAGES project in Nepal and Global Fund grants implementation respectively. Mr. Sandesh Neupane, CCM Coordinator presented about CCM Nepal.

In the evening, all the CCMs representing participants including some government stakeholders and bilateral and multilateral representatives of Nepal gathered together for a dinner. Mr. Mahendra Prasad Shrestha (Executive Committee Member and Chair of Oversight Committee, CCM Nepal and Chief of Health Coordination Division, MoHP) chaired the dinner meeting. He welcomed all the participants and shared his experience of working for health system strengthening in Nepal.

Day 2: The participants visited two NGOs namely Society for Women Awareness Nepal (SWAN) and SPARSHA Nepal with an objective to acquire the holistic understanding of the working modalities of such organizations explore about the current response from Nepal NGOs for Key Population and people living and affected with diseases.

During the visit to Nari Chetana Samaj, the project officer gave the glimpse about the LINKAGES project undergoing with support of FHI 360. The participants also got to know about the strategies and model which has been rolling on for reaching KPs for index testing and counseling.

Likewise, during the visit to SPARSHA, the senior project manager presented about overall program undergoing in SPARSHA in HIV, TB, comorbidity and harm reduction.

Day 3: The participants reflected upon the day 1 and day 2 and made a comparison about the current responses in Nepal and explained about the gaps present in their respective countries.

Furthermore, representatives from five national networks presenting KP (Recovering Nepal, Nepalese Migrant Network, Jagriti Mahila Maha Sangh, National Federation of Women living with HIV/AIDS and Federation of Sexuality and Gender Minorities of Nepal) shared the updates about the consultation meeting conducted with financial support of APCASO to engage each constituency.

The representatives from government entities namely: Epidemiology and Disease Control Division, National Tuberculosis Center and National Center for AIDS and STD Control shared about the current responses to three diseases (HIV, TB, Malaria).

Closing remarks: Each participant from respective countries expressed that they were able to acquire informative knowledge on Nepal responses to three diseases. They internalized the importance of knowledge sharing and mentioned about collaborative learning. They expressed that- as a component of the Backup Health Project implementation strategy, Nepal has been identified as the destination for a learning visit. Nepal has an active and dynamic engagement of the KP and CBO in Nepal’s Global Fund Grants and positive partnerships with Nepal’s CCM, relevant government offices, and technical assistance agencies. The program was formally closed with closing remarks from Ms. RD Marte and Mr. Achut Sitoula, Vice-Chair of CCM Nepal.

Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs) have a central role in the Global Fund partnership. To better deliver on the Global Fund Strategy 2017-2022, the CCM model and structures were strengthened through the CCM Evolution project. The 39^th GF Board Meeting approved a phased rollout of CCM Evolution. The pilot implementation phase of the project, running from September 2018 through the end of 2019, aims to improve the performance of CCMs. Among 18 CCMs participating in the pilot phase, Nepal is one of them.

Ms. Viviane Leu, Consultant from the Global Fund CCM Hub conducted the endline assessment of the CCM evolution project in Nepal from 19-23rd August 2019 based on the baseline assessment, which was conducted in November 2018. Different methods such as document review and series of interview with CCM members and alternates, Executive Committee members, Oversight Committee members, CCM secretariat, non-CCM members representing CBOs, key populations, government entities and multilateral organization were conducted. After the endline assessment, the preliminary findings were shared to Executive Committee on 24th August 2019.

Find preliminary findings of CCM evolution project endline assessment:

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Second workshop to support community and Civil Society (CS) engagement in CCM Nepal was organized by CCM Nepal with partnership of APCASO and financial support from BACKUP-Health GIZ. The workshop was conducted from 4th to 6th September 2019.

Day 1

The workshop started with introduction of the participants followed by objective sharing of different session, Introduction to Global Fund and CCM, CCM Endline assessment preliminary findings sharing. There was sensitization of various indicators for CCM members and alternates and networks. Along with this there was Code of Conduct orientation and at the end of the day there was session regarding Community rights and gender. The sessions were facilitated via presentation, discussions, brainstorming and energizer games.

Day 2

The day started with the reflection of the previous day. Mr. Mahendra Prasad Shrestha, Oversight Committee Chair, Chief, Health Planning and Coordination Division, Ministry of Health and Population shared his key notes regarding the CCM progress and appeal to CCM members to continue their contribution and advocate issues of their constituencies for strengthening CCM and eliminate Additional Safeguard Policy posed by Global Fund.

The workshop continued with various sessions- Human Rights and power walk session among CCM members and KP, Communication capacity building session and ways to improve communication barriers. Ms. Rashmi Shrestha Thapa, malaria constituency, oriented the participants on Malaria in Nepal along with its history, national strategies and methods to eliminate malaria in Nepal. Ms. RD Marte, Executive Director of APCASO, oriented participants about TB through quiz. At the end of the day there was discussion about engagement plan. The sessions were facilitated via presentation, discussions, brainstorming and energizer games.

Day 3

Post Workshop meeting was done with CCM members and alternates. Further updates on CCM Nepal were shared among CCM members and their alternate regarding the work been carried out in core functions and way forward. The meeting gave the agenda for further discussion in upcoming CCM meeting.

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