Dear Global Fund Secretariat,

We write on behalf of ICASA 2025 international and local steering committee to demand for Reconsideration of Global Fund Funding Restrictions to support ICASA 2025.

We acknowledge the Global Fund in combating HIV, TB, and Malaria across the African Region. We deeply appreciate your ongoing efforts and leadership in advancing health outcomes for vulnerable populations.

We respectfully demand reconsideration of the current funding restrictions that affect the ability of conferences such as ICASA 2025 to be adequately funded. ICASA is a life-changing platform that ensures robust representation from communities and civil societies and serves as a critical space where key decisions affecting our region are made. It also provides a vital platform for advocacy around domestic resource mobilisation for communities and key vulnerable populations.

Key reasons for reconsideration:

• Epidemiological relevance: UNAIDS data continue to show a high burden among diverse communities and key populations across Africa. ICASA will provide timely discussions on critical topics, including the latest science, best practices of implementation for the nine African countries identified by The Global Fund as early adopters for LEN_.PrEP, in terms of access, affordability and sustainability.
• Scientific and knowledge-generation value: The scientific sessions will contribute new knowledge relevant to all African communities, especially to key populations, cutting-edge prevention technologies, treatment optimisation, and community-led, person-centred service delivery models.
• Alignment with GoG parliamentary process: Alignment with parliamentary developments: The Parliament of Ghana has expressed an interest in legislation that may have an adverse impact on health and human rights for diverse communities and key populations. ICASA 2025 can act as a veritable platform to harmonise opinions, share evidence, and build regional consensus that informs such legislative actions.
• Platform for translating Global Fund commitments into regional action: ICASA 2025 aligns with national and regional efforts to address a variety of public policies including the criminalisation of key populations and serves as a safe space to gather, harmonise, and disseminate diverse perspectives from across Africa to inform policy and practice.
• Policy change, access, rollout, ownership, and sustainability: The conference fosters dialogue and momentum on policy reforms, expanding access to prevention and treatment, optimising rollout strategies, strengthening community ownership of programs, and ensuring long-term sustainability of HIV, TB, and Malaria responses.
• Broad regional engagement and impact: We anticipate substantial participation—approximately 5,000 or more delegates from countries supported by this initiative—reflecting broad interest, cross-regional collaboration, and the conference’s potential to catalyse action at national, sub-national, and community levels.

Proposed approaches:

• Financial constraints and feasible solutions: We recognise the current global financial constraints and seek guidance on feasible options to support attendance, including cost-sharing models, virtual participation components, partial funding coverage for delegates from high-need countries, and potential co-funding arrangements with regional bodies.
• Line-item flexibility and eligibility: If possible, explore making this line item eligible for country-level or regional allocations within existing Global Fund channels, or designate ICASA 2025 as a strategic partner event aligned with Global Fund objectives to maximise impact.
• Monitoring, evaluation, and accountability: We propose a transparent impact framework to track outcomes related to policy shifts, programmatic changes, resource mobilisation, and community empowerment resulting from ICASA 2025. This will provide tangible evidence of the conference’s value and inform future investments.
• Alignment with Global Fund strategies: ICASA 2025 activities are aligned with Global Fund strategic priorities, including community-led service delivery, data-driven decision making, and sustainable financing for resilient health systems.

Our demand is a constructive one; please reconsider the current restrictions or separation of funds so that ICASA 2025 can proceed meaningfully as an inclusive and well-supported global health conversation. We are not seeking charity; as ICASA 2025 international and local steering committee, we are advocating as communities and civil societies to advance shared health outcomes and sustainable impact.

Sincerely,

Community Programme of ICASA 2025