Vincent Leclercq: “Coalition PLUS does critical work to link inadequately served populations with HIV and health services.”
Coalition PLUS is a global network of community organizations working for and led by people living with HIV, gay men, transgender people, people who use drugs and sex workers.
In 2022 the Robert Carr Fund is celebrating its 10th Anniversary. The RCF team recently spoke to Vincent Leclercq, Director of Coalition PLUS, one the RCF’s grantees, about the history and the main activities of Coalition PLUS. Read on to find out about how these achievements were made possible thanks to the core funding provided by the RCF.
What is the history of cooperation of Coalition PLUS with the Robert Carr Fund?
We started cooperating in 2019. Beforehand we knew little about RCF. Four years ago, in mid-August 2018 we found a call for applications for RCF funding and we decided to apply. And we succeeded!
What I find interesting about RCF’s approach to grantee relations, is that from the start of the grant cycle and till the finish you are constantly have contact with RCF secretariat – you have kick-off meetings, webinars, personal contacts. It was a very different approach from the donors we had known so far, but we managed to improve a lot thanks to close communication with RCF team. It also helped us find new funding opportunities for our network.
Please tell us more about Coalition PLUS and your organizational development.
Coalition PLUS was created in 2008 as a network of the few civil society organizations in order to increase political influence of French-speaking countries in international organizations such as the WHO, UNAIDS, the Global Fund and others where they are underrepresented. Thus, we created a network to influence decision on health and HIV at a global level.
Looking at the world map one can notice that most of the English-speaking countries (outside of Europe and the US), like former British colonies for instance, perform much better in terms of HIV indicators and one of the reasons is because they have better access to donor funding.
The first countries to join, were Mali, Morocco, France and Quebec, Canada. Year by year we grew and new countries, not only French-speaking ones, joined Coalition PLUS – we have 3 partners in South America, we have Ukraine, we have Portugal, several African countries, MENA and a member in Malaysia. We became a host organization for regional and thematic networks: currently we have 6 regional platforms in most WHO regions – South America and the Caribbean, East and Central Africa, Europe, West Africa, MENA, Indian Ocean regional platforms, and we are about to launch the new South East Asia platform and, additionally, we are very proud to be fiscal host of an MSM-led network, AGCS PLUS. The aim of our member-networks is to create dynamics in their region and populations, working on HIV with populations.
This is how we changed from a small network of French-speaking organizations into a global network working in more than 8 languages. All our members unite around the idea that we work with the community and for the community.
What are the main activities that Coalition PLUS is organizing for communities on the ground?
As a global network we operate on several levels. Our members work at the national level and we provide capacity building and knowledge sharing interventions. One of the recent examples – our members shared their knowledge about how to open a sexual health centre, inclusive for drug users, transgender people, MSM and other key populations outside hospitals.
We believe that the best way to general change is to do research. For this reason, we also coordinate multi-country community-led research projects. The research findings are widely shared at the international conferences and within our networks. Having the legitimacy of all our member networks, our task is also to do international advocacy to ensure there is enough funding for HIV and access to treatment worldwide. We aim at doing critical work to link vulnerable communities with HIV to health services.
What are the notable things you achieved due to Robert Carr Fund core support during 2019 – 2021?
Most of the donors give money to do interventions to support people, such as a woman or her children or MSM living with HIV who are in need. But to do so, we need to have a whole organization behind to provide quality work to these populations. You need NGOs who do actual field work and these organizations need to be sustainable. They also need to develop and to learn from each other, so they need to be part of networks. All innovations come from interaction with other organizations and experts from other countries. In regions like West Africa many organizations greatly rely on technical and financial help from Coalition Plus to continue to develop and to provide services to their communities. Some activists were in danger because of political persecutions in their countries – we helped them escape and be safe and to come back when the situation got better. Networks also need to have professional finance staff, experts on strategic development or fundraising. These positions are key for the development of networks and their sustainability and this is how RCF has been supporting Coalition PLUS. Core funding provided by the RCF is critical for networks to support their members to do a great job for people on the ground.
How do you define core values of Coalition PLUS? Are there any one in common with Robert Carr Fund?
Our key value we share is putting people at the centre of our work. We are run by the people, who are members of the populations who are the key against the HIV epidemics, which RCF call the inadequately served populations (ISPs). We are governed by the communities and work for these communities. When we put people in the centre, it is about our field work of course, but also all along the decision-making process – both RCF and Coalition PLUS are inclusive, making sure that everyone is involved and that decisions we are making are relevant to the actual community needs. These values are in our DNA both at RCF and Coalition PLUS.