Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN)

The Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN) Consortium is a regional consortium working to support transgender-led organizing and advocacy in more than 15 countries of Asia and the Pacific.

 

Grantee type: Regional Consortium

Grant: $1,020,000

Grant period: 2019-2021

Lead organization: Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN)

Partner organizations: Pacific Sexual and Gender Diversity Network

 

The consortium brings together two transgender-led networks: the Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN) and the Pacific Sexual Diversity Network (PSGDN). The Asia Pacific Transgender Network, established in 2009 and based in Bangkok, supports transgender-led organizing and advocacy in all countries of Asia and the Pacific. PSDGN, based in Fiji, is a network of gender and sexually diverse community organizations in six Pacific countries — the Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu.

• Research in China, India, Pakistan and Thailand, as well as in other countries in Asia and the Pacific as well as around the world documents that transgender people are at higher risk of discrimination, gender-based violence and other human rights violations, and face reduced access to employment, education, housing, and services.  Asia Pacific countries that continue to criminalize transgender people include Kiribati, Malaysia, Niue and Tonga.
• These vulnerabilities correlate with disparities in health, including higher rates of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Studies interviewing trans women typically document very high (over 50%) rates of lifetime sexual violence, very high (over 20%) rates of HIV and STIs, oftentimes undiagnosed and untreated, and a lack of access to services that are affirming, affordable, and targeted to their needs related to gender identity, sexual health, behavioral health, and practical legal, economic and social needs. Significant disparities are also seen within trans populations in relation to age, race, migration and documentation status, and histories of sex work or drug use.
• Transgender people have important direct experience of HIV-related health needs and barriers to health services. The capacity of networks of transgender people and other inadequately served populations (ISPs) to organize and advocate is central to efforts to improve human rights environments, improve HIV service accessibility, and improve efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of national and international funding for health and human rights.

 

RCF funding 2019-2021

The APTN Consortium received US$ 1 million in funding from the Robert Carr Fund for work during 2019-2021, which was a continuation of steady RCF funding support for APTN since 2014. This funding was allocated to both core and strategic program costs to help build the capacity of the two regional networks of APTN and PSDGN and support collective action across more than 15 countries of Asia and the Pacific.

 

Geographic coverage

The Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN) Consortium is a regional consortium convening and supporting organizations and individuals in more than 15 countries of Asia and the Pacific, including India, Nepal, and Pakistan in South Asia; Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Timor-Leste, Thailand, and Vietnam in Southeast Asia; and the Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu in the Pacific.

 

Population coverage

Through the Asia Pacific Transgender Network (APTN) Consortium, organizations led by trans people in more than 15 countries are supporting the empowerment, leadership, health and rights of trans and gender non-conforming people.

 

Activities 2019-2021

With RCF funding in 2019-2021, the key activities of APTN and PSDGN will:

• Maintain core staff and regional network organizing and governance, including meetings of APTN and PSDGN governance committees and networks, and targeted work with transgender-led organizations in nine countries using an Organizational Capacity Assessment Tool (OCAT) to develop technical support plans to build organizational capacity and sustainability.
• Train and mentor 16 emerging transgender leaders from nine Asian and Pacific countries through a TRANS-formative Leadership Program to build a cohort of leaders with experience and skills in community organizing, organizational governance, policy analysis, communications and media work, and advocacy with government officials.
• Train transgender people about health services and health-related rights, using the Trans Health Blueprint and a new ‘Trans Health Responsive and Competency Tool’ (TRACT), a crowd-sourced review form which collects crowd-sourced reviews about local health providers services, as well as the quality and accessibility of services.
• Train and sensitize healthcare service providers with data from transgender advocate reviews of services and best practice guidance documents on trans healthcare.
• Compile a resource database of trained health providers who are competent and accessible in providing trans-related health care services and a report of best practice case studies of competent and accessible trans-related health care services in Asia and the Pacific. Continue to work with all partners in the region, including the Global Fund, PEPFAR, UNDP, and USAID, to support their reports, conferences, trainings, and services related to transgender people in Asia and the Pacific.

 

Intended results 2019-2021

The intended results from this work during 2019-2021 will include:

• Network strength and influence:  Stronger transgender-led organizations in nine countries of Asia and the Pacific and development of a cohort of new transgender leaders from those nine countries, leading to stronger regional transgender-led organizing and advocacy in both Asia and the Pacific.
• Access to services: Increased knowledge by transgender people about health services and health-related rights, and transgender leadership in monitoring the quality of health care services and working with health care providers to improve the quality of services.