Sex Worker Networks Consortium: The Catalytic Effect of Funding in a Restricted Environment

“We are now helping several governments in the region provide better information and support for their workers travelling overseas for work.”

The Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP) is a membership organisation with the purpose of upholding the voice of sex workers globally and connecting regional networks advocating for the rights of female, male, and transgender sex workers.  Its members are local, national or regional sex worker-led organisations and networks across five regions: Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and North America and the Caribbean.

 

 

In 2013, NSWP secured funding through the Robert Carr Fund for each region to hire a policy officer to document best practices in sex worker-led HIV programmes. In the same year, NSWP formed a consortium with six independent regional sex worker-led networks, and the Sex Worker Networks Consortium was granted funding by the Robert Carr Fund for 2014 to 2015, and then for 2016 to 2018 as well. The Sex Worker Networks Consortium was granted funding for the funding cycle 2019-2021 and its partners include: Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers (APNSW); African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA); Caribbean Sex Work Coalition (CSWC); The Latin American Platform of Sex Workers (La Plataforma LatinoAmérica de Personas que EjeRcen el Trabajo Sexual – PLAPERTS); Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network for Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (SWAN); and the Global Network of Sex Work Projects (NSWP).

Robert Carr funding has been essential to the trajectory of the Sex Worker Networks Consortium, given the restricted environment in which the consortium and its members operate.  Funding is quite limited as no Consortium partner will seek grants from the United States of America due to the “anti-prostitution loyalty oath.”[1]  At national level, funding sources are also scarce, due to governmental restrictions, criminalisation of sex work and societal taboos.  As a result, there is little-to-no funding for programmatic work for and by the sex worker community.  While RCF has supported the Sex Worker Networks Consortium and its members in organisational development, its investments in outreach and activities have been crucial to maintaining and advancing the human rights of sex workers around the globe.

Most important has been the development of the Sex Worker Implementation Tool (SWIT) in 2013, which was facilitated through core funding from RCF. The SWIT offers practical guidance on effective HIV and STI programming for sex workers. It provides evidence for the necessity of decriminalisation of sex work, the involvement of sex workers in developing policy, and the empowerment and self-determination of sex work communities as a fundamental part of the fight against HIV. This resource is based on WHO, UNFPA, UNAIDS and NSWP 2012 recommendations on HIV and Sex Work. The SWIT is available in English, French, Mongolian, Russian, and Spanish, and also exists in an abbreviated Smart Sex Worker’s Guide version.  Programmatic funds from RCF have allowed the Sex Worker Networks Consortium to train sex worker-led organisations in the tool, therefore enabling those organisation to advocate for its use nationally in several countries including: Angola, Bangladesh, Botswana, Georgia, Guyana, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Suriname, and Zimbabwe.

The capacity gained by sex worker-led organisations on SWIT during the last three-year grant cycle has had a catalytic effect.  Coupling technical assistance in advocacy and communications with programmatic grants for small but impactful country-level initiatives has led to changes in legislation and policies that advance the human rights of sex worker human rights. Examples include:

Guyana – Consortium member Caribbean Sex Work Coalition (CSWC) was supported with programme funds to lobby for the passing of a law in 2017 that allows individuals to dress as they wish, protected from discrimination when accessing public services. The skills gained from training in the SWIT methodology were invaluable in this success.

Kazakhstan – In 2018, eight sex workers who had been trained in their rights were able to challenge the police in order not to be illegally detained. They presented their national identity cards and stated that if they were illegally taken to a police station, they would sue for an offense and falsification of the case. This is landmark given that many sex workers across Eastern Europe do not recognize themselves as agents of their own human rights. The work of sex worker-led organisations supported by RCF throughout the Eastern European region is bringing about incremental but significant cultural change.

Mexico – The National Centre for the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS (Centro Nacional para la Prevención y Control del VIH/SIDA – CENSIDA) has started using the SWIT in its sex work programming. Because of better knowledge of their rights and abilities, sex worker-led organisations have started monitoring the stock-outs of anti-retroviral therapy medication and holding meetings with the national authority to respond to the situation more rapidly.

Myanmar – In 2018, following capacity building of sex worker-led organisations on the SWIT, these organisations advocated for changes in service delivery. Incarcerated sex workers living with HIV are now able to receive their ART medication. Before, incarcerated sex workers living with HIV had to be referred to the prison hospital, which did not always provide treatment. Sex worker-led organisations that provide services are now allowed to send treatment into the prison. Additionally, sex workers in prison now are not required to show a national ID card in order to receive a health check.

 

[1] Passed into law in 2003 by George W. Bush, the oath was embedded in the 2003 President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and requires non-governmental organisations who receive PEPFAR funding for HIV/AIDS programmes from “promoting” or “advocating” for “the legalisation or practice of prostitution;” as well as requiring organisations to adopt a policy “explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.”  PEPFAR has made anti-retroviral treatment (ART) available for many people, including sex workers.  However, PEPFAR funding contracts with organisations specify that a certain amount of this money be spent on abstinence programming.  Contracts include a clause that the organisation accepting funding is opposed to prostitution.  This has been called the “anti-prostitution pledge” or “anti-prostitution loyalty oath.” In practice the application of the oath means that health workers are gagged from discussing best practices with sex workers, and, even, from distributing condoms.  On Thursday June 20, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the so-called “anti-prostitution loyalty oath” violates the First Amendment when it is applied to U.S. organisations. The decision, however, did not address application of the pledge to foreign non-government organizations receiving U.S. funding.  The First Amendment does not extend to them, meaning they are still subject to the oath’s requirements.  (More information at: www.nswp.org/resource/pepfar-and-sex-work-summary and www.nswp.org/timeline/event/us-supreme-court-declares-anti-prostitution-loyalty-oath-unconstitutional)