Invitation: UNITAID Contact Group

[Guest guest]

Dear Colleagues,

The NGO and Communities delegates to the Board of UNITAID, would like to invite

you to join a contact group of civil society UNITAID advocates, advisers and

stakeholders that the civil society Board members of UNITAID wish to launch.

What is the UNITAID?

UNITAID is a new international initiative aimed at reducing prices of drugs

and diagnostics to treat HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. Its primary financial

resources come from innovating financing mechanisms such as the airline ticket

solidarity contribution. UNITAID was officially launched on September 19 2006.

Who governs UNITAID?

An Executive Board consisting of: the 5 founding countries (France,

Brazil, Chile, Norway, United Kingdom); the African Union, 2 new member

countries (Spain, South Korea); Foundations (represented by the gates

Foundation); Communities living with the diseases and NGOs. The goal of the

Executive Board is to set UNITAID objectives, working plan, assess

partnerships and progress.

The Civil Society Board Members

At the World AIDS Conference on August 13 2006, the founding governments of

UNITAID announced to civil society that it had 6 weeks to come up with

representatives for 4 Board position: Board member and Alternate for

Communities living with the diseases; Board member and Alternate for NGOs.

Due to the very short deadline, the suggestion was that civil society’

use the same selection process for the UNITAID Board as for the Global Fund

Board.

The process was thus entrusted to ICASO to issue a Call for Applications and

then convene a selection panel. The call was posted on all the e-mail list

serves of HIV, TB, and malaria. An expert team from the NGO and communities

examined the CV's of applicants. The resulting Civil Society Board Members are:

Board member for People living with the diseases: Joe Muriuki (CHIACSOK, Kenya)

Alternate Board member for People living with the diseases: Carol

Nyirenda (TALC, Zambia) Board member for NGOs: Khalil Elouardighi (Act Up-Paris,

from France)Alternate Board member for NGOs: Dr. Mohga Kamal Yanni (Oxfam, UK)

Areas of work for NGO Contact Group

The Civil Society Delegates to the UNITAID Board would like to invite you to

join the Civil Society Contact Group. The Contact Group has three purposes:

Participate in occasional advocacy actions aimed at ensuring that

UNITAID delivers on its promise to bring real added value to the global health

architecture, by increasing the affordability of essential drugs and diagnostics

against the 3 diseases (such advocacy would tend to concentrate on the countries

who are members of the UNITAID Board);

Ensure input into UNITAID of civil society’s expertise on UNITAID’s work

areas;

Keep all interested civil society stakeholders informed about UNITAID

The current areas in which the civil society’ Board members feel most

strongly the need for external civil society advice are:

1. Determinants of meaningful involvement of local civil society in

UNITAID-supported programs, including monitoring and evaluation

2. UNITAID role in the Global health architecture, especially: (a) how to

ensure that other determinants of a successful treatment programme are also

available (e.g. human resources, health systems)- beyond drugs; ( how to

minimize transaction costs, © how to increase accountability;

3. Pharmaceutical supply chain, from the manufacturer to the patient;

4. Price reduction methods;

What does joining the UNITAID Contact Group entail?

Invest time and effort to respond to requests for review of UNITAID

documents and other related information;

Invest time and effort to advocate for civil society perspective on

UNITAID with key UNITAID decision-makers (UNITAID donor governments,

UNITAID implementing agencies).

Provide recommendations and share intelligence information via email

that will be raised at UNITAID Board Meetings

Input into the contact group process will be via e-mail and occasional

teleconferences.

How to join the Contact Group?

Barbara Dockalova from Oxfam-GB is working as Liaison Officer for the NGO and

Communities UNITAID Board Members. She will coordinate the civil society

Contact Group. If you are interested in being a member, please send me an

email with:

Contact information (email, telephone)

Brief description of your expertise

Your areas of interest regarding UNITAID

Please send me your response by FRIDAY 15 June.

Please note that membership of the contact group does not have financial

rewards)

It is my pleasure to have the opportunity to share UNITAID work with you. I

look forward working with you on this new and exciting initiative.

Please respond to my email if you are interested in joining and/or if you can

recommend people who I could approach regarding this matter.

Sincerely,

Barbara Dockalova

UNITAID Liaison Officer

Oxfam GB

Oxfam House, Drive, Oxford OX4 2JY

e-mail: bdockalova@...