In this interview with W4GF Global Coordinator Angela Leon Caceres. We learn about the role of Women4GlobalFund, a women-led organization in fostering gender equality and access to health-driven programs
Please share your organization’s origin story.
Women4GlobalFund (W4GF) is a movement that unites and mobilizes activists to advance gender equality throughout all policies and processes of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), especially through the programmes funded at the national level in implementing countries.
Created and led by women, W4GF is the only space for women in all their diversity focusing on the Global Fund, and the impacts it has on the three diseases. W4GF’s vision is to live in a world where all women have equal access to HIV, TB, and malaria services and the treatment they need and that all women enjoy their rights and are afforded the same status and respect as men in society.
Its mission is to catalyze the power of women in all their diversity to advance gender equality through the Global Fund – one of the world’s most important finance mechanisms for HIV, TB, and malaria. W4GF is designed to empower women to participate in decision-making at global and national levels, to ensure diverse voices influence how funds are spent to achieve the greatest impact in communities and to hold the Global Fund accountable for the impact of spending that will advance gender equality.
What drives your social impact journey?
Throughout 2012, the AIDS Strategy advocacy and policy (ASAP) has been working with the Global Fund secretariat and UN Women to review nine HIV programs funded by the Global Fund to establish the extent to which gender responsive programs have been supported. Overall, the review found limited implementation of activities scaling up responsive to HIV to address the needs of women and girls in a new way that would transform local responses to HIV and better the lives of women and their communities.
This is why W4GF was created, to coordinate and strengthen the engagement of women and ensure that we live in a world where all women have equal access to HIV, TB and malaria services and the treatment they need and that all women enjoy their rights and are afforded the same status and respect as men in society.
How has your organization been able to catalyze social change?
W4GF is designed to empower women to participate in decision-making at global and national levels, to ensure diverse voices influence how money is spent to achieve the greatest impact in communities, and to hold the Global Fund accountable for the impact of spending that will advance gender equality. We are guided by three priority areas: The first is around making sure that the Global Fund’s policy really works to achieve gender equality and all their processes and structures are aligned towards moving countries towards gender equality.
Our second area is creating a platform where women can come together to share their experiences around engaging with the Global Fund at the national level, supporting each other, and learning from each other so that we can engage our advocacy as women in all our diversity. And the third is around accountability for and critique of Global Fund investments: by tracking Global Fund-supported programmes and services, and influencing global and national processes to inform stronger programming for women and girls.
- What challenges or nuances have you experienced on the development journey?
I think our main challenges are around monitoring and evaluation of project implementation. We do not have the necessary tools in place to measure and track our impacts on ongoing projects.
- Kindly share your perspectives on creating a strong development sector in Africa.
Be intentional about it. Be patient, change takes time. And most especially have a passionate team that is ready to deliver.
To learn more about Women4GlobalFund (W4GF)
Vist their website, https://women4gf.org/
Find Women4GlobalFund on Twitter, Facebook ,Instagram ,LinkedIn ,Youtube