View our full report and lessons learned from our time in Melbourne.

We would like to thank all of you who supported us in Melbourne at AIDS 2014 by either organizing or attending the sessions in our networking zone. It is opportunities like this, when we get to meet, work and learn together, that make our network stronger, and we are looking forward to taking the lessons and discussions we shared forward in our work. Here are a few highlights of our week.

Giveaways & publications

GFAN had the opportunity, thanks to the generous offer by ICASO, to place a postcard insert into all 12,000+ conference bags. The postcard declared “Fully Fund the Global Fund” and, on the back, it included a statement to decision-makers and a space for the participant’s information and own message. All postcards gathered at the conference will be brought to the Global Fund board.

At our zone, we also provided “Fully Fund the Global Fund” pins to conference participants – they were a popular item!

As there was no Global Fund booth at this year’s event, we also had available for visitors several Global Fund publications, including many of those on the new funding model, as well as USBs with many key publications for reference.

Organizing

The Global Village is an incredibly energetic space, and we were proud to offer the GFAN networking zone as ad hoc hub for networking, organizing and information sharing.

From the outcomes of a recent ITPC meeting, a group of advocates, including ICSS, quickly put together ahead of the conference a campaign called “AIDS will only end when…”. GFAN provided the design and printing of posters and signs that included several tag lines, such as “AIDS will only end when the Global Fund is fully funded” and “AIDS will only end when we end HIV stigma”. The posters were distributed and the larger signs were used in various protests during the week and during the Mobilization March.

These posters are available on our website for any GFAN member’s own use in advocacy work.

Satellite Session

We had an excellent turnout for our special panel on domestic financing. Many thanks to our presenters. All of the presentations given that evening can be found here on the AIDS 2014 website.

GFAN Strategy Day

Almost 40 participants joined us for a day-long meeting to reflect on the last replenishment process and to focus on specific projects GFAN should work on in the coming year. We discussed domestic financing, the financial transaction tax, advocacy messaging and other issues. Thank you to those of you who joined us to share their ideas.

See you in 2016 in South Africa!