until we end aids

International Council of AIDS Service Organizations

Strategic Framework 2012-2016

Preface
In 2011, the ICASO Board of Directors, staff and partners from around the
world came together to review and reflect on where ICASO was then and how
the organization might best evolve to contribute to ending the HIV pandemic.
Through a rigorous months-long process, they created a bold new strategy to
guide the organization for the next five years.
At all stages of the development of the new strategy, visionary thinking from
diverse stakeholders enabled ICASO to determine how its core strengths
could best be channeled in an HIV programming and policy landscape that has
changed considerably since ICASOs founding in 1991. The strategy reflects
consensus on three major principles. As a movement, we must expand the
fight against HIV in the face of economic constraints. We must consolidate our
gains in building community-based organizations focused on health and human
rights. And we must transform our organizations to improve efficiency, reduce
redundancy and capitalize on new science and new funding realities.
ICASOs willingness to rethink its role and to restructure its approach has
carried the organization to the threshold of a new era, and it is now poised to
help civil society assume its central role in a transformed global response to
HIV and AIDS. This document summarizes how ICASO will pursue four central
goals through the end of 2016 working with communities to hold governments
accountable; working with communities to ensure that efforts are evidencebased and human rights-based; strengthening community involvement in
program implementation; and fostering the development of strong, flexible
community-based alliances.
At the outset of the strategic planning process, it was anticipated that invaluable
leadership would come from ICASO Policy and Advocacy Director Robert
Carr, a longtime and passionate advocate for the participation of marginalized
populations in the global response to HIV and AIDS. Roberts untimely death
in May 2011 was a huge blow on both a professional and personal level.
Participants in the strategic planning process remained greatly inspired by
Roberts unfailing belief in the power of community-based advocacy to bring
about a more just world. We will continue to honor Roberts memory by working
to achieve our goals.

until we end aids

International Council of AIDS Service Organizations

Strategic Framework 2012-2016

Vision
Our vision is an end to the AIDS pandemic through universal
access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support within a
human rights framework.

Mission
Our mission is to mobilize and support diverse communities
for an effective response to end the AIDS pandemic.

ICASO facilitates the inclusion and leadership of communities in

the effort to bring about an end to the pandemic, recognizing the
importance of promoting health and human rights as part of this
undertaking. Our approach is based on our theory of change, which
is made up of four core components: policy analysis and strategic
information-gathering, with a particular focus on community-based
research; building the capacity of community leaders to act as
strong advocates and as stewards of community-based structures
for HIV mobilization and engagement; advocacy for accountability,
for evidence-based and human rights-based approaches, and
for the strategic use of HIV resources for maximum impact; and
developing networks to support an HIV movement that contributes
more broadly to health, human rights and gender equality.

Community perspectives and experiences

guide all major global, regional and national
HIV policies and programs.

goal

four

three

goal

two

one

goal

Global, regional and national leaders

fulfill their commitments and apply
evidence-based approaches to end
AIDS and promote health, gender equality
and human rights.

goal

The theory of change is dynamic and interactive, with all of the

components working together to achieve ICASOs four goals for
2012-2016:

Community systems for health and human

rights are strong, well linked and well
integrated with health systems.
ICASO plays a strong leadership role in
supporting community engagement in the
global response to HIV and AIDS

All of these goals need to be achieved in order for ICASO to realize

its vision. They combine a call for strong political and financial
commitments (Goal 1) with the well-established but still underapplied principle of meaningful community involvement in defining
policies and programs (Goal 2) and with recognition of the central
role of communities in the provision and monitoring of services
(Goal 3). Efforts to achieve the first three goals are underpinned by
ICASO helping to build a strong HIV movement (Goal 4).

one

goal

Approach and Goals

Global, regional and national leaders

fulfill their commitments and apply
evidence-based approaches to end
AIDS and promote health, gender equality
and human rights.

Context and rationale

During the past decade, the world has made significant progress
in mobilizing international funding for HIV and AIDS. Today, the
global response to HIV and AIDS has unprecedented institutional
capacity to improve health and protect human rights. The nations of
the world have committed themselves to ambitious global targets.
Millions of people now have access to HIV treatment and prevention
services. Furthermore, 2011 brought the promise of effective new
HIV prevention technologies. We have a greater opportunity now
than ever before to push ahead for an end to the pandemic.
Communities have a crucial role to play in making this happen,
and they therefore need support to monitor and evaluate the
performance of national and global responses against national and
international commitments. They also need support to increase
visibility of broader community health, gender and human rights
issues, leading to political and social action on these issues.

Strategies
Strategy 1.1: Support community leadership and advocacy to hold
governments and the international community to their commitments.

ICASO will help to ensure that community advocates have

adequate technical, financial and political support to demand that
their governments and the international community achieve HIVrelated targets and commitments. These include commitments in
current national AIDS plans and commitments made during the
2011 United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on
AIDS. details in box 1
Strategy 1.2: Support community leadership and advocacy to promote
evidence-based and human rights-based responses to HIV and AIDS.

ICASO will help to ensure that community leaders have access to the
technical, financial and political support they need to advocate for
evidence-based and human rights-based programming. This means,
for example, advocating for adherence to global standards such as
those set out in the 2011 Strategic Investment Framework and in the
recommendations of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law.
Strategy 1.3: Identify and create strategic advocacy entry points.

ICASO will help identify advocacy opportunities, focusing on

those entry points to maximize community input into HIV policies
and programs. This includes ensuring that community advocates
are aware of entry points and opportunities at country level, as
well as helping advocates engage with regional and global policy
forums (for instance, by collating and channeling their inputs, or by
ensuring their direct participation).

two

Strategy 2.3: Anticipate key and emerging policy issues and facilitate
participation by community advocates and service providers in advocacy
events and processes that will influence global, regional and national HIV
policies and programs.

ICASO will use its close links with global, regional and national
partners to identify key and emerging policy issues and
opportunities for instance in relation to new technologies, and to
changes in international funding modalities. ICASO will facilitate
community engagement with these issues and opportunities by
providing community actors with up-to-date information, and with
technical and financial support. Forums where the community
sector can have a major impact include international and regional
AIDS conferences, as well as United Nations meetings that focus
on HIV.

Context and rationale

At the same time, new technologies and strategies can present new
risks, particularly in relation to human rights and to the principle of
comprehensive programming. The perspectives of key populations
in the HIV epidemic, in particular, people living with HIV, people who
use drugs, sex workers, transgender individuals and men who have
sex with men, as well as young people and women, must continue
to inform the global response. These groups require support to
enable them to speak out for their human rights and to advocate for
policy reform and well-targeted programming at the country level.

Strategies
Strategy 2.1: Build awareness, skills and structures to enable advocates
to influence HIV policies and programs in ways that reflect community
perspectives.

ICASO will strengthen community capacity by building knowledge

about emerging policy and programming issues. Through direct
mentoring, ICASO will help advocates improve their ability to
understand and represent the perspectives of communities. With
the growing recognition of the role of the community sector, there
are opportunities at the national, regional and global level for
community representatives to influence policy and programmatic
discussions and decisions. However, community actors often have
weak capacity, a direct consequence of the lack of support to the
sector and the marginalization of some key populations.
Strategy 2.2: Provide information, analysis and tools to support
community engagement, leadership and advocacy.

ICASO will maintain its longstanding role as a provider of timely,

accessible information, analysis and tools to community-sector
actors. It is essential to support community engagement in
advocacy and program implementation by helping community
actors respond to relevant policy and programming issues and
opportunities. They also need tools to help them plan and evaluate
their work.

three

The coming years will see a transformation in policies and

programming related to HIV. Researchers will continue to identify
promising new HIV treatment and prevention technologies.
International and national funding agencies will change how they
fund HIV programs, driven both by economic constraints and by
stronger evidence about what is and is not working to curtail the
epidemic. Community advocates and service providers will need
information and training to adopt, adapt and integrate these new
approaches in their local settings.

goal

goal

Community perspectives and experiences

guide all major global, regional and national
HIV policies and programs.

Community systems for health and human

rights are strong, well linked and well
integrated with health systems.

Context and rationale

To control and end AIDS, health services need to be improved and
scaled up, such that all people living with and at risk of HIV have
access to quality HIV prevention, treatment, care and support
services. This expansion requires the use of community-based
health service providers, integrated within or linked to health
systems, to offer a wider range of services and access points
that are safe, confidential and cost-effective. Community-based
providers have a unique ability to help people learn how to protect
themselves from HIV, and how to live longer and healthier lives with
HIV.
Recognizing the need for community-centered health programming,
international funding agencies, including the Global Fund to
Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, have created new funding
opportunities for health systems that are based in or interface
closely with communities. Community-based organizations
need support to engage with these funding streams and to work
seamlessly with health systems. Communities also need support
to advocate for the continued transformation of national health
systems and international funding for health so that they more
effectively fulfill the right to health.

Strategies
Strategy 3.1: Conduct advocacy to promote the role of communities within
the response to HIV and AIDS and to promote effective models of funding
and technical support for the community sector.

ICASO and its partners will continue to emphasize the role of

communities and to identify and promote practical models that
governments and donors can adopt in order to enable a strong
community contribution. ICASO will also provide advice, funding

and capacity-building to advocates working in this area. This

approach is needed because donors and national health policymakers seldom consider the central role that the community sector
can play in improving health, and community engagement in
service provision is rarely supported in a systematic way.
Strategy 3.2: Facilitate access to funding and technical support for
community actors.

ICASO and its partners will provide mentoring and brokering

services to help community organizations gain greater access to
funding and technical support. ICASO will also work with donors
and policy-makers to improve the systems for provision of support
to community actors. This strategy addresses the tendency for HIV
funding and technical support systems to favor government-led
programs. Community and civil society organizations, particularly
grassroots groups and groups for key populations, often struggle
to navigate these systems and to obtain predictable funding and
reliable technical support.
Strategy 3.3: Monitor and document progress in efforts to strengthen
community systems, and share lessons and recommendations on best
practice.

goal

four

ICASO will continue to support watchdog activities in the global

AIDS response. ICASO and its partners and allies will identify
progress, problems and lessons learned, with the larger aim of
improving governance and implementation of HIV programs.
ICASO will call for and conduct research and analysis to guide the
expansion of community-based HIV services and task-shifting of
HIV services to the nongovernmental sector and to community-led
groups in particular.

ICASO plays a strong leadership role in

supporting community engagement in the
global response to HIV and AIDS.

Context and rationale

Since the start of the HIV epidemic, community service providers
and advocates around the world have sought to support
each other and coordinate their work toward common goals.
Community mobilizing, networking and organizing have changed
considerably in recent years. Greater use of the internet, mobile
phones and social media in resource-limited settings has made
it easier for people to interact and collaborate. Governments and
nongovernmental organizations are adjusting to a world in which
new coalitions and civil society leadership can rapidly emerge
without requiring the support or sanction of formal intermediaries.
Organizations are still required, but these must be highly responsive
and rapidly adaptable to emerging issues and needs. At the same
time, funding constraints and a maturing of the HIV movement
have led donors and advocates alike to call for a consolidation of
formal organizational structures to reduce administrative costs and
duplication of effort.

Strategies
Strategy 4.1: Transform structures, both within ICASO and externally, for
effective community mobilization and leadership.

ICASO will expand its network to meet the evolving commitment

and growing demands of the global AIDS response. ICASO will
continue to develop requests for funding to support its work and
the work of its partners based on ongoing assessment of the
issues facing the global response. At the same time, ICASO will
pursue options for consolidations, mergers and other forms of
collaboration with key partners.

Strategy 4.2: Develop flexible outcome-based partnerships among

community networks and organizations at the global, regional and national
level.

ICASO will work with community actors on the issues that they
prioritize. By maintaining close ties to a broad range of networks,
organizations and advocates, ICASO will be able to collaborate
with those most invested in resolving specific emerging issues. As
well as nurturing long-term partnerships, ICASO will develop new
alliances.

Strategy 4.3: Invest in community networks and other organizations to

reinforce strong structures and strong people to lead in the HIV response.

ICASO will work closely with other community-based networks,

particularly those representing key populations affected by HIV, to
learn from them and to act as both peer and mentor. ICASO plans
to develop new programs in collaboration with these networks in
order to respond to the priorities identified throughout this Strategic
Framework.

box

June 2011 United Nations General Assembly

High Level Meeting on AIDS

Universal access to treatment and access to life-saving

medication to 15 million people living with HIV by 2015;

a 50% reduction in sexual transmission of HIV by 2015,

supported by a commitment to ensure that national prevention
strategies comprehensively target key populations which are
highly affected by HIV and AIDS;

a 50% reduction in HIV transmission among people who inject

drugs by 2015;

a pledge that by 2015 no child will be born with HIV, and that
maternal deaths will be substantially reduced;

a 50% reduction in tuberculosis deaths in people living with

HIV by 2015;

closing of the global resource gap for the response to HIV and
AIDS and work towards increasing funding in low- and middleincome countries according to UNAIDS estimates of between
US$22 billion and US$24 billion per year by 2015; and

advancing human rights by creating enabling legal, social

and policy frameworks to eliminate HIV-related stigma,
discrimination and violence.

until we end aids

65 Wellesley St. E., Suite 403
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icaso@icaso.org
www.icaso.org

Strategic Framework 2012-2016

Among the commitments made by United Nations Member States

at this event, the following are a central focus for ICASO and its
partners and allies: