COVID-19 has severely impacted key populations, limiting their access to essential HIV and harm reduction programs around the world that are not community-led. Key populations have been denied access to social protection mechanisms and have struggled for food and shelter, experienced increased rates of stigma, discrimination and violence, and targeted by law enforcement, including through evictions and being rounded up in ‘quarantine’ centres. Key population-led groups fully stepped up during the pandemic, filling in the gaps of the health and social welfare systems, to ensure their communities survived. Therefore, it is critical that key populations are engaged in C19RM funding request development to ensure that community-led responses are funded to continue this work.
Global Fund COVID-19 Response Mechanism Guidelines call for consultations with “civil society, key and vulnerable populations as well as communities, including those most severely affected by COVID-19,” and you can refer your CCM to those guidelines if they question the need to consult key populations.