Members from the minority communities (the sex workers, MSM, LGBTI and drug users) in Uganda convened at Grand Global Hotel on the 29th of Jan 2015 to nominate their representatives to Global Fund country coordinating mechanism. This comes after the results in the first nominations were contested against by the members of the key affected populations that there was ingenuity in the selection process and decided to re-do the process through a fair and balanced nomination process.
The event was put together by the help of SMUG and USHPA. This was opened with a word from the head of UHSPA highlighting the purpose of the meeting that it was intended for each cluster of the KAP to nominate 5 representatives who will join the rest of the nominees on 5th Feb 2014 to vote for the final 2 representatives on the CCM. Mr. Kikonyogo stressed out the need for effective representation of the key affected populations since in the past processes they have been left out in the system. Frank Mugisha the executive director of SMUG pointed out that they began the engagement for the inclusion of key affected populations since 2010 since the sexual minorities were not represented on the CCM but through creation of friendship with people on the driving force for the system the voices were able to be heard. He also noted that key affected populations have not benefited from GF in the past due to lack of effective representation. An Asian expert with the global fund system led the participants through the technical bit of the session. The groups were effectively represented with participants from Kampala and other regions of Uganda to have a balanced vote.
Moses Kimbugwe the programs director of spectrum Uganda affirmed that the AIDS commission was aware of the process since it was due to the complaints forwarded to their desk that the first election process of representatives was not fair thus the chairman of AIDS commission allowed the team leaders of the KAPs to go back to their constituencies, consult and come up with the meeting for nominations. The meeting was specifically for those people who have been pushed to the margins in the societies they live in especially the sexual minorities and drug users.
Pepe Julian Onziema the programs director of SMUG led the team through the timeline including the voting guidelines to select five members from each group to form the electoral college of 40 members from the KAPs for final voting on 5th Feb to select two representatives who will be led through the induction process of CCM from 16th feb to 20th feb 2015. Members broke into respective groups of sex workers, msm, drug users, transgenders and the others which included lgbti, they nominated five names per group which have to be submitted in by 31st January before the voting and finally Frank Mugisha led the participants through the terms of reference for the representatives of KAPs and thus the conclusive words from Daisy Namakula the head of WONETHA who appreciated all who had made the meeting a success.
