ICASO Holds High Level Global Strategic Planning Meeting

Defining Strategic Goals and Strategies for a more effective response to address the realities of the HIV pandemic in the second decade of the 21st century.

Charting the future of the AIDS response, and how the community sector needs to be involved, the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) hosted a high level strategic planning meeting on September 28-30, 2011 in Toronto, Canada. Stakeholders were invited from across the globe and included the majority of:

  • the ICASO Board of Directors,
  • Regional and International Secretariats and
  • the Civil Society Action Team (CSAT) hubs.

The meeting was supported by UNAIDS, with additional financial support from CIDA, the Ford Foundation and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).

The three-day strategy session identified areas in which ICASO could support the advancement and strengthening of community sector responses to the AIDS pandemic in the current changing environment. Given ICASO’s commitment to community sector responses, this process was important to ensure that its strategic goals are evidence-based and align with the current global landscape. Key in this process was a review of a 3 month consultative process that took place between July and September of this year. This included individual interviews and an online survey of ICASO’s key stakeholders, including community partners at national, regional and global levels.

The outcome of that process, community input on strategic issues facing the community sector AIDS response, was reviewed at this just concluded high level strategic planning meeting. Participants developed specific recommendations for goals and strategies for 2012-2016, including organizational structures that will be now tabled before the ICASO Board of Directors.

Meeting participants reflected the global reach of ICASO and included representatives from East and Western Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia Pacific, Africa and North America

In closing remarks the participants acknowledged the ICASO strategic planning process as transparent, constructive and inclusive and that the meeting in particular was a useful learning experience for other strategic planning processes.

For questions, contact:

 

Mary Ann Torres

Interim Executive Director

ICASO

maryannt@icaso.org

416 9210018 ext 16