Locally Led Development
Health Equity Matters believes that sustainable health outcomes are achieved when communities most affected by HIV and health inequities lead the response.
Our international work is grounded in a commitment to locally led development, recognising that community-led organisations bring lived experience, trusted relationships and deep contextual knowledge that external actors cannot replicate. By supporting communities to lead, we help ensure that programs are responsive, inclusive and sustainable over the long term.
Our role is to work alongside community leaders, networks of people living with HIV, and organisations representing key populations to strengthen their capacity, influence and institutional resilience. This includes providing technical support, mentoring and organisational development to strengthen governance, financial management and policy engagement. Through long-term partnerships across the Pacific and Asia, we prioritise shared decision-making and mutual accountability while working to ensure that communities have the tools and resources needed to lead their own responses.
We also work with governments and regional partners to ensure that community-led organisations are recognised as essential contributors to national HIV responses. This approach supports stronger collaboration between civil society and public health systems, helping ensure that HIV prevention, testing, treatment and care services reach those who need them most.
Examples from our work
- Papua New Guinea: Supporting the Key Populations Advocacy Consortium PNG (KPAC PNG), a national consortium of community-led organisations, to strengthen governance systems, leadership and organisational capacity so communities can play a central role in shaping the country’s HIV response.
- Bhutan: Supporting national community partners to lead implementation of Community-Led Monitoring systems that capture community feedback on accessing HIV services, helping ensure service improvements reflect service users experiences.
- Fiji: Working with community organisations to co-design and implement a national peer-led outreach model that strengthens HIV prevention, testing and referral services across the country.
- Malaysia: Support locally led coalitions of civil society, community organisations and national stakeholders to advance evidence-informed drug policy reform, including dialogue on alternatives to punitive approaches and more effective community-centred drug policy reform.
- Sri Lanka: Partnering with Diversity and Solidarity in Trust (DAST) to strengthen governance, financial systems and legal registration processes for LGBTQ+ and other key population-led community organisations so they can engage more effectively in health and human rights responses.
Images
The SKPA-2 team working alongside local stakeholders at the Drug Policy Summit Malaysia, to support locally led coalitions of civil society, community organisations and national stakeholders
Supporting development of CSO capacity in governance and leadership
KPAC (PNG) holding it’s first ever Annual General Meeting in Port Moresby in 2025, following 12 months of governance and leadership support
Partnering with DAST to strengthen governance, financial systems and legal registration processes for LGBTQ+ and other community-led organisations in Sri Lanka
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