The growing impact and voice of Key Population civil society in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) has been made possible by the commitment and investment of the Dutch Government; which over many years has led the development world in championing access to human rights protection and social and health care for key affected and marginalised communities in the region.  

This is an important legacy of Dutch engagement, in particular the Bridging the Gaps (BtG) programmes which supported us as Key Population networks and civil society organizations in scaling up our work and addressing the health, social and harm reduction needs of our communities in the region. The AIDS2018 Conference in Amsterdam was a global forum for us to showcase this support in action; where our Key Population networks and communities were enabled to share their stories, successes and future ambitions. However just 2 years later the situation looks bleak for many of our CSOs and the Key Population communities we represent.

With no funding secured from the recent SRHR Partnership subsidy framework, it seems that Dutch development funding is explicitly pivoting away from the EECA region. This means a critical partner for Key Population SRHR programming and broadly public health and rights of key affected communities such as LGBT, sex workers, drug users, youth in crises  is now lost. With  the majority of international donors including the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria transitioning away from the region, the timing of this shift in Dutch development policy could not be worse. Indeed the PITCH-Bridging the Gaps Key Population funding report ‘Off-Track’ identifies globally that there is a “staggering gap of 80% between the budget needed for HIV programmes targeting key populations ($6.83 billion) and the amount made available ($1.31 billion).” Meanwhile Key Population communities across the EECA region are faced with an HIV epidemic which continues to deteriorate - in fact the region is now dealing with four epidemics simultaneously – Coronavirus, HIV, MDR TB, and viral hepatitis. Stigma, discrimination and criminalization continue to be barriers preventing us from achieving important Universal Health Coverage, SDG health and rights equality targets. We are witnessing increasing state sanctioned repression to stifle civic society (in the guise of corona mitigation) and escalating geopolitical tensions in many countries. This is creating a perfect storm that threatens the hard-won progress of recent years. Vital HIV prevention and harm reduction services are being closed or scaled back. Important civil society expertise is being lost in real time with dire consequences for the health and well-being of men, women, trans people, adolescents and children living at the margins of society. This has immediate and longer-term risks for regional and European health and bio security efforts.

However, targeted funding now from the Dutch Government could allow us as responsible civil society partners, to manage this difficult transition period and help us to strengthen efforts to build alternative sustainable funding capacities and to support advocacy efforts of communities to sustain services and human rights protection.
This legacy investment would ensure that we have the means to build back better from Covid-19 and support our resilience and sustainability efforts to better position ourselves in a post-Covid-19 EECA health and rights landscape.

With growing alarm we urgently ask the Dutch Government to reconsider its decision to defund Key Population programming in the EECA region and reaffirm its global leadership in supporting the Sexual Health and Human Rights of socially excluded and stigmatized populations. As members and representatives of these Key population groups we ask the Dutch Government to once more step up, show solidarity for and defend our (SRHR) Rights. We reach out with this demand in the spirit of hope, trust and partnership.