02.10.2017

ECUO will hold EECA CAB in renewed format

On November 15-16, 2017, the ECUO organizes a meeting of the Community Advisory Board in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA CAB) in the updated format.
In early October, on the website eeca-cab.org the call for applications to participate in the meeting will be announced. The representatives of patient organizations from 14 countries of the EECA, regional agencies and pharmaceutical companies, as well as authority representatives will be invited to join the EECA CAB meeting for the coordination of joint actions.
The core discussions will be around expanding access to innovative approaches in care continuum to treat HIV, TB, viral hepatitis, as well as to familiarize with the latest pharmacological research and developments.
Igor Kilchevsky, senior advocacy manager of the ECUO:
“For 8 years of the Community Advisory Board in EECA existence, we managed to build a constructive dialog between patients, public activists, and pharmaceutical companies. The experience exchange on regional level, joint consultations of the stakeholders, expert discussion about the care continuum, discussion of mobilization issues, communities’ development, and holding training activities, coordinated advocacy and the exchange of the newest strategic information between countries – all these events become a significant catalyst to improve the access to treatment in our countries.
After holding CABs, we return to the country with confidence to lead more quality negotiations with government officials and describe world best practices in fighting HIV/AIDS, TB and hepatitis.
Today, the communities already have reached the high level of knowledge, but the information continually updates, new developments, new drugs appear, thus, we should farther develop the constructive dialog among the stakeholders at the EECA CAB platform. We clearly see the goals and points of contact. We meet and discuss. We speak out our wishes and often get refused, but we do not stop. Today the number of NGOs that uphold rights of patients increased in the countries, which significantly reflect the advocacy enhancement dynamics in our countries.
We, as a community, exchange information on best practices, innovation, and do not want to reduce the level, reached with the support of the Global Fund. Unfortunately, today, because donors leave the countries, it leads to the optimization of budget funds, respectively, the protocols are reviewed, the financing and applied drugs decrease. And those drugs that remain are usually not the best for life quality of a treated person.
We would like to see in treatment protocols those drugs that will allow our children to leave a happy life by their twenties, not to suffer from collateral effects. To achieve it, we need to engage state actors more frequently. Therefore, on EECA CAB we are planning to develop a dialog with state entities for the integrated involvement of all stakeholders and improvement of patients’ life quality.
Moreover, to find and efficiently address three epidemics, it is necessary to develop the level of peer knowledge among the country NGOs’ representatives, which regularly participate in the Community Advisory Board and continue to introduce the best experience in their countries. Exactly these people will take a leading role”

If you are interested in joining the team of the Community Advisory Board in EECA, or participate in the activities, reach our coordinators with subject “EECA CAB 2017” in your email:
Artem Golobokov, advocacy specialist, ECUO agolobokov@ecuo.org,
Lyudmila Untura, Secretary of EECA CAB luntura@ecuo.org.