Changes through face to face interaction
When sensibilities are well oriented, people gather face to face, and those directly concerned are part of the whole process, changes will come, sooner than we expect. – Seydou Dante
Full Circle Tax Watch for All is a Voice Global multi-country project, implemented in Ghana, Nigeria, and Mali (Sep 2020 – October 2022). Kids and Teens Resource Center (K&TRC) led a consortium of organisations, among which Arcad Sante Plus in Mali. This project aims to empower young people – specifically gender minorities and persons with disabilities – with skills to improve social accountability around taxation and public budgeting as a means to improve their access to comprehensive healthcare and education.
We Exist – advocacy campaign winning strategies:
- Rightsholders, mainly People living with HIV/AIDS, spearheaded a survey, which raised awareness on their issues with leaders of The Global Funds Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM).
- A five-day workshop was convened among rightsholders and CCM leaders to discuss the issues raised through the survey and to devise possible solutions.
- At the end, each entity committed to engage in some actions and solutions, so that the rights holders could be part of the decision making board.
- After several months of back and forth discussions between the vulnerable populations and the CCM leaders, the rights holders gained two seats in the CCM – now they are part of decision makers!
GRANDIR and RENAPOC, two main groups from among the vulnerable populations in Mali, asked ARCAD to extend WE EXIST advocacy campaign to other institutions around Mali so that more voices can be heard and no decision will be made for us, without us being part of the process anymore.
We won a battle but not the war!
