The Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCOM) was founded in 2007, as a coalition of member governments, UN partners, non-profits and community-based organisations from Asia and the Pacific. The coalition transformed over the years, which led to its registration as a Thai Foundation in 2014 and a new governance structure in 2016 reflecting its nature as a regional community network organisation.

APCOM represents a diverse range of community interests working together to advocate on, highlight and prioritise issues that affect the lives of people regarding their sexual orientation and gender identities including LGBTQI, men who have sex with men (MSM), hijra and transgender (TG) people and many other expressions of sexual orientation and gender identities. For this project, APCOM will work with local organisations in the four countries.

APCOM is a repeat grantee having worked on a project called WISDOM as part of the global Learn from Innovation grant.

The project Finance Inc lobbies and advocates the regional multilateral Banks, financial institutions and private sector to develop an inclusive strategy, taking into account issues of LGBTI people to fulfill the promise of Leaving No One Behind as it is formulated in the SDGs for the Asia and Pacific region.

As an example, APCOM works with the Asia Development Bank as a social development organisation that is dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific through inclusive economic empowerment and regional integration through investments in the form of loans, grants and information sharing in infrastructure, health care services, financial and public administration systems. Thus far, however, it has a non-inclusive approach to LGBTQI people.

APCOM is working with partners in Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Lao PDR to break the driving stigma that excludes LGBTQI people in accessing markets, essential services and space. APCOM follows the World Bank model and strategy by focusing on three key areas:

• Improving the inclusion of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression (SOGIE) in the ADB’s overall work through training.
• Collecting data collection on the developments and inclusion of LGBTQI people; and
• Stimulating pilot projects to improve access of LGBTQI people to markets, services, and spaces.