GNP+ has recently supported the Belarus PLHIV Community to be part of an evaluation team looking at work carried out the European Regional Network on AIDS and TB of the Red Cross Red Crescent (ERNA).

Although there was much appreciation for the outreach towards the most vulnerable in humanitarian contexts by individual Red Cross/Red Crescent National Societies, there was also a view that this was not always sufficiently nuanced - especially at a national level - to the needs of people living with HIV.

In addition, there was evidence to suggest that National Societies, and indeed the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement, had failed to effectively communicate the challenges and opportunities presented by the unique position and structure of the RC.

The full evaluation report can be accessed here in  English 1.3 Mb and  Russian 1.8 Mb .

For the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement involving people living with HIV in an evaluation of their work was a major step.

“We value and welcome the involvement of organizations of people living with HIV in the evaluation of ERNA,” said Fabio Patruno, Chair of ERNA: “Learning from those who we seek to work with is core to our working in partnership. Our work can be made much stronger everywhere when we mandate those who we seek to serve, to evaluate and monitor our performance.”

This view was echoed by Lena Grigoryeva from the Belarus PLHIV community: ”The evaluation allowed many people living with HIV to comment upon and make suggestions as to how the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement could work more closely with them. We hope that this dialogue will continue and the comments are taken seriously when planning future work.”

GNP+ supported the Belarus PLHIV Community to be part of the evaluation team and helped review the final report.