ITPC works to create platforms and opportunities to bring together activists around the world.
On Sunday, July 22nd, ahead of AIDS 2018, 250 activists from around the world gathered in Amsterdam for the Community Activist Summit.
The Summit brought together people living with HIV and key population activists, civil society and community advocates, program implementers, government officials, and other stakeholders interested in and seeking to influence a global, community-led HIV advocacy agenda.
The purpose was to share stories, expose harsh truths, and challenge ourselves to create a vision for systematic change that isn’t influenced or dominated by the donors and geopolitical forces that continue to impose their agenda on the communities they claim to serve.
Parts were nostalgic – in celebration of the fact that it was the 15th anniversary of ITPC. And parts were challenging – to answer the hard questions we never have time to discuss: How can we increase solidarity when we’re all fighting for the same pot of money? To what extent are the issues communities faces are created by ourselves and which are created by donors? What keeps parallel movements – like HIV and TB – from being better connected?”
Over the course of the day, we reflected on how far the HIV movement has come, the state of activism today, and how to address our most critical problems in new and innovative ways. For a full recap of what happened at the #ActivistSummit, watch our report back session at #AIDS2018
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