ID: HR23-811
Presenting author: Pulod Dzhamolov

Presenting author biography:

Pulod publicly declared his status, instilling hope and strength in other people with his own example. Since 2007, he has been the head of the country's first organization of PWUDs in Tajikistan. Initiator of several community-based programs in Tajikistan as: Stigma index research; "School of the patient" in prisons etc.

Harm reduction does not equal funding reduction: case of Tajikistan

Pulod Dzhamolov
All services related to HIV prevention, treatment and care in Tajikistan, including the harm reduction programs, were provided at the expense of international donors like the Global Fund.

Starting in 2014, under the initiative of the EHRA project, work began on budgetary advocacy for increasing national funding. The first attempts were made to propose funding part of the HIV prevention programs among key populations (KPs) from the state budget. An analysis of the possibilities of using various instruments for financing HIV programs from the state budget was carried out. Various events were held to involve civil society organizations and communities in advocacy processes for increasing government funding for harm reduction programs.

In 2019, with the support of #SoS_project, "SPIN Plus", for the first time in Tajikistan, developed and approved by the Ministry of Health standards and specification of social services for people in difficult life situations due to HIV.

In 2021 and 2022, for the first time in the country, a project was supported by the state, within the framework of the state social order, to provide social services to KPs in connection with HIV. Within the framework of this project, activities are financed to provide social services for HIV-positive people who use drugs in places of detention (three strict regime colonies) and at large on the basis of the Community Center of NGO "SPIN Plus" in Dushanbe. Within the framework of this project, the "School of the Patient" was organized. The project covered 320 people. The total amount of the project is 33,000 USD for two years. Of these, 13,000 USD in 2021. and $20,000 in 2022. In the near term, funding is being advocated to at least quadruple in 2023.