Blog Examines Coordinated Effort to Monitor Drug Procurement Through Global Fund Grants in Kyrgyzstan

"In recent years, Kyrgyzstan has benefited from a significant increase in international funding to improve health care," but, "[d]espite this influx of international funding, many people in Kyrgyzstan are unable to get the lifesaving medicines that they need," Madina Tokombaeva, director of the Harm Reduction Network (HRN) in Kyrgyzstan, and Maryam Beishenova, program coordinator at HRN, write in this Open Society Foundations blog post. The authors describe how, in 2010, "three Kyrgyz organizations working on HIV and health issues -- the Harm Reduction Network, Partnership Network, and Unity of People Living with HIV -- launched a coordinated effort to monitor and analyze the procurement and distribution of medicines purchased with Global Fund grants." They recount a court victory in which they gained access to Ministry of Health records and conclude, "Civil society organizations have been energized and we are committed to ensure that government agencies and donors are transparent and efficient" (4/5).