On 8 June 2026, the Republic of Tajikistan submitted its country funding request to the Global Fund for the 2027-2029 allocation period. An important part of this process was the meaningful participation of community representatives, including people with lived experience of imprisonment and people released from penitentiary institutions.
As part of the project “Community at lead of HIV response in EECA prisons”, implemented with the financial support of the Robert Carr Fund, consultations with community representatives were held in April 2026. Based on these consultations, community priorities and proposals were developed for inclusion in the GC8 country funding request.
The key areas identified by the community included ensuring continuity of treatment after release, expanding access to OAT programmes, introducing diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis B and C, strengthening pre-release preparation mechanisms, providing social support and case management, reducing stigma and discrimination, and improving the quality of healthcare services.
The community proposals were presented by project consultant Pulod Dzhamolov, Head of the organization SPIN Plus, and were discussed during the key stages of the country funding request development process.
The final version of the funding request includes interventions directly linked to the needs of individuals in prisons and those upon release. In particular, it provides for measures to ensure access for people living with HIV after release to prevention and treatment services in the civilian healthcare sector, the continuation of harm reduction and opioid substitution therapy programmes in penitentiary institutions, support for tuberculosis screening, diagnosis, and treatment in prisons, and community-led monitoring of access to services.
In addition, the funding request includes the revision of provisions related to social contracting and the costing of service packages, including for people in prisons. This creates important preconditions for the further sustainable financing of programmes focused on this population group.
Community participation helped strengthen the focus of the funding request on the real needs of people in prisons and after release, while supporting the principle of leaving no one behind.