FBO Closing Caucus

Several issues were raised

• FBOs seem to have been far lower profile at the meetings this year - very few (only 2 in fact) FBO delegates were speakers at forums. They were not being talked about much, and often when they were it was with antagonism from both governments and other civil society delegates.
  
• There was an overall sense of fatigue - maybe because the 2011 will be the main meeting reviewing how close we got to the 2010 targets, possibly because of all the energy going in to the Mexico World AIDS Conference in August, and maybe because there is no declaration coming out of this meeting, and it was not so clear how we input in to the process, other than to continue to make governments aware that civil society is scrutinising them.
  
• On a positive side, there were more civil society voices, and in particular PWLHAs were given more chance to make official speeches and were part of government delegations - a major step on from 2006.
  
• Leadership at the UN is also an issue - as Peter Piot is standing down from UNAIDS soon, there is a change of president of the General Assembly, General Secretaries of UN and WHO, and there seems a lack of impetus in that new leadership compared to those leading in 2006.
  
• It was agreed by the caucus that we need to continue to hold our governments and the UN to scrutiny, and that we should be preparing now for 2011 meeting - including preparing those who can speak, getting evidence together on how HIV strategies are being implemented. We are providing a lot of the care and prevention services in many parts of the world - we need to make sure that we tell our stories because what we do gives our voices credibility.
  
• We did not discover details of the national delegations until late in the day, so our chances to engage and lobby were frustratingly limited.
  
• FBOs were also not well represented at the civil society briefings and caucuses. We do need to be more proactively engaged with wider civil society if we are to have any credibility.
  
• We also need to be honest about where we disagree with one another and wider civil society, but also being strong on the areas where we agree and can work together. Otherwise we either dissolve in to wider civil society or hive off as a ghetto.
  
• There was a debate about whether we should focus on new targets or on holding our governments to account for achieving the 2010 goals. It seems that for now our energies are best deployed on the latter, and review where we focus re 2015 MDG targets once we have reached the 2011 UNGASS review.