Proposals: IHRD Providing Small Grants on Health and Human Rights, 2008 UN Drug Summit

The International Harm Reduction Development Program (IHRD) of the Open Society Institute (OSI) is offering small grants to support the collection and presentation of information that evaluate the health and human rights consequences, with regard to injection drug use-driven and HIV infections, of the resolutions taken at the 1998 UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs.

This project will provide grants of up to $12,000 USD for organizations or networks able to produce a report in English on how law enforcement and drug control have impacted HIV prevention and treatment efforts for drug users in their country or region. The reports, to be gathered from developing/transitional countries with injection-driven HIV epidemics (either majority of cases of HIV due to injection, or significant, concentrated IDU epidemic), will be edited and compiled in a booklet to be published by IHRD during activities leading up to the high-level ministerial meeting in Vienna in 2009 at which countries will reflect on progress since the 1998 UNGASS. Preference will be given to proposals that have a regional, rather than country specific, focus.

This document serves as a formal invitation to submit a letter of intent (LoI). This brief concept paper allows you the opportunity to both demonstrate your understanding of the aim of this project and your perspective of how it can be realized in your region. While there are many aspects to health, policing, and drug control, applicants must demonstrate a particular connection to policies and practices tied to HIV and drug use, particularly injecting drug use.

The LoI must:

1. be received by Wednesday, September 15, 2007 (NY time), electronically as an attachment;

2. be addressed to Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, IHRD Program Director, [email protected] , with a subject line of UNGASS+10 LoI, with a copy to [email protected];
3. be submitted in English, not to exceed three pages, double-spaced, that outlines key issues, existing evidence, and potential sources for more detailed information;
4. contain a two-sentence introduction and contact information on each of the individuals submitting the grant.

IHRD will review your LoIs and notify you by the end of September. If accepted, you will be invited to submit a slightly expanded proposal and budget. We hope to have final proposals by mid-October, and decisions by November. Any questions about the application process of applying should be addressed to Fabio Mesquita ([email protected]).

Your Letter of Intent should address the following questions:

1. Concept of the Report

How can your organization or network contribute to evaluate and describe the health consequences (particularly HIV/AIDS epidemic related to the use of injectable drugs) as a consequence of the decisions made at UNGASS (United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Drugs) in 1998? Start describing the problem in your region, then the conditions which make this an issue of national or international relevance in the developing world.

2. Report Goals and Objectives

Please describe your proposed activity, including timeline, capacity and potential partners or sources of information to document:

1. the number of estimated people who inject drugs in 1998 and in 2008;

2. the number of HIV cases related to people who inject drugs in 1998 and in 2008;
3. numbers of people imprisoned on drug charges, as absolute numbers and share of total, in 1998 and in 2008.
4. reports on injection inside of the prison system, HIV or HCV epidemic in prisons in 2008;
5. substitution therapy and sterile syringe programs in prison, and where relevant, possible waiting lists status;
6. drug treatment in "closed settings" in your country/region, numbers in such treatment facilities, and means for introduction and release of drug users into these institutions;
7. barriers to access treatment (particularly substitution treatment);
8. availability of HIV prevention for IDUs -(such as needle exchange, outreach work and condom distribution among others) with estimated coverage and some detail about what is meant by coverage;
9. barriers to access prevention or drug treatment;
10. ARV treatment given to those with a history of drug use, and to active users, or regulations regarding such treatment, and informal practices that might impact its provision;
11. violations of human rights of drug users by police and health care providers.

3. Other relevant information

4. Implementation

How long would you take to get this information and write your report? What is the scope (regionally speaking) of your possible report (one country, one entirely region, one piece of the region)? How does your country or region match the profile of one where IDU-driven HIV is a significant issue?

5. Capacity and Resources

Describe how the organization applying for this grant is in a position to undertake this project. Who would the organization designate to take care of this report? What existing sources of information might you draw on? What partners might assist in provision of information?