Date & time: 21 April 2026 | 10.00 – 11.00 AM GMT +1/12.00 – 13.00 GMT +3/04.00 – 05.00 PM GMT +7
Please, REGISTER!

Introduction and Background

Young people are pivotal to advancing sustainability and global health, yet they often encounter structural barriers in decision-making and resource allocation. As one of the largest international financing mechanisms for health, the Global Fund provides a unique opportunity to empower youth-led initiatives and integrate young people’s perspectives into health programs.

For Grant Cycle 8 , effective youth engagement remains essential to ensuring that investments in HIV, TB, and malaria remain sustainable and responsive to emerging challenges. To respond this, the Y2Y consortium, convened by Youth LEAD as lead organizer, with Y+ Global and YODA as co-organizers under the Y2Y Consortium, developed a Global Guideline with the title of “Grant Cycle 8 Youth Engagement Guideline for Youth-Led Organizations in Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Eastern Europe», which will be launched through this webinar.

 Webinar Objectives

This webinar will introduce the Grant Cycle 8 Youth Engagement Guidance developed by the Y2Y Consortium (Youth LEAD, Y+ Global, and YODA). The session will provide the overview of the newly-developed guideline (along with the youth-specific strategy and tools), along with country examples from youth leaders currently engaging in the GC8 process.

Target Audiences and Participants

● Young Leaders in HIV, TB, and Malaria movement,
● Civil society CCM members and CCM focal points,
● Representatives from national HIV, TB and malaria programs.

Agenda (Time (in GMT+7))

16.00 — 16.10 | Registration and Opening | Gabriella Romero (she/her), Y+ Global.
16.10 — 16.25 | The Launching of Grant Cycle 8 Youth Engagement Guideline for Youth-Led Organizations in Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Eastern Europe: Overview of the Guideline | Legee Tamir (she/her), the Lead Consultant for the Guideline.
16.25 — 16.40 | Panel Discussion: How Youth Leaders are Engaging in the GC8 Process Speakers (TBC) | Roksana Karczewska (she/her), YODA.
16.40 — 16.55 | Q&A | Roksana Karczewska (she/her), YODA.
16.55 — 17.00 | Closing |Agaha Syailendra Hamdan (they/she), Youth LEAD.

Organizer

Youth to Youth (Y2Y) consortium consists of global and regional networks young key populations (YK) and young people living with HIV (YPLHIV), represented by Youth LEAD (Asia Pacifi c regional network of YKP), Y+ Global (The Global Network of YPLHIV), and YODA (European network of youth organizations and young professionals working in the area of drugs with their peers). The consortium is the continuation, with change in one partner, of Count Me In consortium who successfully implemented the CRG grant in 2018. Youth LEAD and Y+ Global have been part of the Count Me In Consortium since inception while YODA is a new implementing member of the consortium. However, YODA is familiar with the consortium work as the fi scal host of Youth RISE. The primary objective of the Youth Consortium is to sustain the gain achieved from previous grants as there is no space for complacent GF advocacy and innovate new ideas, expand the project scope to reach out to those left out and marginalized YKP and YPLHIV We aim to strategically build on our existing tools and networks, innovate some new ones to reach and empower the left out groups, with intervention in Cameroon, Mongolia, and Ukraine. Together, the consortium combines Youth LEAD’s expertise in Asia-Pacifi c and YKP advocacy, Y+ Global’s leadership of YPLHIV networks worldwide, and YODA’s perspective from EECA and youth drug policy. This diversity ensures a holistic and intersectional approach to Global Fund engagement.