MPG has a long and established role in strengthening community systems as a central component of Myanmar’s HIV response. In alignment with NSP V Pillar 3: Community Systems Strengthening, Human Rights, and Gender, MPG implements people‑centred, rights‑based, and gender‑responsive interventions that promote meaningful community leadership, multisectoral engagement, and sustainable, community‑led health systems.
MPG’s Community Systems Strengthening (CSS) approach focuses on scaling up key population‑led and PLHIV‑led service delivery, strengthening self‑help groups, and enhancing the institutional capacity of community networks. These interventions directly support national priorities to shift from externally driven implementation models toward locally led, resilient community responses, while increasing the role of communities in planning, delivering, and monitoring HIV services.
Recognizing that strong community systems require deliberate and sustained investment, MPG prioritizes capacity development, mentoring, and institutional strengthening for KP‑ and PLHIV‑led organizations. This includes leadership development, organizational governance, financial and programmatic management, and technical skills to support effective community‑led service delivery. At the local level, MPG reinforces community engagement by supporting self‑help groups as platforms for peer support, treatment literacy, service linkage, and collective action.
In collaboration with partners, MPG contributes to strengthening community leadership and institutional readiness through structured training and mentoring initiatives. With technical support from Save the Children (Principal Recipient), UNAIDS, and ICAP, and in collaboration with community partners, MPG supports leadership development activities that enable communities to participate meaningfully in programme implementation, governance, and accountability mechanisms.
A core pillar of MPG’s CSS work is the strengthening of the Community Feedback Mechanism (CFM), internationally recognized as community‑led monitoring. Through CFM, MPG supports communities to systematically document and communicate barriers to accessing HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support services. This includes monitoring stigma and discrimination, gender and human rights‑related barriers, inequities, and legal and policy challenges affecting key populations and people living with HIV. Implementation is supported through Global Fund financing, with technical input from external partners as required.
Building on its role as a leading actor in CFM implementation through the Community Network Consortium (CNC), MPG is committed to sustaining and strengthening CFM across grant cycles. Priority areas include advocacy for structural change, service quality improvement, and increased awareness of rights among communities and duty bearers. CFM interventions address both individual‑level barriers and system‑level constraints, including discriminatory practices, service delivery gaps, and restrictive legal or policy environments.
To promote learning and accountability, MPG supports the annual analysis and dissemination of CFM findings, sharing evidence with relevant technical working groups and stakeholders to inform service improvements and structural reforms. Findings, lessons learned, and case studies generated through CFM feed directly into law and policy reform processes, guided by MPG’s Advocacy team in coordination with CNC.
Through these Community Systems Strengthening efforts, MPG contributes to NSP V’s vision of empowered communities, protected human rights, and sustainable, community‑led HIV responses, ensuring that the voices and lived experiences of those most affected drive meaningful and lasting change.
