203 - Exceptional Opportunity Funding (EOF) General description
The Exceptional Opportunity Funding is a short-term grants program to support the continued efforts of regional and global HIV civil society and community-led networks in adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic context, and in mitigating the impact of the dual COVID-19 and HIV crisis on inadequately served populations. The EOF is a program of the Robert Carr Fund, with support from the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and in partnership with UNAIDS.

Main objectives and outcomes:
"The Robert Carr Fund operates under a Theory of Change for which the ultimate goal is improved health, inclusion and social wellbeing for inadequately served populations (ISPs). To reach this goal, the Robert Carr Fund provides core funding to strengthen the institutional and advocacy capacity of regional and global ISP and civil society networks and/or their consortia.
• The Robert Carr Fund believes that if these networks are stronger, people from inadequately served populations will have more influence over the human rights and HIV issues that affect them.
• Sustained influence from ISPs with regards to HIV and human rights issues at global, regional and national levels will result in a more enabling and rights-affirming social, policy and legal environment for ISPs, along with more accessible and appropriate quality HIV services and programs, and the corresponding available resources to create better conditions for ISPs with regards to HIV.
• If the human rights of ISPs are realized, and they have access to better HIV services, and there is appropriate resourcing to underpin the necessary services, it is believed that ISPs across the globe can have better health, social inclusion and wellbeing."

Target group or reach:
"Inadequately served populations (ISPs) are groups or persons that face a higher HIV risk, mortality and/or morbidity compared to the general population, and, at the
same time, facing systematic human rights violations and barriers to information and services. ISPs include people living with HIV, gay men, bisexuals and other men who
have sex with men, people who use drugs, people in prisons or other closed settings, sex workers, and transgender persons. Depending on the dynamic of the HIV epidemic
and the legal status of these populations, ISPs may also include women and girls, youth, migrants and people living in rural areas."

Background:
The EOF will enable regional and global civil society HIV networks to apply lessons from the first year of the pandemic to expand community-led adaptations that proved effective in mitigating the multiple and negative effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the most vulnerable ISP communities. The program will build on and expand the critical role that regional and global HIV networks have been playing since the onset of the pandemic, both at the community level and in advocating for policy responses at the regional and global levels. This support will enable grantees to prioritize emergency HIV and COVID-19 responses along the 4 RCF outcome areas: network strengthening, protecting human rights, improving access to services, and resources accountability.