THE GLOBAL FUND LAUNCHES ITS PRIORITIZED ACTION PLAN IN EFFORTS TO ENHANCE ITS RISK MANAGEMENT AND PROJECT PERFORMANCE EFFORTS
Author:
Larson Moth
Article Type:Article Number: 3
The Fund believes that the Prioritized Action Plan or PAP, will improve the impact of the programs it finances
ABSTRACT The Fund has identified 14 initiatives it seeks to enhance the effectiveness of by implementing its Prioritized Action Plan, or PAP. This article explains the PAP, what it monitors and assesses, and elaborates upon the purpose behind it.
In May 2016, The Fund launched its Prioritized Action Plan-PAP to assist the Secretariat and the Board to monitor, assess and oversee the implementation of its strategy to achieve impact with the investments it makes. It was submitted to the Fund’s committees in June 2016 and the GF Board in July 2016, however, a number of the initiatives captured in the PAP were started in late 2015 and in early 2016.
In an email from the Fund, a quote from the Executive Director’s Report by Dr Mark Dybul was given to highlight the importance of the PAP:
“As we sprint to the finish line in the fight against these diseases, as we implement our 2017-2022 strategy, operational excellence is something we must continue to pursue. The PAP is a key initiative to help us achieve impact. By providing clear guidelines for strategy implementation, it helps us in drawing a proactive vision of what we strive to achieve rather than wait to react to issues. It helps in institutionalizing a culture of using deliverables to gauge our progress.”
The Fund believes the PAP will further strengthen its core internal control principles, consistency, and enhance effective risk management in its decision-making processes. It has stated that the PAP gives it a holistic view of the initiatives (below) while supporting the implementation of its strategy.
In a nutshell, the plan is utilized in order to highlight and track a set of indicators which help guide and show the progress the Fund is (or not) making towards its stated deliverables. The indicators being tracked show the status of all the initiatives, of which there are 14:
- Strengthening Internal Controls of Key Processes & Risk Oversight
- Risk Management and Engagement
- Strategy Planning and Implementation
- Differentiation for Impact
- Implementation Through Partnership
- Procurement and Supply Chain Management
- Supply Chain Optimization
- Accelerated Integration Management (AIM)
- Improved Program and Data Quality
- Co-Link: Strengthening Finance Management Capacity
- Country Presence
- Assurance
- Financial Control Environment Reviews
- Project Management
The Secretariat told Aidspan that in order to measure progress on the completion of each initiative, the Fund breaks them down into a series of deliverables/actions. Each deliverable/action has a milestone/target date attached to it. For an initiative to be completed, all the deliverables/actions within it, also need to completed.
Following are examples of the deliverables linked to two of the above initiatives:
The Fund told Aidspan that of the total actions/deliverables outlined in the PAP for 2016-2018, 54% of them have reached completion. Of only the deliverables due at the end of August 2016, 95% have been completed.
The Fund plans for a new Project Management Office to play a central role in the monitoring and oversight of ongoing initiatives across the organization. For internal tracking and reporting purposes, the Fund will produce a risk report that would highlight any emerging risks to the successful completion of an initiative.
While such a risk to the completion of an initiative has not happened up until this point, any instance of it occurring would result in the issue being escalated to the Board and/or Committees if it was thought that the risk to the successful completion of the initiative was significant.
Information from this article was taken from Board papers GF/B36/27: “Prioritized Action Plan (PAP) to Accelerate Management for Impact”, which is available at: www.theglobalfund.org/en/board/meetings/36.
