France’s 7% Initiative calls for proposals from Global Fund grant recipients
Author:
David Garmaise
Article Type:Article Number: 11
Applicants from 55 countries are eligible
ABSTRACT Applicants from 55 countries on multiple continents are eligible to respond to two calls for proposals launched by the 7% Initiative. The initiative, which provides technical assistance, has budgeted €10 million for projects funded through the calls.
The 7% Initiative has launched two “mutually complementary, but distinct” calls for proposals: AP-7PC-2018-01 seeks projects aiming to strengthen health systems at all levels from community to national; AP-7PC-2018-02 calls for projects aiming to improve access to high-quality health services for vulnerable populations.
France withholds 7% of its contribution to the Global Fund and uses these funds to provide technical assistance to grant recipients, including (but not limited to) those in French-speaking countries. The management of the 7% Initiative is entrusted to Expertise France.
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(The 7% Initiative was formerly known as the “5% Initiative” and that may still be its official name, but the proportion of France’s contribution that is withheld for technical assistance has increased from 5% to 7%.)
In 2016, the 5% Initiative launched a multi-year thematic under the title “Strengthening the quality and accessibility of national and community health systems” to be rolled out each year in two calls for proposals covering the period 2016–2018. A spokesperson for Expertise France, Christelle Boulanger, told Aidspan that the multi-year call “will enable partners to submit a proposal several times, enriching their proposal with the comments and suggestions of the technical experts who evaluate them, in order to improve the quality of their project.”
The 7% Initiative said that through these calls for proposals it will fund projects in the following areas, based on the objectives of the Global Fund Strategy 2017–2022:
- strengthening supply chain and logistics chain management;
- leveraging high-quality and sufficient human resources for health to meet health systems requirements;
- strengthening systems for quality data collection and use; and
- promoting and strengthening community action and community involvement in national decision-making processes;
as well as making services more available for the vulnerable groups defined in the calls.
The 7% Initiative has budgeted €10 million for projects funded through the two calls.
The calls for proposals involve a two-stage process. In the first stage, applicants are asked to submit a concept note. A shortlist of notes will then be elaborated. During Stage 2, only applicants on the shortlist will be invited to submit full project proposals. The full proposals will be assessed and presented to the selection committee by the end of October 2018.
The TOR contain a list of 55 countries in many different regions of the world that are eligible to apply.
The deadline for applications is mid-day Paris time on 23 March 2018.
The terms of reference for the calls for proposals are very detailed. They contain information on the types of projects that may be funded; the admissibility criteria; the eligible costs; the criteria which will be used to evaluate applications; documents which must be provided as part of the application; and the applications process.
The TOR and full details on the calls for proposals are available here.
