Global Fund grants already recommended by the TRP represent 88% of the $10.3 billion available for countries for 2017–2019

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Type:

Article Number: 6

Window 4 closed in February; two more windows to come

ABSTRACT Two-thirds of the expected funding requests for 2017–2019 have already been received, but almost 90% of the funding available to countries has been recommended by the Technical Review Panel. This article provides an update on the funding requests.

Two-thirds of the expected funding requests for 2017–2019 have already been received. The Technical Review Panel has already recommended grants from these funding requests worth 88% of the $10.3 billion allocated to countries.

Meanwhile, the Global Fund’s survey of participants has found that most people rate the experience of applying in this funding cycle Good or Very Good.

Submission windows and requests received

There were three submission windows in 2017. Three more are scheduled for 2018. The deadline for Window 4 was 7 February 2018. The Technical Review Panel (TRP) is scheduled to review Window 4 submissions on 19–27 March.

The other 2018 windows are as follows:

Window 5        Deadline: 30 April       TRP review: 3–11 June
Window 6        Deadline: 6 August     TRP review: 19–21 September

In Window 4, 26 funding requests were received, of which four were iterations. The breakdown of the other 22 requests was as follows:

HIV 9

TB 6

TB/HIV 3

Malaria 3

RSSH 1

 

For Window 5, the Secretariat expects to receive 47 requests, of which two will be iteration and 23 multi-country. The breakdown of the other 22 requests is as follows:

HIV 5

TB 9

TB/HIV 3

Malaria 4

RSSH 1

 

For Window 6, the Secretariat expects to receive 24 requests, of which 12 are multi-country. The breakdown of the other 12 requests is as follows:

HIV 5

TB 4

TB/HIV 1

Malaria 1

Integrated 1

 

In 2019, no submission windows are planned. However, the Secretariat is providing for “remote review” by invitation only. It anticipates receiving four funding requests for remote review.

In 2017, the Secretariat received 165 new country funding requests. Of these, 151 (91.5%) were recommended for grant-making; and 14 (8.5%) were sent for iteration. Of the 14, eight were revised and then recommended for grant-making; six were in progress as of 28 February 2018.

The Secretariat projects that it will handle 276 requests (including iterations) for the entire 2017–2019 allocation period. Of these, 175 (63.4%) were received in 2017; 97 (35.1%) are projected for 2018; and four (1.4%) are expected in 2019.

Funding amounts

As mentioned above, of the $10.3 billion set aside for allocations to countries, the budgets of grants already recommended by the TRP ($9.0 billion) account for 88% of the total, which means that there is only another 12% to come.

Of the $313.0 million reserved for matching funds, the requests recommended to date by the TRP ($253.0 million) account for 81% of the total. (Note: The amount reserved for matching funds is actually $346.0 million, but the $33.0 million designated for malaria initiatives will not go through the TRP or the Board; instead, it will be operationalized through a partnership with UNITAID.)

Of the $260.0 million earmarked for multi-country requests, the budgets for requests already recommended by the TRP ($148.2 million) account for 57% of the total. Most of this is for one grant –– the Regional Artemisinin-resistance Initiative (RAI) in Southeast Asia, which received $119.0 million from the multi-country funding stream.

Participants survey

The Global Fund’s survey of participants in the first three funding windows found that 87% of respondents said that the overall experience in applying for funding was either Good or Very Good. See Figure 1.

 

Figure 1

Among participants who had participated in both the current and the previous funding cycles, 75% either agreed or strongly agreed that the funding request form for the current cycle was simpler to fill-in; and 70% either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that it took less time to develop the funding request in the current cycle. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

Of survey participants, 74% either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that human rights barriers were adequately discussed and addressed in their country’s funding request. A similar percentage said that gender-related barriers were adequately discussed and addressed. See Figure 3.

Figure 3

Other numbers

The information in the table below comes from the Funding Request Status Tracker as of 22 February 2018.

225	Number of funding requests received to date
159	Number of requests recommended for grant-making
138	Number of requests recommended for funding
132	Number of requests that have led to grants approved by the Board
7.3	Average number of months, submission to approval
8	Percentage of funding requests returned for iteration

 

Information for this article was provided by the Access to Funding unit in the Global Fund Secretariat. Figures 1, 2 and 3 also come from this source.

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