FROM THE GFO EDITOR

Author:

Bernard Rivers

Article Type:

Article Number: 3

ABSTRACT Much the most popular feature at the Aidspan web site is the new section that lets you "drill down" from country totals to see hundreds of background documents related to all Round 2 grants - including the Executive Summary of every approved and rejected proposal. (See www.aidspan.org/globalfund/grants.)

• The definitive list of documents on the Global Fund provided at www.aidspan.org/globalfund is regularly added to. The list now shows how many times each document has been downloaded, and highlights the ten most popular downloads.

• Within two days of being posted, Aidspan’s “Report: Proposals Submitted to and Grants Approved by the Global Fund” became the most popular download ever. This document, available at www.aidspan.org/globalfund/grants, provides a one-line summary of grant data for each country. You can then click on any country to see a one-page Data Sheet for that country. Then, within that Data Sheet, you can click on background documents regarding each Round 2 approved proposal, such as the full text of the proposal, TRP comments on the proposal, and more. For Round 2 rejected proposals, the Executive Summary of the proposal is also provided. This extensive body of information was posted in part to enable people to learn about proposals submitted from their own country (for instance, each proposal submitted by a CCM contains the full composition of the membership of that CCM). But it also will help people who will be developing Round 3 proposals to see the full text of, and TRP comments on, proposals from all parts of the world that succeeded in Round 2.

• For Round 3, the Call for Proposals will be in March 2003, the TRP Review will be in July, and board approvals will be in October. More information on the timing and procedures for Round 3 will be made available in the GFO Newsletter as soon as it is available.

• In his opening address at the Board meeting (see www.aidspan.org/gfo/docs/gfo52.htm), Executive Director Richard Feachem said something that bears repetition here: “I thank the NGO and activist communities. I did not know them well before taking this job. I have come to be their biggest fan. They are a major reason why the Global Fund exists. Their voice is clear, consistent and honest. They organize their delegations to this Board better than anyone else. And they have been a constant support to the work of the Global Fund. Constant support does not mean telling us things that we want to hear or patting us on the back. Constant support means honest and constructive comments and activity focused on getting the job done.”

• The GFO Newsletter now has 2,700 subscribers in 135 countries, including members of at least 60 CCMs.

Bernard Rivers (rivers@aidspan.org)