GLOBAL FUND SEEKS TO ADD MEMBERS WITH GENDER EXPERTISE TO THE TRP

Author:

Bernard Rivers

Article Type:

Article Number: 5

ABSTRACT The Global Fund is planning to appoint five new TRP members who have expertise on gender and on issues faced by sexual minorities.

The Global Fund is planning to appoint five new Technical Review Panel (TRP) members who have expertise on gender and on issues faced by sexual minorities, as well as expertise and experience in the three diseases.

The TRP is an independent, impartial group of experts who review proposals to the Global Fund and who make recommendations to the board concerning which proposals should be approved for funding. Persons appointed to the TRP normally serve for four rounds of funding (in the rounds-based funding channel). Only part-time involvement is required; expenses and a modest honorarium is paid.

The deadline for applications is very soon – 1 April 2009. Candidates must use the Fund’s application form (available at www.hlsp.org/workingwithus/globalfund). This website also contains more information on the entitlements and expectations of TRP members. Questions can be directed to globalfund.trp@hlsp.org.

Applications will be screened through a two-step process. First, a review panel composed of senior officials in the Global Fund Secretariat will prepare a short list of applicants. Second, the candidates on the short list will be reviewed by a pre-selection panel consisting of representatives of the Global Fund and leading technical agencies (including UNAIDS, WHO, Stop TB Partnership, Roll Back Malaria Partnership, and the World Bank).

The panel will recommend which candidates should be appointed. The Global Fund Board is scheduled to vote on the recommendations by mid-May 2009.

The five PRs also recommended that the Global Fund should:

• ensure that there is consistency among Fund Portfolio Managers in the application of procedures and policies;
• share LFA assessments with PRs and CCMs;
• develop written guidance about the different circumstances in which it might or might not be appropriate for different types of international organisation to serve as PR in different types of country, and provide this guidance to CCMs for use during PR selection;
• clarify to CCMs and PRs the role of LFAs, and ensure that the role is carried out in a consistent manner. (This clarification should deal, in particular, with the extent to which LFAs serve the GF Secretariat, the extent to which they serve or support the CCM and PR, the extent to which they audit PRs, and the extent to which they provide answers to technical questions.);
• include in the proposal guidelines that potential PRs should be selected early enough to be involved in the proposal development process;
• encourage CCMs to include in their proposals a costed capacity building plan that clearly specifies what capacity will be built, by whom, and for which organisations or types of organisation; and
• request that a conflict of interest management plan be included in proposals.