Pre-Proposals Required for Some Round 11 Applicants
Author:
David Garmaise
Article Type:Article Number: 1
ABSTRACT Round 11 applicants seeking to apply under one of the exceptions to the recent funding history criterion must submit a pre-proposal to the Global Fund by 22 July 2011. The Global Fund refers to these pre-proposals as "proposal concepts."
Applicants seeking exemption to funding history criterion are affected
Deadline for submission is 22 July 2011
Potential applicants that would like to submit a Round 11 proposal under one of the exceptions to the recent funding history criterion must submit a pre-proposal to the Global Fund by 22 July 2011. (The Global Fund refers to the pre-proposal as a “proposal concept.”)
“Recent funding history” is one of the new eligibility criteria. According to this criterion, if an applicant has an existing Global Fund grant for a particular disease or HSS component for which the implementation start date was after 15 December 2010 – i.e., within 12 months of the closing date for Round 11 proposals – the applicant is not eligible to submit a Round 11 proposal for the same disease or HSS component.
However, this rule is subject to two exceptions: (1) where the Round 11 proposal has a different geographical coverage compared to the existing grant; and (2) where the proposal calls for the roll-out of new technical guidance requiring significant investment. (When we went to press, no guidance had been provided concerning how the second exception will be interpreted.)
If an applicant wants to apply under one or the other of these exceptions, the applicant has to first submit a proposal concept containing a brief summary of the planned scope of the proposal. A form designed for this purpose will be provided by the Global Fund.
The proposal concept must show that the proposal corresponds to one of the two exceptions described above; that the need cannot be addressed through the reprogramming of existing funding; and that there is adequate absorptive capacity and ability to roll-out the proposed new interventions. The Technical Review Panel (TRP) will determine whether or not the proposal concept meets these three requirements.
The proposal concept must be submitted by 22 July 2011. According to the Global Fund Secretariat, applicants will be notified in writing of the outcome of the TRP assessment of the proposal concept “near” the launch date of Round 11 (on 15 August 2011). If the proposal concept does not meet the requirements, the applicant will be advised that it is not eligible to submit a proposal for that component. If the proposal concept meets the requirements, a proposal may be submitted in Round 11. However, even when the applicant is given the go ahead to submit a proposal, the TRP will check that the submitted proposal is fully consistent with the proposal concept. Thus, the final determination of eligibility with respect to the history of recent funding criterion will be made by the TRP only when it reviews the full proposal.
(The process described in the previous paragraphs refers only to eligibility; it is quite separate from the process whereby the TRP determines whether the proposal is technically sound and should be recommended for funding.)
Applicants who have questions about the exceptions and about submitting proposal concepts should contact recentfunding@theglobalfund.org.
Information for this article was taken from a Global Fund information note on “Eligibility, Counterpart Financing and Prioritisation,” available on the Global Fund website here.
