PROPOSALS SUBMITTED IN ROUND 8 ARE DRAMATICALLY LARGER THAN IN PREVIOUS ROUNDS

Author:

Bernard Rivers

Article Type:

Article Number: 1

ABSTRACT Proposals that were submitted to the Global Fund in Round 8 are more than twice as large, in average dollar value, as in any previous round. And the total cost of all proposals submitted in Round 8 was $6.4 billion, up from $2.4 billion in Round 7.

Proposals that were submitted to the Global Fund in Round 8 are more than twice as large, in average dollar value, as in any previous round.

Proposals were submitted in June. The TRP will review the proposals shortly, and the TRP’s recommendations will be made known to applicants in October.

Highlights regarding the Round 8 proposals include:

• 102 countries submitted 185 proposals in Round 8, which is 35 proposals more than were submitted in Round 7, but about the same as the average over Rounds 1-7.
• The average two-year cost of the proposals submitted in Round was $35 million, dramatically up from $16 million in Round 7 and $12 million on average over Rounds 1-7.
• The total cost of the proposals submitted in Round 8 was $6.4 billion, up from $2.4 billion in Round 7 and $2.3 billion on average over Rounds 1-7.
• The number of HIV proposals submitted in Round 8 was up by 30 percent from Round 7; the number of malaria proposals was fractionally down; and the number of TB proposals was up by 44 percent.
• The cost split between the HIV / malaria / TB proposals submitted in Round 8 was 50% / 33% / 17%, close to the 52% / 36% / 13% that applied in Round 7.
• The proposals that were submitted by countries outside Africa in Round 8 had a total two-year cost that was 1.9 times the cost which applied in Round 7; for Africa, the multiple was 3.4 times. (For Southern Africa, the multiple was a dramatic 5.0 times.) And African countries submitted Round 8 proposals representing nearly two thirds of the total cost ($4.2 billion out of $6.4 billion).
• Approximately 10 percent of the funding requested in Round 8 came under the new option where a proposal for a specific disease component could include a request for health systems strengthening.
• Only 40 percent (75 of 185) of the Round 8 proposals opted to follow the Fund’s recommendation (but not requirement) that the proposal be “dual-track”, i.e. have one Principal Recipient from the government sector and one from another sector.
• Fifty-seven percent of the total cost of proposals submitted in Round 8 ($3.65 billion out of $6.4 billion) came from just 18 percent of the 102 countries that submitted proposals.
• When donors met in 2007 to estimate how much money the Fund might need over the years 2008-10, there was a strong informal sense that the mid-range scenario (“Scenario B”) was the most likely. This Scenario assumed that the two-year cost of Round 8 approvals would amount to $2.3 billion, with Phase 2 and RCC renewals bringing the total approved in 2008 to $4 billion. If the TRP ends up recommending for approval 47% (by dollar value) of proposals submitted in Round 8, which was the percentage that applied in Round 7, the cost of Round 8 approvals will amount to $3.0 billion, which is $0.7 billion higher than the Scenario B assumption. Furthermore, when Scenario B was developed, it had not been anticipated that Round 9 would come only six months after Round 8.

Further details regarding some of these points are provided in the following tables:

Table 1: Global Fund Proposals, Submitted and Approved, by Round

Round	Proposals submitted		Of which, approved by Board				Average cost of submitted proposals	Average cost of approved proposals
	Number	Cost *	Number (and % of submitted number)		Cost * (and % of submitted cost)
Round 1	204	$1.5 b.	58	(28%)	$0.6 b.	(38%)	$7 m.	$10 m.
Round 2	229	$2.1 b.	98	(43%)	$0.9 b.	(40%)	$9 m.	$9 m.
Round 3	180	$1.8 b.	71	(39%)	$0.6 b.	(33%)	$10 m.	$9 m.
Round 4	173	$2.5 b.	69	(40%)	$1.0 b.	(39%)	$15 m.	$14 m.
Round 5	202	$3.3 b.	63	(31%)	$0.7 b.	(22%)	$16 m.	$12 m.
Round 6	196	$2.5 b.	85	(43%)	$0.8 b.	(34%)	$13 m.	$10 m.
Round 7	150	$2.4 b.	73	(49%)	$1.1 b.	(47%)	$16 m.	$15 m.
Round 8	185	$6.4 b.	TBD		TBD		$35 m.	TBD

* In this and the following tables, “Cost” means the upper ceiling for the budget for Years 1 to 2 (i.e. for Phase 1). Cost does not include proposals approved under the “Rolling Continuation Channel” option, or proposals only approved upon appeal.

TBD = To be determined; NA = Not Available

Table 2: Disease Component Results by Round

	No. of proposals submitted, number approved, and % of submitted proposals approved									Cost of proposals submitted by disease, and % of total cost submitted
	Round 6			Round 7			Round 8			Round 6		Round 7		Round 8
HIV/AIDS	82	32	39%	64	26	41%	83	TBD	TBD	NA	NA	$1.3 b.	52%	$3.2 b.	50%
Malaria	59	19	32%	45	28	62%	43	TBD	TBD	NA	NA	$0.9 b.	36%	$2.1 b.	33%
TB	55	34	62%	41	19	46%	59	TBD	TBD	NA	NA	$0.3 b.	13%	$1.1 b.	17%
TOTAL	196	85	43%	150	73	49%	185	TBD	TBD	$2.5 b.	100%	$2.4 b.	100%	$6.4 b.	100%

 

Table 3: Region Submissions by Round

	Cost of proposals submitted, by region
Global Fund Region	Round 6	Round 7	Round 8
East Asia and the Pacific	NA	$0.3 b.	$0.6 b.
Eastern Africa	NA	$0.5 b.	$1.3 b.
Eastern Europe and Central Asia	NA	$0.2 b.	$0.4 b.
Latin America and the Caribbean	NA	$0.2 b.	$0.6 b.
Middle East and Northern Africa	NA	$0.2 b.	$0.3 b.
South West Asia	NA	$0.3 b.	$0.4 b.
Southern Africa	NA	$0.2 b.	$1.0 b.
West and Central Africa	NA	$0.5 b.	$1.8 b.
Total two-year upper ceiling request:	$2.5 b.	$2.4 b.	$6.4 b.