In June 2004, after the completion of the fourth round of funding, the Global Fund Board decided that new proposals could include a plan (and costs) for obtaining technical assistance and capacity building to strengthen the functioning of the CCM and to improve the ability of the CCM to fulfil its responsibilities to oversee program implementation. The Board also decided that CCMs could re-allocate some of the funds in the budgets of programs that had previously been approved in Rounds 1-4 to allow for technical assistance and capacity building for the CCM (as long as the total budgets remained the same).

Then, In April 2005, at its Tenth Board Meeting, the Global Fund Board decided to expand the range of CCM activities that can be supported by Fund grants. It also established certain conditions and procedures. This article provides an explanation of the new policy.

Under the new policy, Global Fund grants can support the following types of CCM activities:

• staff salaries;
• office administration, such as phone, fax, postage, stationary and photocopy;
• CCM meeting costs, including travel cost for CCM for non-governmental members (for up to six meetings per year);
• some communication and information dissemination;
• facilitation costs associated with constituency consultation and processes to promote stakeholder participation; and
• some translation.

Global Fund grants can still be used for capacity building of the CCM (as per the June 2004 policy.)

For new proposals, costs for the activities listed above should be included in the proposal workplan and budget. However, it is also possible for CCMs to request that funds from already approved proposals be re-allocated to provide support for these activities (as long as the total budgets for these programmes remain unchanged).

The Global Fund would prefer that, whenever possible, funding for these activities be provided by other in-country partners (e.g., multilateral and bilateral funders, or the private sector). When applying to the Global Fund for funding for these activities, the CCM must be able to demonstrate that adequate support is not available from other partners. The evidence can be in the form of minutes of the CCM meeting in which the CCM affirms that it is contacted all prospective partners and has determined that the amount of funding requested is not available; or direct communication from partners in country.

If a CCM is currently receiving support from other partners for some CCM activities, it can still apply to the Global Fund for support for other CCM activities (if it can demonstrate that support for the additional activities is not available from other partners). However, the Global Fund would prefer not to have its funding used to replace funding currently being provided by other partners.

The Global Fund Board did not set a ceiling on the amount or percentage of a grant that can be allocated to supporting CCMs. It simply said that the size of the grants and the number of programmes overseen by the CCM will be used as criteria to determine the total amount of eligible funding. Any CCMs thinking of requesting funds for CCM support should consult their Fund Portfolio Manager concerning the total amount of funding that the Fund would be prepared to provide.

The Board policy specifies that CCMs may receive funding from the Global Fund for a maximum of two years. These two years may coincide with the duration of Phase 1 of a Global Fund grant, but this is not a requirement. It is possible for funding in support of CCMs to start part way through Phase 1 and extend into Phase 2.

The Board policy also includes the following provisions:

• When applying for funding, the CCM is required to show total costs by category for each of the two years, and must provide a more detailed budget for the first year showing units costs.
• The application should show co-financing or in-kind to support from other partners.
• The CCM is required to indicate how additional support will be obtained once Global Fund financing ends.
• The funds will be disbursed on an annual basis, and the CCM will also report annually on the expenditures of the funds.
• Since most CCMs are not legal entities, the funding will have to be provided through another entity, usually the PR.

Although the PR will likely receive the funds for CCM support, the Global Fund says that normally the PR should not actually manage the funds on behalf of the CCM. For the PR to do so might constitute a conflict of interest, since one of the responsibilities of the CCM is to oversee the performance of the PR. Instead, the Global Fund suggests that the CCM designate some other legal entity that will receive and manage the support funds on behalf of the CCM.

Further information is available in Frequently Asked Questions: Use of Grants to Provide Support to CCMs at www.theglobalfund.org/en/apply/mechanisms/guidelines.