The first two grants under the full rollout of the new funding model (NFM) should soon be approved for signing by the Global Fund Board. Both grants emanate from an HIV concept note submitted by Moldova during the first window on 15 May 2014. The concept note took just four months to work its way through the system, reaching the second and final review by the Grant Approvals Committee on 18 September. The Moldova disbursement-ready grant agreement documents were scheduled to be sent to the Board before the end of September. Meanwhile, the first application to the Global Fund’s Emergency Fund, established as a special initiative under the NFM to fight the three diseases in emergency situations, was received in mid-September. It is designed to respond to the TB challenge posed to Syria's neighbors by the massive influx of refugees fleeing the nearly four-year old crisis in the country. The above information was contained in the Global Fund’s NFM Progress Update for September. Concept notes The Global Fund is still anticipating that about half of the 280 concept notes expected to be submitted during this allocation period will be reviewed by the Technical Review Panel in 2014, and that these notes will represents 68% of the total allocation, prior to any incentive finding awards. This prediction comes despite a general trend among CCMs who have delayed submission of their concept notes. CCMs were asked to “register” for a particular review window so that the Secretariat, the TRP and the GAC could plan their workload. However, CCMs are not committed to the windows for which they registered. The Secretariat says that for Windows 1-3, these shifts have resulted in a “slippage rate” of about 47%. See the table for a summary of the number of concept notes submitted in the first three windows for 2014, and the number of notes expected in the last window of 2014 and in the four windows for 2015.

Table: Concept note submission schedule, showing approximate value of submissions

Window	Submission deadline	Concept Notes reviewed, screened or expected	Approximate value
1	15 May 2014	10 notes reviewed	$0.92 billion
2	15 June 2014	23 notes reviewed	$1.80 billion
3	15 Sep. 2014	41 notes being screened	$3.22 billion
4	15 Oct. 2014	67 notes expected	$3.97 billion
Totals for 2015		141 notes reviewed, being screened or expected	$9.88 billion
5	15 Jan, 2015	46 notes expected	$1.72 billion
6	15 April 2015	33 notes expected	$860 million
7	15 Aug. 2015	4 notes expected	$580 million
8	15 Oct. 2015	3 notes expected	$78 million
Totals 2014-2015 combined		227 notes reviewed, being screened or expected	$13.12 billion

Notes:

1. A number of concept notes have not registered for any window yet and so are not included in this table.

2.The numbers expected for Windows 4-8 are tentative and are subject to change.

There is only one other window in this allocation period: 15 April 2016. Application concerning Syrian refugees An application for a grant drawing on funds in the Emergency Fund has been submitted, following the failure of an earlier attempt to address the Syrian refugee crisis through the submission of an expression of interest for a regional grant (see GFO article). The expression of interest, which was submitted by a cluster of UN and international agencies, was seeking $10 million. At the time, both the applicants and the Global Fund indicated that the Emergency Fund might be a better channel for the request. The size of the Emergency Fund is $30 million. Concerns raised by NGOs In a covering note for a discussion paper released on 29 September, the Developed Country NGO delegation expressed concern about what they termed “significant confusion and contradictory information being received about core elements of the NFM". The delegation was referring to the need for concept notes to be comprehensive and inclusive, building on fully costed and prioritized national strategies. The discussion paper recommended that the Global Fund and technical assistance providers offer clearer, more consistent and more encouraging messaging. Other items The September progress report provided an update on the planning for two of the special initiatives approved by the Board as part of the NFM. One was the Emergency Fund; the other was the Principal Recipient Grant-Making Capacity Building Fund. The progress report also provided an update on the Key Populations Engagement Pilot, an initiative launched in 2013 to support the greater involvement of key populations and representatives of people living with the diseases within CCMs. Some of the 10 countries involved in the pilot have made good progress, while others are struggling to find a suitable mechanism to implement the pilot. In addition, the progress report revealed that the Secretariat has agreed the program split for 47 applicants, up from 40 at the time of the August NFM update.