AIDSPAN RELEASES GUIDE ON THE CCM’S ROLE IN GRANT OVERSIGHT

Author:

Bernard Rivers

Article Type:

Article Number: 2

ABSTRACT Aidspan has released "The Aidspan Guide on the Roles and Responsibilities of CCMs in Grant Oversight." Its purpose is to provide guidance on how CCMs can plan and implement oversight of programmes funded by Global Fund grants.

Aidspan has released “The Aidspan Guide on the Roles and Responsibilities of CCMs in Grant Oversight.” Its purpose is to provide guidance on how CCMs can plan and implement oversight of programmes funded by Global Fund grants.

The guide is available in English and Spanish at www.aidspan.org/guides. The Russian-language version of the guide should be posted later this month and the French-language version next month.

Since several years ago, the Global Fund has required country coordinating mechanisms (CCMs) to put into place and maintain transparent, documented processes (a) to oversee programme implementation; and (b) to ensure the input of a broad range of stakeholders, including CCM members and non-members, in the grant oversight process.

But even after eight rounds of Global Fund grants, many CCMs have not paid much attention to their grant oversight role, and have focused instead on developing proposals and securing funding. These CCMs are only now starting to look at what they need to do concerning oversight. For this reason, and because oversight is not easy to do, there is very little guidance available, and there are few examples, if any, of what could be called “best practice.” It might be more accurate to say that a few “promising practices” have begun to emerge.

“The Aidspan Guide on the Roles and Responsibilities of CCMs in Grant Oversight”attempts to fill some of the gap. The primary target audience for this guide is CCMs. The guide will also be of interest to principal recipients (PRs) and large sub-recipients (SRs), as well as other stakeholders who are not CCM members but who have an interest in the functioning of the CCM.

In the context of the guide, “oversight” is defined as high-level monitoring by CCMs of grant implementation. In the course of doing oversight, CCMs need to be able to answer questions such as “Where is the money?”, “Where are the drugs (or other products)?”, “Is the grant being implemented on schedule?” and “Are the targets being met?”

The guide includes some real-life examples from CCMs that have begun to do oversight.

The following is an outline of the main sections of the guide:

Chapter 1: Introduction and Background

• Why Oversight is Important
• Where the CCM Fits in the Global Fund’s In-Country Architecture
• Understanding the Roles, Responsibilities and Reporting Relationships
• CCMs Acting in the National Interest

Chapter 2: The CCM’s Grant Oversight Role

• Why the CCM Should Oversee Grant Implementation
• What CCM Oversight Entails

Chapter 3: How the CCM Can Organise Itself To Do Oversight

• Determining the Best Structure
• The Costs of Doing Oversight
• Nigerian Case Study on Oversight

Chapter 4: Developing the CCM’s Oversight Strategy

• Deciding what the Oversight Committee Will Monitor
• Collecting the Information
• Reviewing the Information
• Using Dashboards

Chapter 5: Problem Identification and Resolution

• Identifying and Investigating Problems
• Resolving the Problems
• Some Examples

Chapter 6: Reporting and Communications

Chapter 7: Technical Support

Chapter 8: Obstacles to Effective CCM Oversight

• When Partnerships Aren’t All that They Should Be
• Conflicts of Interest

Three excerpts from the guide are provided in a separate article, below.