EAGERLY ANTICIPATING NEW FUNDING CYCLE ALLOCATION LETTERS

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Aidspan Editorial Team

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Article Number: 1

But how will the final amounts have been affected by the replenishment outcome?

ABSTRACT This GFO brings you the latest on the allocation letters, which at the time of writing are due to be dispatched within the next week. We also discuss the presentation made to the Board on the Thematic Report on Gender, why we still have no idea what we’re doing when it comes to pandemics, and what major health issues remain unresolved at the end of 2022.

Dear subscribers

Surely the most discussed topic within the Global Fund and among countries themselves must be the 2023-2025 allocation letters which are imminently about to be sent out? Countries must be waiting for their arrival with some trepidation, concerned as to whether or not the unsatisfactory outcome of the replenishment will have adversely affected the amount they can expect to receive. For the first time ever, Board members were given the opportunity to comment on the draft template. We bring you a description of what’s in the new-style letters, compared to the old, and what Board members had to say (Countries will soon be informed of their Global Fund allocations for the 2023-2025 funding cycle ).

Aidspan Board member Alan Whiteside muses about two key issues affecting the health sector which he feels remain unresolved and will have to be addressed in 2023 for performance to improve (At the end of 2022 what are the big health sector issues left over and going forward?). The first is data and the second is politics. Both involve a certain degree of manipulation. We suspect no-one would argue with these issues but we also doubt that much will be done about either. And talking of problems, we then go on to raise another: that of pandemics (Time to accept that we do not know how to prepare for pandemics ). Here we look at why the two existing tools for measurement are ineffective and why the world needs a comprehensive indicator of countries’ pandemic preparedness and readiness to fight global health threats. Time is short, COVID has shown us that we are woefully unprepared, and we need to know where to invest resources to maximize impact against future pandemics.

Our article on the Board thematic discussions on gender describes  the Board discussions based on the Gender Thematic Report, including the new Gender Equality Marker that will be piloted by some countries to assess their gender equality readiness as they prepare for the new grant cycle.

The last two articles are both good and bad news. The latter first. Why unresolved issues will undermine the impact of future GC7 grants  is a very frank discussion based on experiences from the field in Francophone Africa. It raises issues that we all know are true but are like the elephant in the room that nobody wants to acknowledge. Why do we persist in doing things the old way when we know they don’t work? Why do we impose first world procedures and 300-page manuals on rural service providers who simply cannot meet the demands of auditors nor grapple with the Global Fund operational policy constraints? Why do we hypocritically call for innovation when we do our best to stifle it?

We finish on a high. Our article on an Aidspan-implemented project in the DRC, Early lessons from the implementation of a standalone health system strengthening grant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is the story of a successful collaboration between two bilateral donors (Germany and the UK), an international NGO and local providers, both government and community. The pilot project has made inroads into providing real support to strengthen the implementation of the DRC’s substantial grant for resilient and sustainable systems for health (RSSH). Simple measures which, if shared between countries and adapted to specific national contexts could go a long way towards dealing with some of the issues in our article 6 above!

As Walt Disney says: that’s all for now, folks! Our last issue of the year before the Christmas and holiday season break will be on 21 December. Until then, happy reading!

As ever, Aidspan and our editorial team, under the leadership of Ida Hakizinka, does its best to ensure the accuracy of data and statements in our published articles ― and hence our inclusion of hyperlinks ― but if you, the reader, identify an error or important omission, please notify us and provide us with your data source; and we shall be happy to publish a correction or amendment.

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Don’t forget: if you are aware of an interesting development relevant to disease programmes or health systems and that you feel is worthy of global discussion, do let me know together with the name of a person prepared to write about this. Suggestions and comments can be sent to us, Ida Hakizinka or Arlette Campbell White in English, French or Spanish at ida.hakizinka@aidspan.org or acampbell.white@aidspan.org.

The Aidspan Editorial Team