FRANCE WILL USE A PORTION OF ITS GLOBAL FUND CONTRIBUTION TO PROVIDE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
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Download PDF France has launched an initiative to set aside five percent of its contribution to the Global Fund to be used for technical assistance (TA). The French initiative is similar to one already being used by the United States. For the years 2011-2013, France has pledged over €1 billion to the Global Fund – €360 million per year. This…
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ABSTRACT France has launched an initiative to set aside five percent of its contribution to the Global Fund to be used for technical assistance (TA). This amounts to about €18 million a year. The French initiative is similar to one already in place in the United States.
France has launched an initiative to set aside five percent of its contribution to the Global Fund to be used for technical assistance (TA). The French initiative is similar to one already being used by the United States.
For the years 2011-2013, France has pledged over €1 billion to the Global Fund – €360 million per year. This means that under this initiative, €18 million will be set aside in 2012 for TA. If the full €18 million is not used for TA in 2012, the amount left over will be remitted to the Global Fund as direct contribution.
The aim of the French initiative is to increase the efficiency of programmes financed by the Global Fund. The funds will be available to all countries eligible for Global Fund grants that are members or observers of the International Organisation of Francophonie. Initially, the programme will target the 17 countries that France has prioritised for development assistance. These are all Francophone countries except for Ghana, Haiti, Afghanistan and the Palestinian Territories.
The governmental agency France Expertise Internationale (FEI) will implement the initiative, under the supervision of the French Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs, and in collaboration with the Global Fund. Countries that want to benefit from this initiative should apply directly to French embassies, not to the Global Fund, Audrey Giret, the Project Director in charge of the initiative at FEI, told GFO.
Two funding channels for TA
The French TA initiative is divided into a short-term Channel 1, where expertise is provided for a maximum of 12 months, and a long-term Channel 2, dedicated to funding longer-term capacity building and restructuring. The FEI stated that the funding for Channel 1 should amount to about one-quarter to one-third of the total.
According to Ms Giret, the FEI started receiving applications for TA under Channel 1 in December 2011. By the beginning of April 2012, 25 of the more than 60 requests for TA had been accepted by the initiative’s Steering Committee.
For Channel 2, the FEI published two calls for proposals at the end of April 2012, one for health systems strengthening and the other for operational research. Applicants will have about two months to send in their submissions.
The US model
In 2007, the US government started to withhold five percent of its contribution to the Global Fund to provide TA to grantees who were experiencing implementation bottlenecks.
The consultancy organisation Grant Management Solutions (GMS) was created specifically for the purpose of providing technical assistance under this initiative (see GFO article). The GMS budget accounts for only part of the five percent initiative. Money from this initiative also goes to UNAIDS Technical Support Facilities, Roll Back Malaria, the Stop TB Partnership, and the Green Light Committee.
More information on the French initiative can be found here, here and here.
