MORE INFORMATION ON NEW MECHANISM TO PROVIDE FUNDING FOR ESSENTIAL SERVICES WHEN CURRENT GRANTS EXPIRE

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Type:

Article Number: 2

ABSTRACT The Global Fund has established a Transitional Funding Mechanism to cover the costs of "essential prevention, treatment and/or care" services in countries whose grants will expire and that were counting on Round 11 (which has now been cancelled). What constitutes "essential" services has not yet been defined.

TRP will review all applications to the Transitional Funding Mechanism

 

Deadline to apply is 31 March 2012; application form and guidance document will be available shortly

 

The Global Fund has established a Transitional Funding Mechanism (TFM) to cover the costs of “essential prevention, treatment and/or care” services in countries that have grants that will be expiring and that face a serious disruption of services between 1 January 2012 and 31 March 2014. Disruptions are likely to occur because of the cancellation of Round 11 and because there will be delays in the Global Fund providing a new funding opportunity. This decision was taken by the Global Fund Board at its recent meeting in Accra, Ghana. (GFO first reported on this in Issue 167; this article provides further details.)

Essentially, the TFM is for countries that would have been expected to apply for Round 11. The TFM is separate from the transitional measures adopted at the Board meeting for countries severely affected by the Board’s new rules for grant renewals (see Article 1).

A number of details of the TFM still need to be worked out, including the determination of what constitutes “essential prevention, treatment and/or care.” In its decision, the Board said that the Global Fund Secretariat would work on this in consultation with partners and the Technical Review Panel (TRP). The Secretariat said that the TFM will not support scale-up of existing services.

Under the TFM, grantees may apply for up to two years of funding.. Applicants must show that there are no alternative sources of funding available to fund the proposed activities. The Global Fund’s policies on eligibility, counterpart financing and prioritisation will apply.

Countries participating in the second wave of national strategy applications are eligible to apply under the TFM. They are subject to the criteria outlined above. Stand-alone, cross-cutting health systems strengthening requests will not be permitted.

The Secretariat told GFO that a TFM application form and a guidance document are being developed and will be available by 12 December 2011. Applications must be submitted by 31 March 2012. The Secretariat said that proposals will be screened for eligibility and completeness in April-May 2012.

Applications under the TFM will be assessed by the TRP, which will use the same assessment criteria it has used in the past for new proposals. In addition, the TRP will determine whether applicants demonstrate a risk of “disruption of essential prevention, treatment and/or care” services, and it will confirm that applicants have made a solid case that the activities cannot be financed from alternative sources of funding. The TRP review will happen in early June 2012.

The Board decision to establish the TFM said that the Board “will endorse the TRP’s recommendations, and provide guidance on prioritization if demand exceeds supply.” Board endorsement is scheduled for July 2012.

Applications will be approved “on a rolling basis.” This reflects the reality that current grants will not all end at the same time. However, it also means that the timing of the approval of grants under the TFM may be dependent on the availability of funding.

The Board also decided that if programmes face disruption before funds become available under the Transitional Funding Mechanism, the Secretariat will develop a bridge funding mechanism to cover any disruption “for the minimum amount and time necessary.”

Finally, the Global Fund expects that the next new funding window will be in 2013, with funding approvals being made in 2014.

Information for this article was taken from the document containing decisions made by the Global Fund Board at its recent meeting, which is posted at www.theglobalfund.org/en/board/meetings/twentyfifth; from an email sent by the Secretariat in response to questions posed by several civil society organisations (on file with the author); and from “Key Dates and Timelines” posted on the Fund’s website here. The Secretariat said that an information note and an FAQ document will be posted shortly at the same site.