GLOBAL FUND AIMS TO IMPROVE OUTCOMES OF GRANT RENEWAL PROCESS

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Download PDF The Global Fund says that over the past few months, it has taken steps to improve the outcomes of the grant renewal process. This information is contained in a report prepared by General Manager Gabriel Jaramillo for the Board meeting in Geneva. Mr Jaramillo said that one of the key steps has been the involvement of partners on…

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ABSTRACT In his report to the Global Fund Board, General Manager Gabriel Jaramillo outlined several measures the Fund has already implemented to improve the outcomes of the grant renewal process. One such measure has been to involve partners in the Grants Renewal Panel.

The Global Fund says that over the past few months, it has taken steps to improve the outcomes of the grant renewal process. This information is contained in a report prepared by General Manager Gabriel Jaramillo for the Board meeting in Geneva.

Mr Jaramillo said that one of the key steps has been the involvement of partners on the Grant Renewals Panel to provide high-level technical advice. He said that so far the World Health Organization, Roll Back Malaria, Stop TB, UNAIDS, the World Bank, the European Commission, the US, and the Germany/Switzerland/Canada Constituency on the Board have been involved. Participation is on a non-voting basis.

Mr Jaramillo said that the involvement of partners has resulted in better access to information on epidemiological trends and the impact of the Fund’s investments; enabled closer coordination of investments at country level; strengthened the Fund’s oversight on risk, especially in relation to drugs and commodities; enhanced technical review; and helped to identify re-programming opportunities.

Another step taken by the Global Fund, Mr Jaramillo said, has been to develop, in consultation with partners, guidance on programming for HIV, TB and malaria for the country teams at the Secretariat to use as reference when reviewing requests for continued funding and when identifying re-programming opportunities.

In addition, Mr Jaramillo stated, the Global Fund has introduced a two-step, iterative process for grant renewals to increase dialogue with CCMs and in-country implementers. The real value of this approach, he said, lies in obtaining the involvement of partners in-country much earlier than was the case previously, at the time when CCMs are preparing their requests for continued funding.

Further, Mr Jaramillo reported, the Fund is developing new measurement standards for renewals, which will cover service delivery, quality, equity, coverage, outcome and impact. The Secretariat has already conducted programme evaluations to provide evidence of impact at renewal, and to generate data to guide re-programming, in a number of countries that have gone through periodic review, including Bangladesh, Cambodia and Myanmar for malaria, and Ethiopia and Namibia for HIV.

In his report, Mr Jaramillo identified the following additional steps taken to improve renewals:

• The Global Fund has implemented a new simplified Grant Scorecard, which went into effect in July 2012. (The Fund now produces only one Grant Scorecard per disease for each review in a given country.)
• The Fund has empowered the Grant Renewals Panel to request CCMs to re-submit their applications in cases in which limited progress is apparent, or the CCM’s investment plan does not demonstrate potential for future impact.

The Report of the General Manager (Document GF-B27-02) is available at www.theglobalfund.org/en/board/meetings/twentyseventh.