GLOBAL FUND OFFERING TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE ON COMMUNITY, RIGHTS AND GENDER

Author:

Angela Kageni

Article Number: 4

Communities and civil society can now receive support from the Global Fund for activities addressing community, rights and gender challenges

ABSTRACT The Global Fund is providing technical assistance to countries needing guidance on how to build community, human rights and gender equity into their concept notes under the new funding model (NFM).

The Global Fund Board on 5 August approved a special technical support initiative on community, rights and gender (CRG) to improve the quality, coordination and integration of information, data and activities useful to enhance community involvement in national planning and decision making.

Managed by a CRG department within the Secretariat, the TA provided will emphasize how to overcome barriers related to human rights, gender and other inequalities. The work supported by the department will also explore how best Global Fund investments are responding to set priorities.

At its 31st meeting in Jakarta in March, the Board approved special initiatives to be undertaken by the Secretariat in the amount of $100 million, including $15 million in TA on community, rights and gender. It is anticipated that this assistance will help to strengthen engagement by key populations in country dialogue and concept note development.

Countries that are yet to submit their concept notes under the new funding model (NFM) are eligible to apply for this assistance. The third window for submissions closes on 15 August. As of 15 June, 33 concept notes had been submitted.

National-level networks and organizations of civil society, key populations, women or people living with/or affected by the diseases (PLHIV, TB and/or Malaria) seeking TA will be prioritized.

Applications from country coordinating mechanisms (CCMs) will be considered if developed and submitted in collaboration with one of the groups above. Requests for support during grant-making or grant implementation will not be granted.

Requests found eligible by the CRG department will be prioritized, providing support first to organizations that demonstrate they have been unsuccessful in receiving support from other technical partners.

There are three main areas of support from the CRG technical assistance program:

1.       Situational analysis and needs assessments: The work should produce evidence-informed analyses that respond to the needs of the most-at-risk populations e.g. female sex workers, transgender people and people who inject drugs. The assignments should ensure better access to requisite evidence to articulate what works (or doesn’t) for community, rights and gender and how best to address the needs of key populations.

Activities may include the following: mapping out numbers of key and affected people, translations of key Global Fund documents into local languages; analyses of gender inequalities that may affect Global Fund investments or assessments on gender-focused vulnerability to the three diseases, analyses on supportive legal environments, research on how to capture sex- and age-disaggregated data that proves impact or how to improve community involvement in HIV, TB, malaria and community systems strengthening programs.

2.       Engagement in country dialogue: The work should ensure that civil society, key populations and communities have the opportunity to engage more substantially in national discussions useful for prioritization and planning; advocating for the inclusion of community, rights and gender related and based responses.

Activities may include the following: caucusing, providing information about the Global Fund new funding model, training on concept note writing or effective programming by civil society implementers, documentation of community sector inputs for submission to CCMs and concept note writing teams, advocacy and legal literacy for concept note preparation and review of developed concept notes before submission.

3.       Supporting program design: CRG technical assistance can be provided to support communities, organizations and networks design, plan, and budget for programs or interventions for inclusion in concept notes, with a particular focus on community, human rights, gender and key population programming.

Technical experts within the CRG department include civil society and key population network representatives and organizations who were selected through an open tender process.

The unit will liaise frequently with relevant partners and country teams. All selected experts have undergone a lengthy pre-qualification and capacity assessment processes to ensure solid technical expertise in community, rights and gender, with strong focus on the Global Fund’s three focal diseases.

Those who seek CRG support may find the request forms on the Global Fund website. Completed request forms should be submitted to CRGTA@theglobalfund.org , along with a detailed workplan and budget for each project.

Approvals will take about 15 to 30 days for simple requests (e.g. desk reviews and rapid analyses); 25 to 40 days for more complex assignments each addressing a single problem (e.g. hosting country dialogue meetings with key populations); and 25 to 50 days for more complex activities addressing more than one major issue (e.g. doing a situational analysis and a number of consultative meetings).

Each completed assignment will be evaluated to capture lessons learned.