New Information Notes for Round 11

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Number: 4

ABSTRACT The Global Fund has issued at least 22 information notes for Round 11. This article provides details.

The Global Fund has been issuing new information notes for Round 11 at a fairly constant rate. When we went to press, there were 22 information notes listed on the Fund’s website here. Below, we provide details on six of them. This is followed by a list of all 22 notes.

Matching Resources to Need: Opportunities to Promote Equity. In Round 11, applicants are required to include an assessment of inequities, gaps and barriers in the current national responses to the diseases. The term “inequities” refers primarily to obstacles faced by specific sub-populations in accessing services. The purpose of this information note is to explain how applicants can conduct an equity assessment and then use the Round 11 proposal to address inequities. The information note describes four key steps to conducting an equity assessment, as follows:

1. Making the assessment process participatory

2. Gathering evidence to assess equity

3. Analysing the evidence to identify gaps and opportunities

4. Translating the analysis into service delivery areas (SDAs), budgets and performance frameworks in the Round 11 proposal

The information note contains a list of sources that may be able to provide technical assistance on conducting equity assessments.

Food and Nutrition. This information note explains the rationale for including food and nutrition support in Global Fund proposals, and provides guidance on how to go about it.

Non-Country Coordinating Mechanisms. This information note describes the criteria for non-CCM applications, and explains what documentation applicants need to provide to show that they meet at least one of the criteria.

HIV and Human Rights. This information note lists the seven human rights-related programme areas that UNAIDS recommends be included in national AIDS responses, as follows:

1. Programmes to reduce stigma and discrimination

2. Programmes to sensitise law enforcement agents and law and policy makers

3. HIV-related legal services

4. Programmes to train health care workers in non-discrimination, confidentiality and informed consent

5. Programmes to monitor and reform laws, regulations and policies relating to HIV

6. Legal literary programmes (such as “know your rights or laws” campaigns)

7. Programmes to reduce harmful gender norms and violence against women, and to increase their legal, social and economic empowerment in the context of HIV

The information note also explains how human-rights based approaches can be incorporated into all programming.

Scaling Up Comprehensive Prevention of Mother-to-Child Prevention (PMTCT) Interventions [sic]. This information note explains what would be required to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and provides a comprehensive menu of interventions that applicants could include in their proposals.

Value for Money. This information note outlines the Global Fund’s approach to value for money in Round 11 proposals. The note explains that the Technical Review Panel (TRP) will assess value for money in three areas: effectiveness, efficiency and additionality.

Complete list of information notes

When we went to press, the following information notes were available on the Global Fund website here. We have listed the information notes by three categories that we have defined. On the Fund’s website, the notes are also listed by category, but they are not the same categories as the ones we use below.

HSS and disease-specific topics

• Addressing Sex Work, MSM and Transgender People in the Context of the HIV Epidemic
• Collaborative TB/HIV Activities
• Food and Nutrition for HIV and TB Programming
• Health Systems Strengthening
• HIV and Human Rights
• Scaling Up Comprehensive Prevention of Mother-to-Child Prevention (PMTCT) Interventions [sic]
• Tuberculosis and Human Rights

General programme-related topics

• Addressing Women, Girls and Gender Equality
• Community Systems Strengthening
• Harm Reduction for People Who Use Drugs
• Improving Aid Effectiveness
• Matching Resources to Need: Opportunities to Promote Equity
• Pharmaceutical Systems Strengthening and Pharmacovigilance
• Strengthening Implementation Capacity
• Strengthening Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Interventions

General proposal-related topics

• Consolidated Proposals
• Dual-Track Financing
• Eligibility, Counterpart Financing and Prioritization
• Most Common Weaknesses Identified by the TRP in Round 10
• Multi-Country Applicants
• Non-Country Coordinating Mechanisms
• Value for Money

Note: The Global Fund says that it is revising its Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Toolkit, and that the new version should be posted on its website around the end of August.