Funding Bill Brieger | 17 Oct 2008 02:28 am
The Global Fund – a long process
The process of securing financial support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TD and Malaria is a relatively long process with key steps that must be taken along the way. With Round 8 supported projects soon to be announced at the upcoming Global Fund Board in November, it is useful to look at what happened with some of the Round 7 grants approved a year ago.
The chart below looks at 16 malaria grants approved for the African Continent. These grants averages over $53 million each with an average of $23 million slated for the first two years (Phase 1). Readers can download this grant information for study and planning.
The challenge is that even when a grant is approved, it is not actually awarded until a start-up action plan and budget is submitted and approved. After approval comes the grant signing, and finally the grant start-up. Six of these grants have not been signed, and four that have been signed appear not have officially started.
It can take many months to prepare a grant proposal with many partners providing help, with many having started preparations as early as March 2007. These grant proposals for Round 7 were submitted in July 2007 and as noted, approved in November 2007. The lesson here is that grant writers, partners and advocates cannot sit back and smile when they head that a grant has been awarded – the work must continue until a grant agreement is signed.
Of course, even after signing, there is no time to rest – the clock starts ticking on Phase 1 performance. Although Phase 1 lasts 2 years, the reality is that a proposal for Phase 2 must be prepared and submitted around 18 months from the start. Enough documentable performance progress must be seen in order to keep the grant running.
Some of these 16 countries, and others throughout the world, have gotten off to a fair start, but their work has just begun.