Dear Reader,

The Global Fund is a financing institution founded on principles of performance, flexibility and learning. From its inception in 2002, the organization has grown from creation to a portfolio of 450 grants in 136 countries worth nearly US$ 8 billion. Since we have reached a point where the five-year lifecycle of our first grants are nearing completion, the Global Fund has launched a Five-Year Evaluation, which marks an exciting and critical milestone in the development of the Global Fund.

Under the independent oversight of the Global Fund’s Technical Evaluation Reference Group (TERG) and with the support and participation of 25 countries, the Five-Year Evaluation examines the Global Fund’s organizational efficiency, the effectiveness of its partner environment and the combined impact that the Global Fund, domestic investments, and other donors have had on the reduction in burden of AIDS, TB and malaria during the past few years.

The examination of the Global Fund’s organizational efficiency and its partnership environment will be completed in a relatively short timeframe. The first report will be presented in November 2007. The examination of impact on the three diseases is far more extensive and will require ongoing efforts at country level throughout 2008. The final evaluation report presented to the Global Fund’s Board at its meeting in November 2008.

The Five-Year Evaluation is an ambitious project. Its effort to measure impact of health interventions on countries’ disease burden breaks new ground in assessing aid effectiveness. The areas examined in this evaluation will interest all who have invested time or commitment in the Global Fund, and the results of this evaluation will be useful for the whole community of those engaged in improving global health and delivery of development finance. We have therefore created this newsletter to regularly inform all who are interested in the progress of the evaluation. We hope you will find it useful and would appreciate your sharing it with colleagues as well as any comments you may have to help improve it.


Prof. Rolf Korte & Prof. Rose Leke
Chair & Vice-Chair of the Technical Evaluation Reference Group
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Contents

MACRO INTERNATIONAL INC. LEADS FIVE-YEAR EVALUATION CONSORTIA

After the international tender launched in December 2006, the TERG selected MACRO International Inc. as the lead contractor for both the consortium conducting Study Areas 1 and 2 on Global Fund organizational efficiency and partner environment and the consortium conducting Study Area 3 looking at health impact.

Organizational efficiency & partner environment consortium partners include: MACRO, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Indian Institute for Health Management Research, the CORE Group (civil society), Axios International and Development Finance International.

Health Impact study consortium partners include: MACRO, the World Health Organization-Evidence and Information for Policy (WHO-EIP), Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Harvard University and the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC).

As the evaluation gets under way, MACRO and its partners are liaising directly with country-level counterparts including the Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs), Principal Recipients (PRs), Local Fund Agents (LFAs), UNAIDS Country Coordinators, WHO Representatives and Impact Evaluation Task Force members. In countries participating in the health impact evaluation, elements of the studies will be subcontracted to local technical experts and research institutions to the extent possible in order to strengthen local systems and capacity, and to serve global reporting needs in the future.

Latest News

25 COUNTRIES INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN FIVE-YEAR EVALUATION

The TERG selected 25 countries to participate in the Five-Year Evaluation. A full description of the selection process is posted on the Five-Year Evaluation website. In total, 16 countries are participating in the evaluation of partnerships and grant performance and 20 countries are participating in the health impact assessment.

COUNTRIES ESTABLISH IMPACT EVALUATION TASK FORCES

Impact Evaluation Task Forces have been convened in countries participating in the health impact evaluation with the assistance of UNAIDS Country Coordinators and colleagues from WHO. These task forces comprise a multidisciplinary body of experts who provide technical input into the impact evaluation program of work to ensure local ownership and integration of the evaluation work into ongoing activities. They include representation from the CCM or PR, government, civil society, local university or research institutions, UN agencies and major technical partners.

‘PARTNERS IN IMPACT FORUM’ HELD 12-14 MARCH IN GLION, SWITZERLAND

Impact Evaluation Task Force representatives from 11 countries met with technical partners in a successful three-day workshop to discuss approaches to impact evaluation and refine country impact evaluation plans. All resulting country documentation and presentations are available on the Partners in Impact Forum website.

COUNTRY VISITS

Country Partnership Assessments are now under way in the following 16 countries:

Initial health impact evaluation country visits have taken place in countries undergoing primary data collection. Countries undertaking secondary data analysis are participating in a Multi-Country Workshop 18-20 June in Nairobi, Kenya.