News Releases

Global Fund calls for Third Round of Proposals

13 March 2003

Geneva, Switzerland – Today the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has called for a third round of proposals to be made. The Global Fund mandate is to support programs that address HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in ways that will contribute to strengthening health systems, and that will stimulate and are integral to country partnerships involving government and civil society. The Call for Proposals for the Third Round is being made to the widest range of partners, including government organizations, multilateral and bilateral agencies, civil society including NGOs and faith-based organizations, and the private sector.

The Global Fund was set up in January 2002 as a financial instrument, complementary to existing programs addressing HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which together account for nearly 6 million deaths per year and cause immeasurable suffering and damage to families, communities and economies. The Global Fund attracts, manages and disburses additional resources through a public-private partnership in order to make a sustainable and significant contribution to reducing the impact caused by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in countries in need, and contributing to poverty reduction as part of the Millennium Goals. To date the Global Fund has approved two rounds of proposals with a total commitment of $ 1.5 billion over two years to 85 countries. The Global Fund will continue to approve quality proposals based on the availability of funds.

The Global Fund represents a novel approach to international health issues with an intense emphasis on public-private partnership, the achievement of results, independent technical validation of proposals, together with efficient processes for programming and utilizing resources.

Successful proposals will support the scale-up of effective existing programs and innovative projects that meet the Fund’s criteria and that have a clear demonstration of how the resources sought from the Global Fund will achieve additional results in partnership with existing programs. Priority will be given to applications from countries and regions with the greatest need, based on highest burden of disease and the least ability to bring financial resources to address the problems of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Proposals from countries and regions with a high potential for risk will also be considered.

In order to strengthen the overarching principle of the Global Fund to support broad-based public-private partnerships, the Global Fund Board has reconfirmed that normally proposals should be submitted through a Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM), representing partnerships among all relevant players within the country and across all sectors of society. This third round of proposals must be received by the Global Fund Secretariat no later than May 31 2003.