GF/B15/DP06
Approved by the Board on: 27 April 2007
Global Fund Strategic Approach to Health-Systems Strengthening
The Board refers to the Framework Document of the Global Fund, which states that the Global Fund will support programs that "address the three diseases in ways that will contribute to strengthening health systems," and "the Fund will support proposals which…support the substantial scaling up and increased coverage of proven and effective interventions, which strengthen systems for working: within the health sector; across government departments; and with communities." The Board reaffirms the importance of strong public and private health systems to accomplishing the Global Fund's mission to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in countries in need. The Board also recognizes that health systems capacity constraints have proven to be significant bottlenecks to Global Fund grant implementation, and that the Global Fund has, since its inception, provided significant support to a broad range of activities to strengthen health systems.
The Board decides that the Global Fund, as a financing instrument, should continue to support the strengthening of public and private health systems, and reaffirms its strategic approach in this regard, which consists of investing in activities to help health systems overcome constraints to the achievement of improved outcomes in reducing the burden of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The Board also recognizes that the Global Fund is not the sole, or even primary, financier of such activities, and close coordination in strategic direction and implementation at the country level in this area is essential.
With this approach in mind, the Board asks the Policy and Strategy Committee (PSC) to consider the following issues, and, in coordination with the Portfolio Committee, make recommendations to the Board for decision at its Sixteenth Meeting:
- Whether the Board should continue to fund "Health-Systems Strengthening" (HSS) interventions exclusively within disease components or, in addition, establish a separate HSS component for proposals to the Global Fund;
- The appropriate parameters for allowable HSS activities;
- The possible use and nature of conditionality for applying for HSS funding; and
- The possible use and nature of ceilings for HSS funding.
The Board requests the World Health Organization to identify or convene a suitable forum before the Sixteenth Board meeting to provide input on HSS as related to the Global Fund and other partners, taking into account the work already done by the Portfolio Committee.