GF/B15/DP07
Approved by the Board on: 27 April 2007
Modified Application Process for Supporting Country Programs
The Board reaffirms its commitment to the principles of alignment and harmonization - in particular to further alignment of the Global Fund with national strategies, systems, and structures, and further harmonization with the procedures of international partners, as a means to achieving increased impact.
To provide greater support for country programs, the Board decides, in principle, to establish new procedures that will allow applicants to submit national strategies for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria for Global Fund financing under conditions that differ in some respects from existing application requirements ("National-Strategy Applications").
The Board endorses the following principles for National-Strategy Applications1:
- National-Strategy Applications must be based on inclusive, costed, comprehensive and prioritized national strategies (which include a workplan and budget) that have undergone a rigorous technical certification by an independent review mechanism ("IRM")2;
- National-Strategy Applications shall comprise the certified national strategy and minimal additional information, which should include a specification of financial contributions to the national strategy received from existing sources, the amount of funding requested from the Global Fund, and the results to which this funding is expected to contribute;
- The IRM that certifies national strategies shall meet certain conditions - to be defined and endorsed by the Board at a later stage - such as appropriate technical expertise and the capacity to carry out certifications functions rapidly, efficiently and transparently;
- The IRM shall assess the technical soundness and feasibility of national strategies based on rigorous criteria that will be developed jointly with relevant partners, so the outcome of the certification is useful beyond the Global Fund's own specific needs. The Global Fund shall contribute to the development of the criteria the standards the Board requires for the certification to fulfill the Global Fund's core principles, including but not limited to programmatic and financial accountability; and
- The implementation of National-Strategy Applications should be consistent with the core principles of the Global Fund, including performance-based funding, financial and programmatic accountability, and additionality.
The Board requests the Policy and Strategy Committee to recommend to the Board for approval at its Sixteenth Meeting a plan and policies for bringing into operation a National-Strategy Applications procedure, based on the principles set forth in this decision. Such recommendations shall also address
the role of Country Coordinating Mechanisms and the Technical Review Panel, the inclusion of non-governmental entities in the National-Strategy Applications process, and the possibility of more frequent funding decisions for National-Strategy Applications, which the Board believes could provide benefits in terms of alignment and harmonization. The Policy and Strategy Committee shall also identify any modifications to existing Global Fund policies that would be necessary in order to bring into operation the National-Strategy Applications procedure.
In the spirit of the underlying principles of the Global Task Team and the Paris Declaration, the Board calls upon all partners to develop a shared certification approach for national strategies and to allow, where relevant, the use of certified strategies as the basis for applications for funding.