Board Decisions

GF/B15/DP14

Approved by the Board on: 27 April 2007

Strengthening the Role of Civil Society and the Private Sector in the Global Fund’s Work

The Board believes that civil society and the private sector can, and should, play a critical role at all levels of the architecture and within every step of the processes of the Global Fund, at both the institutional and country levels. This includes their critical roles in the development of policy and strategy and in resource mobilization at the Global Fund Board level, and in the development of proposals and the implementation and oversight of grants at the country level. The Board further expresses its desire for strengthened and scaled-up civil-society and private-sector involvement at both the country and Board levels, while recognizing the respective strengths and roles of the two sectors.

With this goal in mind - and also reaffirming the importance of effective Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs)¹ in ensuring strong country-level development of proposals and oversight of grants - the Board recognizes the need to further enable civil society and the private sector to play their critical roles, facilitated by the following:

• The routine inclusion, in proposals for Global Fund financing, of both government and non-government Principal Recipients (PRs) for Global Fund grants ("dual-track financing"). The Board recommends the submission of proposals with both government and non-government PRs. If a proposal does not include both government and non-government PRs, it should contain an explanation of the reason for this;

• The routine inclusion, in proposals for Global Fund financing, of requests for funding of relevant measures to strengthen the community systems necessary for the effective implementation of Global Fund grants;

• The effective representation and meaningful participation of vulnerable groups (as defined in the context of each particular country) on CCMs; and

• Simplified CCM access to funding to support their effective administrative functioning, for the life of a grant that the CCM is overseeing when needed, and increased transparency by CCMs about how they plan to ensure access by civil society to such funding.

The Board requests the Secretariat to take the necessary actions and collaborate with partners to achieve the above outcomes, working with the relevant Board committee(s), where necessary. 

In particular, the Board requests the Policy and Strategy Committee to agree on a suitable definition of the term "civil society", by building on existing work to that effect. 

In addition, the Board requests the Portfolio Committee (PC) to do the following:

• Modify future proposal forms and guidelines (starting with those for Round 8) to encourage the use of dual-track financing and the inclusion of funding requests for strengthening community systems in proposals;
• Propose means to increase the representation of vulnerable groups on CCMs, such as by revising the relevant, current recommendation on the composition of CCMs;
• Propose guidance to CCMs regarding types of civil-society and private-sector representatives that could be most relevant to the work of CCMs;
• Propose appropriate modifications to the policy or guidance on the funding for CCM activities;
• Propose guidance on increasing the capacity of the Technical Review Panel in the area of civil society and the private sector; and
• Report on progress at the Sixteenth Board Meeting.

Regarding dual-track financing, the Board notes the following:

• The possible benefits achieved through dual-track financing include increased absorption capacity (from taking full advantage of the implementation capacity of all domestic sectors, both governmental and non-governmental), accelerated implementation and performance of grants, and the strengthening of weaker sectors; and
• CCMs, PRs and the Secretariat should implement dual-track financing according to the following principles:
  • The implementation should be consistent with alignment and harmonization of efforts to fight the three diseases;
  • It should be consistent with national strategies to fight the three diseases, or there should be a justification stated when this is not the case;
  • It should seek to minimize transaction costs and demands on CCMs, PRs and the Secretariat;
  • It should apply equally the same expectations of accountability, transparency and responsibility to government and non-government PRs; and
  • It should seek to be consistent with national plans for human resources for health.

Budgetary Implications

The Board requests the Secretariat to consult with the Finance and Audit Committee to further analyze and refine the estimates of budgetary implications, including possible costs and savings, of this decision and report its findings to the Sixteenth Board Meeting.