Webinar Notes: Navigating the Global Fund Allocation Cycle 2020-2022
On 12 December 2019, Women4GlobalFund (W4GF) hosted its seventh webinar this year on Navigating the Global Fund Allocation Cycle 2020 – 2022. A total of 25 participants joined the webinar.
To download a printable version of these notes click here
The webinar explored W4GF’s new guidance on navigating the Global Fund allocation cycle 2020 – 2022. This tool was created for W4GF Advocates and other gender equality activists who intend to influence their countries’ funding requests for the Global Fund’s 2020–2022 allocation cycle to ensure gender-transformative programming.
The guidance available on the W4GF website in organised in three sections:
- Section 1: Need to know in advance in terms of processes, definitions and structures.
- Section 2: How to engage
- Section 3: Additional suggestions and observations
All of the webinar slides were created by W4GF and presented David Nash-Mendez: Associate Specialist, in the Communications and Training Access to Funding Department at the Global Fund. Each slide contains the talking points in the notes section that are relevant to each slide. These are available for use in your own organisations, networks and communities and include the most important information around the Global Fund allocation cycle, including structures, issues and approaches to ensure proposals, final budgets and programmes are gender responsive.
This posting does not track the entire webinar it only highlight some of the discussion and key questions that were covered on the webinar.
To listen to the entire webinar click here. To access only the slides deck used click here and to access only the infographic’s click here. Should you require these in a different format please contact the W4GF Secretariat directly.
Also highlighted as key to review before engaging is the TRP Report on observations on the 2017-2019 allocation cycle.
_______________
Key points prepared by Gemma Oberth – an independent consultant, specialising in assignments related to HIV and TB resource mobilisation, strategy, and community engagement. Gemma has been engaged in 11 funding requests submitted to the Global Fund and was a lead writer in 7 of those securing more than $1.5 billion in HIV and TB funding for African countries. She is also a W4GF Advisory Group member.
- Secure a dedicated, full-time community consultant. UNAIDS is aiming to deploy these consultants to countries. Other partners have funded this in some countries in the past (ICASO, EANNASO). Global Fund community, rights and gender (CRG) Technical Assistance (TA) may also give you a short-term consultant to support your engagement in the writing process. There are some key discussions that happen, often with the core writing team, or the consultant team. Having a representative who is available at all times to be in those spaces is key. In two countries in 2017 we had this, and it was very effective. As the lead writer, I had a clear point person to engage with at all times. There was someone who was coordinating civil society and community issues.
- Prioritize! A new change in the template is that each module must be numbered in priority order. Think about your priority order ahead of time. If it’s not in the allocation, put it in the Prioritized Above Allocation Request (PAAR). In this current cycle, 30% of PAAR got funded. Don’t throw your activities away!
- Describe your activities clearly. If it’s workshops specific how many days, how many participants. In one country, lots of civil society priorities did not make it into the funding request – not because there wasn’t enough money, or there were competing priorities – it was because the submission was not detailed enough, and the finance consultants were unable to cost them. Also, get to know the modular framework. If you frame your activities in this way (even using the Global Fund application format) you will likely be a lot more successful getting them included.
- Make use of evidence. It really helps if each activity is clearly justified in terms of the evidence in the country. What evaluations have been done? Do recent studies have age and sex disaggregated data? Has a gender assessment been done? Is so then use these. As a writer, I have to justify the investment to the Global Fund, so I rely on country partners to make the case to me, giving me the right data. Be ready to do that.
- Refuse to sign! If women in all their diversity are not in the funding request, if gender equity is not mainstreamed, leverage your power as civil society not to endorse the funding request until it is. Write letters to the CCM and copy the Fund Portfolio Manager (FPM) and CRG department. Tell them you won’t sign unless a, b, c. is done – this carries a lot of weight. In one country I worked in, PEPFAR refused to endorse the funding request. This didn’t matter and it still passed the Technical Review Panel (TRP). The FPM said it’s fine but “it would be different if civil society refused to sign.”
Questions and Answers
Most questions were answered by David Nash-Mendez from the Global Fund:
Question: Is the application window specified in the allocation letter or is this for the country to decide? Answer: My understanding is that it is not specified but because the majority of grants end in 2020 most countries will apply in windows 1 and 2 to ensure no gaps in service delivery.
Question I will be supporting civil society to organise and prioritise in Botswana and this will include supporting adolescent girls and young women. How can the essential data tables support civil society to build a case and make sure there is evidence? How do we access the tables and use that data to inform and empower civil society so that they are ready throughout the funding cycle allocation? Answer: The data tables will come from partners and will provide epidemiological data – either from WHO or UNAIDS. This is now available on the Global Fund website here. As a community, understanding the data is important, as it provides space for introspection and opportunities to highlight to the Global Fund deficiencies in the data and where you are seeing a different picture. This can add weight to advocacy. If some data is missing it is possible to use data from other sources including community data.
Question If we find discrepancies with the available data and what we see in our own communities – How do we get the data into the data set? Answer: These can be submitted to the CCM and copied to the Global Fund country teams and other technical partners. This will become clearer as we learn how to engage with the essential data tables.
Comment on the essential data tables is that perhaps the Global Fund should urge TA providers to share feedback on these tables and that suggestions are encouraged on filling gaps, etc.
Question: How do you find out the name and contact details of the FPM in each country. Answer: This information is available here If you explore each country – and click of active grants – on the bottom right hand side you will find the name of the FPM.
For further questions or resources, please email the Global Fund directly at a2ftraining@theglobalfund.org
The webinar was hosted by the W4GF Secretariat: The webinar was facilitated by Sophie Dilmitis (Global Coordinator) with support from Nyasha Sithole (Support Officer) and Robin Gorna (Strategic Advisor). The two guest speakers included: David Nash-Mendez: Associate Specialist, in the Communications and Training Access to Funding Department at the Global Fund, Gemma Oberth Independent Consultant.
Thank you to all who joined and engage with W4GF.