GLOBAL FUND: Further Details on Fund's Tough New Policies for Grant Renewals

David Garmaise (david.garmaise@aidspan.org),
Funding will be severely restricted for some upper-middle-income countries
Transitional measures will "soften the blow" for countries hardest hit by the new policies
Editor's note: This article is based on documents submitted to the Global Fund Board for its recent meeting in Accra, Ghana; on the decisions made by the Board at that meeting; and on information received from the Global Fund Secretariat. Not all of the decisions made by the Board had been anticipated in advance. The Secretariat is still thinking through the implications of these decisions for the Global Fund's processes related to grant renewals. As a result, there may be changes to the processes described in this article. Readers are advised to watch for future communications from the Secretariat. The Secretariat said that questions should be directed to fund portfolio managers or to Grant.Renewals@theglobalfund.org.

As a result of decisions made at the Global Fund Board meeting in Accra on 21-22 November, significant changes are being made to the policies and procedures for grant renewals. (GFO first reported on this in Issue 167; this article provides more details.)
The main changes can be summarised as follows:
A new, iterative process will be introduced for grant renewals.
Effective 1 January 2012, Group of 20 (G-20) upper-middle-income countries (UMICs) will no longer be eligible for grant renewals unless they have an extreme disease burden (as defined by the Global Fund).
Effective 1 January 2012, certain provisions of the Global Fund's policies on eligibility, counterpart financing and prioritisation (ECFP), which currently apply only to new proposals, will be applied to renewals. The specific provisions are (a) counterpart financing and (b) focus of proposal.
The one-year grace period for changes in country income classification will be rescinded.
Funding for renewals will now be committed in one-year tranches. For a three-year renewal, therefore, the commitments will be 1+1+1, instead of the current 2+1 (the first two years and then the third year).
Transitional measures will be introduced for countries renewing in 2012 that are significantly impacted by the new policies. (This is quite separate from the new Transitional Funding Mechanism which the Global Fund has established for grants that will be expiring before the next new funding opportunity; see Article 2.)
Funding for low income countries must represent at least 55% of the total funding for renewals in each calendar year.