Tag: Global Fund

Global Fund eligibility list 2019

Posted on by Milutin

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has recently published its updated country eligibility list for 2019. The list reflects the eligibility determinations for the year 2019 (a non-allocation year) and is for information purposes only. Allocations are made once every three years following the outcomes of the Global Fund’s replenishment The 2020 Eligibility List will determine which country components are eligible for an allocation for the 2020-2022 allocation period.

SEE countries affected by changes are Bulgaria, Kosovo*, North Macedonia and Romania. Montenegro and Serbia remain eligible for HIV disease component due to high disease burden.

Bulgaria and Romania may be eligible for an allocation for HIV/AIDS for non-governmental or civil society organizations if there are demonstrated barriers to providing funding for interventions for key populations, as supported by the country’s epidemiology for the 2020-2022 allocation period.

Kosovo is newly classified as an Upper-Middle Income country based on the latest three-year average of GNI per capita data. As Kosovo’s HIV/AIDS and TB burden are ‘Not High’, both the HIV/AIDS and TB components are now eligible for Transition Funding for the 20202022 allocation period.

North Macedonia‘s HIV/AIDS disease burden classification changed to ‘Low’ in 2018 to ‘High’ in the 2019 Eligibility List, resulting in one determination of eligibility. Country components must be eligible for two consecutive eligibility determinations to be classified as eligible on the Eligibility List.

According to the GF Eligibility Policy “Upper-middle income countries meeting the disease burden criteria, but some may be eligible for an allocation for HIV/AIDS to directly finance non-governmental and civil society organizations, if there are demonstrated barriers to providing funding for interventions for key populations, as supported by the country’s epidemiology. Eligibility for funding under this provision will be assessed by the Secretariat as part of the decision-making process for allocations. As part of its assessment, the Secretariat, in consultation with UN and other partners as appropriate, will look at the overall human rights environment of the context with respect to key populations and specifically whether there are laws or policies which influence practices and seriously limit and/or restrict the provision of evidence-informed interventions for such populations”.

To read full document with the eligibility list follow this link>>>>

An interesting webinar on social contracting

Posted on by Milutin

Health Policy Plus, APMG, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, UNAIDS, UNDP, USAID and others hosted a webinar on 6 March 2019 to discuss social contracting for HIV care, treatment and support. Presenters from around the world discussed how to plan for social contracting as part of a long-term sustainability strategy and how to advocate for it, touching on policy and regulatory challenges, how to develop mechanisms to put social contracting in place and how to implement and monitor social contracting’s success.

To view the recording of the webinar, follow this link>>>>

Slides from the webinar are available following this link>>>>

Health Policy Plus also prepared a factsheet Social Contracting: Supporting Domestic Public Financing for Civil Society’s Role in the HIV Response from which you can learn more about social contracting and how it can support domestic public financing for civil society’s role in the HIV response. You can find the factsheet following this link >>>>

Joint Briefing on Global Fund Catalytic Investments for Harm Reduction

Posted on by Milutin

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is the largest donor for harm reduction in low and middle countries (LMICs), providing two-thirds of all international donor support. In May 2019, the Global Fund Board will approve the 2020 – 2022 allocation methodology and catalytic investment priorities, ahead of replenishment for the Global Fund in October 2019. These will have significant implications for harm reduction in LMICs and as such, the ability of the Global Fund to step up the fight and get back on track to end AIDS by 2030.

This briefing, developed by the Harm Reduction International  in collaboration with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, compiles evidence of the crucial nature of catalytic investment funds for harm reduction. In the briefing, we urge the Global Fund Board to safeguard catalytic investment funds – including multi-country grants, matching funds and strategic initiatives – regardless of the replenishment outcome, in order to sustain life-saving services for people who inject drugs and to incentivise domestic investment in harm reduction.

You may access the briefing following this link>>>>

A tool presenting the situation in South East Europe

Posted on by Milutin

The Drug Policy Network South East Europe published the document  Addressing the acute funding crisis facing harm reduction services in South-East Europe with the aim to emphasize the acute funding crisis facing harm reduction services in Balkan states and South-East Europe, to influence the policies and actions of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria  and other donors. It is a complementary part of a larger body of work being done by a wide range of partners – including the Open Society Foundation and the International Drug Policy Consortium – to document the consequences of changes in donor eligibility policies, and to urgently try and influence donor policy away from a withdrawal from middle-income countries in South East Europe.

DPNSEE worked with their partners and members across the region to gather case studies of Opioid Substitution Therapy stock-outs or shortages, service closures or reductions in coverage, and other critical issues experienced by civil society partners in South East Europe related to transitions away from Global Fund support. Through interviews with key stakeholders and desk-based research, DPNSEE gathered information, experiences, feedback and recommendations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo*, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia.

The material was collected in November – December 2017. Since then, it was used only internally. The document was published and shared with the participants of the South East Europe pre-Conference meeting, held in November 2018 in Bucharest, Romania.

Click here to download the document >>>

Global Fund Results Report

Posted on by Milutin

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria released a report today demonstrating that 27 million lives have been saved by the Global Fund partnership through the efforts of the Global Fund and its partners. This is proof of the effectiveness of the global commitment to tackle the world’s deadliest infectious diseases.

The Results Report 2018 includes key annual results achieved in countries where the Global Fund invests:

  • 17.5 million people received antiretroviral therapy for HIV.
  • 5 million people tested and treated for TB.
  • 197 million mosquito nets distributed to prevent malaria.

The progress comes against the backdrop of new threats to global health. Having reduced sharply since the peak of the epidemic, global HIV infection rates are now declining more slowly, and remain extremely high among key populations in some countries. Tuberculosis is now the leading cause of death from infectious diseases, with 1.7 million deaths per year, and the world is missing 4.1 million cases of TB every year – cases that go undiagnosed, untreated and unreported. In addition, progress against malaria has stalled. In 2016, there were 5 million more cases of malaria than 2015. With growing resistance in drugs to treat malaria and in insecticides for mosquito nets, efforts to control malaria are at stake.

Independent opinions state that if the world only maintains current levels of investments and programming against the three epidemics, internationally agreed targets for 2025 and 2030 will be unattainable.

The world risks losing control of all three epidemics. A resurgence will cost countless lives, undermine economic and human development, and threaten the health security for all people on the planet.

As the leading multilateral organization that invests in ending the 3 epidemics, funding for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in its Sixth Replenishment needs to increase by more than 20% to ensure a fund of between $16.8 and $18 billion for 2020 to 2022.

The Results Report 2018 is available from the Global Fund webpage following this link>>>

Shall Romania become eligible for Global Fund HIV allocation again?

Posted on by Milutin

Today, Romania spends about 70 million euros for HIV treatment, care and support towards reaching universal access, covering 12,247 people with HIV out of 15,212 as of 2017. However, “the Romanian authorities invest practically no money in HIV prevention”, says Nicoleta Dascalu, project manager from the Romanian Association Against AIDS – ARAS. That is why becoming ineligible for the Global Fund’s support of HIV became yet another dramatic episode in Romania’s HIV history.

The Global Fund’s Revised Eligibility Policy was approved at the 39th Board Meeting. In the revised version, the OECD DAC ODA requirement unfortunately was left as it was – but the term “political barriers” in the same provision was replaced with just “barriers,” with a note that eligibility for funding under this provision will be assessed by the Secretariat as part of the decision-making process for allocations. In addition, the Secretariat will look specifically at whether there are laws or policies that influence practices and seriously limit and/or restrict the provision of evidence-informed interventions for key populations.

It is not clear yet if the replacement of the term “political barriers” with just “barriers” will somehow influence Romania’s chance to receive an allocation for its HIV component within the next allocation period; speculation suggests probably not. The only chance for the Romanian HIV component to become eligible again for Global Fund funding is the elimination of the relevant requirement in the Eligibility Policy, says Dragos Rosca, the Executive Director of the Romanian Harm Reduction Network.

Read more in the analysis Ivan Varentsov prepared for the Aidspan website following this link>>>>

The Global Fund awarded only one HIV multi-country project

Posted on by Milutin

In December 2017, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria called for proposals from qualified organizations to provide programming for the HIV strategic priority area “Sustainability of services for key populations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia region” under the Multicountry catalytic funding modality for the 2017-2019 Allocation Period. Five proposals were submitted. The Global Fund announded at the AIDS 2018 Conference last week that all of them were not of excellent quality and that only one will be supported. Here is the information about which one was awarded.

New levers of change in Eastern Europe and Central Asia:
Global Fund awarded multi-country project to the Alliance led regional consortium

On July 31, 2018, the Global Fund announced its decision on the approval HIV multi-country project ‘Sustainability of services for key populations in EECA region’ submitted by consortium of regional organizations from Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) – Alliance for Public Health, All-Ukrainian Network of PLWH 100% Life, Central Asian PLWHA Association and Eurasian Key Populations Health Network (EKHN), together with technical partners and TB People. The proposal incorporated contributions from Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

The Global Fund informed that the application from Alliance-led regional consortium was approved in full amount with the total budget over $ 10.5 million for three years (2019-2021).

The main objective of this project is to ensure the sustainability of services for key populations and to substantially improve the HIV cascade in the key countries of the EECA region.

“EECA is nearly the only region globally with rising HIV infections. We have very ambitious targets: to stop this dangerous trend and to make services for key populations accessible and sustainable in our region. We are ready to cooperate and join efforts with all partners to make national funding for key populations a reality!’, – stated Andriy Klepikov, Executive Director of Alliance for Public Health.

“Nine countries with high levels of HIV in the region will be able to use technologies and solutions that have already proven effective. We, as the largest patient organization, are ready to partner with our colleagues to provide access to treatment, services and resources for all key populations and patients,” – said Dmitry Sherembey, Head of Coordination Council, 100% Life.

Although the main focus of the project is HIV, the consortium of regional organizations will be working closely with the multi-country TB project which will be implemented by a consortium led by PAS Center (Moldova) in 2019-2021 with the support of the Global Fund.

This is the joint victory of national, regional and international partners and the consortium is looking forward to implementing the work together.

DPNSEE congratulates the Consortium and wishes them success in implementing the project.

SEE HIV Ministerial Meeting

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The Prime Minister and Minister of Health of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia hosted a South-Eastern European Ministerial Meeting on Sustainable Responses to HIV and TB in Skopje on 7 May 2018. The aim of the Ministerial Meeting was to discuss the progress, challenges and opportunities towards reaching sustainable responses to HIV and TB in South-Eastern Europe. Civil society representatives had an opportunity to join the high level representatives from all SEE countries, donors and global development partners and exchange about progress made and what remains to be done to meet the goal of ending the AIDS and tuberculosis epidemics in the region as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The ministers recognized increasing ownership of the national responses to the diseases, as external financial support including from the Global Fund is transitioning to support countries with the highest global burdens of disease and least economic capacity. The ministers expressed commitment to allocating domestic funding for and ensuring access to HIV and tuberculosis treatment for all, guided by governance structures that involve civil society and affected communities along with health professionals and technical partners. Still, a few comments from the civil organisations warned that the situation is far from satisfying and that “behind numbers are people about whom we need to care” – as underlined by the DPNSEE Board member Denis Dedajić.

DPNSEE representatives Vlatko Dekov, Chairman of the Board, Denis Dedajić, Secretary of the Board and Milutin Milošević, Executive Director, met with several Global Fund Board members, country representatives, donors and civil society colleagues. An important meeting was the one with Ekaterina Lukicheva from the Open Society Foundations International Harm Reduction Development Program and Raminta Štuikyte, consultant about the budget advocacy and implementation project and other ideas for future cooperation.

Photo with Peter Sands, the Executive Director of the Global Fund

The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, at its 39th Board meeting, highlighted the importance of strengthening sustainability and supporting successful transition to domestic financing to build long-term solutions and achieve greater health security.

The Global Fund is committed to being a good partner in working toward sustainability, acting as a catalyst to additional investment, filling short-term gaps, and addressing bottlenecks to successful transition to more domestic funding. While shifting financing often includes challenges, including how to effectively fund civil society, transition increases country ownership and is necessary to end epidemics.

An important news for the region is that the Board approved an approach to ineligible upper-middle income countries in crisis where economic and epidemiological metrics are collapsing and where spill overs threaten regional progress against HIV, TB and malaria.

More about the Board meeting is available at the Global Fund website following this link >>>

Initiative 5%

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France is the first European donor to the Global Fund Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria with annual contribution of 360 million Euro. The 7% Initiative AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria is the second means whereby France contributes to the Global Fund. The purpose of the 7% Initiative is to respond to requests for high-level technical expertise from GF grant recipient countries, including French-speaking countries, in order to support and build their capacity for design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and impact measurement relating to GF grants. Eligible SEE countries for this support include Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia.

More about the Initiative is available from the web page following this link.

The French Embassy in Belgrade organised a presentation of the Initiative to the representatives on civil society organisations from Serbia working on the issue of AIDS. The presentation was held on 5 March 2018 in the French Cultural Centre.

Christelle Boulanger, Director of the Department for Pandemics at the Initiative and Bertrand Millet, Attaché de cooperation at the Institut français de Serbie presented the Initiative, answered various questions and gave good advice on preparing a project proposal.

As the deadline is 23 March 2018, interested organisations have to be quick in designing the Concept note of the project!

Developing a multi-country application for the Global Fund

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The South East Europe Regional Coordinating Mechanism (RCM) held the third meeting on 27 February 2018 in Skopje, Macedonia. The aim of the meeting was to agree on elements of the project for the Global Fund’s Multi-country Grant Request for Proposals – HIV: Sustainability of Services for Key Populations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Region.

The eight countries of South East Europe that are transitioning from Global Fund support to national sources of financing services (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia) welcome Moldova to the RCM.

Participants of the meeting were welcomed by Dr Venko Filipče, Macedonian Minister of Health and Aida Kurtović, Chairperson of the Global Fund Board.

To ensure meaningful consultations within key population, community organizations representatives coming from the key population which RCM would like to cover in the application were invited to a consultative meeting a day before the RCM meeting. Asocijacija Duga from Serbia (working with MSM and Roma community), LGBT Youth Organization DEYSTVIE from Bulgaria (MSM community organization, STAR-STAR from Macedonia (sex workers community) and Asocijacija Doverba from Macedonia (community based organizations of people using drugs) joined the meeting. Two regional networks DPNSEE and ERA participated to. Representatives of our member organisations Margina, Cazas, Juventas and HOPS were among participants.

Specific Objectives of this meeting included:
1. Identify key regional advocacy priorities for 2018 for increasing domestic funds towards sustainability of HIV and tuberculosis programs.
2. Review resource availability and needs, including possibilities for donor-funded initiatives.
3. Map out a regional advocacy plan, for further finalization and adoption by the RCM.

RCM opened discussion if community organisations and networks would take over some of the activities of the project proposed to the Global Fund.