Source: theglobalfund.org
Looking Ahead – What’s New for the Community Engagement Strategic Initiative in Grant Cycle 7
How the Strategic Initiative Catalyzes Impact for the Global Fund Strategy 2023-2028
The Global Fund Strategy 2023-2028 has a new strategic objective on “Maximizing Engagement and Leadership of Most Affected Communities to Leave No One Behind”. The Global Fund Board allocated US$14 million for the GC7 Community Engagement Strategic Initiative.
The Community Engagement Strategic Initiative is central to affecting a step change and
galvanizing a partnership-wide, coherent approach to meet the level of ambition set out in the
strategy. There are two key performance indicators (KPIs) for the Global Fund Strategy which
the Strategic Initiative directly supports:
- KPI C1: Community engagement across Global Fund grant cycle (Satisfaction of communities with engagement across the grant cycle consistently above minimum acceptable level).(1)
- KPI E3a: Advancing gender equality – engagement in grant cycle (Satisfaction of women and gender-diverse communities with engagement in grant cycle consistently above minimum acceptable level).
Operational Model for the Community Engagement Strategic Initiative 2024-2026
The Strategic Initiative works through three mutually-reinforcing components:
- Component 1: Short-term peer-to-peer, south-to-south, technical assistance.
- Component 2a: Long-term capacity strengthening of key and vulnerable population net-
works and organizations to support engagement in Global Fund processes. - Component 2b: Engagement Fund for women, girls, and gender-diverse communities.
- Component 3: Regional Learning Hubs.
Across the three components, there are four shared high-level outcomes:
- Communities generate and use data to inform advocacy and decision-making.
- Communities have capacity to mobilize and hold their representatives and decision-makers
accountable. - Communities access timely and relevant Global Fund-related information.
- Communities drive program quality based on adoption of global guidance and sharing best practice.
Key Changes to the Community Engagement Strategic Initiative in Grant Cycle 7
A More Diverse Technical Assistance Expert Pool
The Community Engagement Strategic Initiative has pre-qualified nineteen (19) technical assistance providers for the 2024-2026 implementation period. The list of providers includes 26 organizations in total, some working in consortium. All have a proven track record of working with diverse communities across Global Fund regions.
The Strategic Initiative upholds the commitment to community-led technical assistance enshrined inthe Global Fund Strategy 2023-2028: “We will promote the engagement of communities as providersof technical support.”
In GC7, ten (38.5%) of the 26 pre-qualified technical assistance providers for the Strategic Initiative are community-led organizations.
Eleven organizations are new technical assistance providers in GC7. Among the new providers are twonetworks of people who use drugs, one community-led network advocating for prisoners, and oneumbrella network of key population-led organizations.
In GC7, all countries with active Global Fund grants remain eligible for technical assistance through the Strategic Initiative.
An Intensified Focus on Country-level Engagement Planning
In GC7, the Strategic Initiative will intensify efforts on coordinated country-level community engagement in 25 countries: Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Each country will conduct a rapid analysis of barriers and opportunities for community engagement, map key stakeholders and develop a Community Engagement Plan. The Plans will be reviewed on an annual basis.
A Greater Emphasis on Regional Learning
The six Regional Platforms are now Regional Learning Hubs, with a stronger focus on promotingpeer-exchange and experience-sharing in their regions. A regional learning agenda willbe developed for each region, based on input from communities. This will include regularnewsletters, webinars, and face-to-face meetings to exchange good practices within a region.
The Strategic Initiative welcomes new partners as hosts of the Regional Learning Hubs in Asia-Pacific as well as the Middle East and North Africa. Both hosts are key population-led networks.
A New Engagement Fund for Women, Girls, and Gender Diverse Communities
The Gender Equality Fund was launched in July 2023, on the margins of the Women Deliver Conference in Kigali, Rwanda. The Fund is a US$7.5 million initiative supported by the Global Fund, GSK and ViiV Healthcare. The Fund works with communities to design, deliver, advocate for and influence gender-transformative and gender-affirming approaches to health.
The Gender Equality Fund forms part of the Community Engagement Strategic Initiativeportfolio. It complements other existing engagement funds for AGYW and women and girls intheir diversity, namely HER Voice Fund and Voix EssentiELLES.
Looking Back – Major Achievements of the Community Engagement Strategic Initiative in Grant Cycle 6
Strengthening Community Engagement in Grant Cycle 7 Funding Request Development
The June 2023 Update included a detailed overview of the Strategic Initiative’s contribution to strengthening community engagement in GC7 funding request development. Ultimately, the Strategic Initiative invested US$2 million to deliver 55
short-term technical assistance assignments for community engagement in GC7 funding request development. With US$1.5 million top up funding, KVP networks and Regional Platforms provided rapid consultation support to 64 countries. The majority of technical assistance assignments focused on setting community priorities for funding to inform the robust completion of the new mandatory Civil Society and Community Priorities Annex.
Strategic Initiative efforts complemented those of GIZ, L’Initiative, Stop TB Partnership, UNAIDS, and others who deployed community, rights, and gender consultants to serve on GC7 writing teams in more than 30 countries.
In its October 2023 Observations Report, the Global Fund’s Technical Review Panel (TRP) noted greater and more active engagement of communities in funding request development, with the new Civil Society Community Priorities Annex proving to be a useful tool with important context.
1) Initial results from the Global Fund key performance indicator KPI C1 survey indicate 68% satisfaction of communities with en-gagement in funding request development. The KPI C1 results are based on a reasonable but poorly distributed sample size for the funding request development process for Windows 1 to 3. As such, it is not yet possible to make definitive conclusions regarding relative levels of satisfaction across key variables such as regions, disease, and across/between the diverse range of communities who responded to the survey.
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Author: Global Fund
Published by: Global Fund
Year: 2024
Type of Document: Summary
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