3. NEWS: By David Garmaise The Global Fund Board has approved another batch of grants, the fourth from the 2019 allocations. The value of the grants was $1.38 billion, bringing the cumulative amount awarded to date to $7.64 billion. The Board approved 26 grants emanating from 18 funding requests submitted by 12 countries. Interventions worth $447.9 million were added to the Unfunded Quality Demand Register. 4. NEWS: By David Garmaise on defining risk appetite is in its early stage and until [it is] sufficiently “The work advanced, there is limited guidance on the required level of the assurance.” So says Office of the Inspector General in a new audit of in-country assurance. In addition, the OIG said, assurance activities are insufficiently aligned to the highest risk areas in the grant portfolio, particularly supply chain management and programmatic risks. The OIG also noted that programmatic and health product risks have supplanted financial risk in the rankings. 5. NEWS: Mozambique’s By Keith Mienies grants will have a strong focus on retention and adherence Mozambique’s new TB/HIV for people who were recently initiated on antiretroviral treatment. According to the Technical Review Panel, civil society, including representatives of key populations, were fully engaged in the development of the funding request. Among the concerns raised by the TRP was that the interventions to improve treatment outcomes for TB were not clearly articulated. In addition, the TRP sent two matching funds requests back for iteration. 6. FEATURE: By Ivan Varenstov In the summer of 2017, certain amendments were adopted to the law regulating the response measures for HIV and other socially communicable diseases in the Republic of Belarus. The amendments allow for the establishment of a social contracting mechanism to make government funding accessible for NGOs working on HIV prevention among key affected populations. The amendments come into effect in January 2018. Currently, a package of documents which will regulate the functioning of the mechanism is being prepared by relevant ministries. However, there are still a lot of questions about how this mechanism is going to work in practice. This article describes how the social contracting mechanism in Belarus came into being. 7. NEWS: services By David Garmaise The Board has replaced a 2007 decision which required that all LFA contracts be every four years with a decision that provides more flexibility with respect to
3. NEWS: By David Garmaise The Global Fund Board has approved another batch of grants, the fourth from the allocations. The value of the grants was $1.38 billion, bringing the cumulative amount awarded to date to $7.64 billion. The Board approved 26 grants emanating from 18 funding requests submitted by 12 countries. Interventions worth $447.9 million were added to the Unfunded Quality Demand Register. 4. NEWS: By David Garmaise “The work on defining risk appetite is in its early stage and until [it is] sufficiently advanced, there is limited guidance on the required level of assurance.” So says the Office of the Inspector General in a new audit of in-country assurance. In addition, the OIG said, assurance activities are insufficiently aligned to the highest risk areas in the grant portfolio, particularly supply chain management and programmatic risks. The OIG also noted that programmatic and health product risks have supplanted financial risk in the rankings. 5. NEWS: Mozambique’s By Keith Mienies Mozambique’s new TB/HIV grants will have a strong focus on retention and adherence for people who were recently initiated on antiretroviral treatment. According to the Technical Review Panel, civil society, including representatives of key populations, were fully engaged in the development of the funding request. Among the concerns raised by the TRP was that the interventions to improve treatment outcomes for TB were not clearly articulated. In addition, the TRP sent two matching funds requests back for iteration. 6. FEATURE: By Ivan Varenstov In the summer of 2017, certain amendments were adopted to the law regulating the response measures for HIV and other socially communicable diseases in the Republic of Belarus. The amendments allow for the establishment of a social contracting mechanism to make government funding accessible for NGOs working on HIV prevention among key affected populations. The amendments come into effect in January 2018. Currently, a package of documents which will regulate the functioning of the mechanism is being prepared by relevant ministries. However, there are still a lot of questions about how this mechanism is going to work in practice. This article describes how the social contracting mechanism in Belarus came into being. 7. NEWS: services By David Garmaise The Board has replaced a 2007 decision which required that all LFA contracts be every four years with a decision that provides more flexibility with respect to 2019