Grant Life Cycle
The Global Fund operates in grant cycles that follow three-year donor replenishment events. Each replenishment conference starts a new cycle of grants. The grant life cycle (GLC) includes different country-facing processes and starts with applying for funding, continues with grant-making and grant implementation and ends with closure.
Applying for Funding
The first stage of the grant life cycle is applying for funding.
The Global Fund sends Allocation Letters to eligible countries, detailing funding amounts for each disease component. During an inclusive country dialogue, governments, civil society, people affected by the diseases, technical partners, the private sector and other partners come together to decide how to best use the funding to meet the needs of people and communities. The Global Fund applicant, typically the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM), develops and submits funding requests, which outline how the allocated funds can contribute to national disease programs. Upon submission, the CCM also selects Principal Recipients for each grant.
The completed funding request is then reviewed by independent members of the Technical Review Panel to assess whether proposed grant activities align with targeted objectives, country context and disease burden.
This section consolidates resources for applicants, partners, civil society and others interested in the development of funding requests.
See the Applying for Funding section for more information
Grant-making
Grant-making is the process of translating funding requests into quality grants. Grants are negotiated between the Global Fund and the selected Principal Recipient (PR), in consultation with in-country stakeholders and communities. Once the grant is recommended for Board approval by the Grants Approval Committee (GAC) and approved by the Board, the grant is signed by both the Global Fund and the PR, and acknowledged by the CCM. The grants need to be fully signed at least one month - ideally two months - before the implementation period (IP) start date to ensure implementation-readiness.
See the Grant-making section for more information
Grant Implementation
The effective implementation and monitoring of grants is at the core of the Global Fund’s work to end HIV, TB and malaria as epidemics and forms the longest part of the funding cycle.
The PR implements a grant, and the CCM and Global Fund monitor implementation on an ongoing basis. The Global Fund, in coordination with Local Fund Agents and in-country partners, assess programmatic activities through progress updates and country visits. In addition, financial activities are monitored and verified through audits.
Through implementation oversight, the Global Fund maintains an overview of implementation progress and jointly defines solutions to address implementation bottlenecks.
During the Annual Funding Decisions and Disbursements (AFDD) process, the Global Fund determines and commits the amount of funding that will be disbursed to the grant over the following 12 months, considering implementation performance, issues and risks.
Revisions allow the PR to adjust investments according to changing country context and other needs, ensuring that Global Fund investments are still aligned to national strategic plans and the Global Fund Strategy.
See the Grant Implementation section for more information
Closure
Once a Global Fund grant reaches the end of its implementation period, the closure process is triggered. When a grant with the same PR continues from one IP to the next, the IPs are reconciled. A grant needs to be closed if there is a change of PR, if a country is transitioning from Global Fund financing, or if several grants managed by the same PR are consolidated into one. During the closure process, financial commitments and obligations are addressed, remaining grant funds or recoveries are returned, program assets are accounted for, and financial reporting is submitted.