Sources of Funding
The Global Fund allocates funding to countries to support HIV, TB and malaria programs and to build resilient and sustainable systems for health. These allocations are made every three years at the beginning of a new grant cycle.
The total amount available for countries depends on the funding raised during the corresponding three-year Replenishment cycle. The majority of this funding is in the form of allocations to individual countries.
Allocations to individual countries are calculated using a formula that is predominantly based on each country’s disease burden and economic capacity. They are refined to account for important contextual factors through a qualitative adjustment process.
Allocations are then communicated to countries via an Allocation Letter with an amount available for each eligible disease and instructions on how to access the allocation.
A portion of the funding from Replenishment is set aside by the Board for Catalytic Investment priorities. Catalytic Investments reinforce areas that are essential to achieve the aims of the Global Fund Strategy, but cannot be addressed through country allocations alone. Catalytic Investments include: Catalytic Multicountry Funds, Matching Funds and Strategic Initiatives.
Allocation Funding
Allocation Funding in Grant Cycle 8
In Grant Cycle 8 (2026-2028 Allocation Period), the allocation methodology [ download in English ] drives funding to higher burden, lower income countries while accounting for country-specific contexts.
Catalytic Multicountry Funds
Diseases don’t respect borders. Sometimes the most effective solution is one that brings together several countries or regions. Through multicountry funding, the Global Fund addresses a limited number of key multicountry priorities deemed critical to fulfill the aims of the Global Fund strategy. These catalytic investments complement those made through the Global Fund’s allocation methodology.
Catalytic Matching Funds
Matching Funds are designed to inspire innovation and ambitious, evidence-based programming approaches to increase impact in Board-approved strategic priority areas. Matching Funds catalyze additional investment in these areas, together with grants and domestic resources.
Strategic Initiatives
Strategic initiatives support the success of country allocations by funding interventions that are innovative, cross-cutting, or off-cycle in nature. GC8 Strategic Initiatives will be designed over the course of 2026, with implementation beginning in 2027.
Strategic initiatives documents:
Register of Unfunded Quality Demand
The 2026-2028 register will be published here, when available.
Countries are expected to include a request to fund priority investments that should be fully funded but cannot be because of limited resources – a “prioritized above allocation request” – in their funding application. These requests are reviewed by the Technical Review Panel, and interventions that are found to be strategically focused and technically sound are registered as “unfunded quality demand.” These investments are often funded through savings or efficiencies during grant-making, but can also be funded through additional resources that may become available during the cycle, such as Portfolio Optimization, debt to health swaps or private sector contributions.
A register of unfunded quality demand is linked to each funding cycle. Items on the register remain active there until the end of the corresponding “allocation utilization period”. Watch our Global Fund Cycles video to learn about this period. If an unfunded item from the 2023-2025 (GC7) register is still a priority, countries must include it again in their new PAAR for the 2026-2028 (GC8) allocation period for review by the Technical Review Panel, to confirm that the investment continues to be strategically focused, technically sound, and poised for impact and sustainability in the context of the new allocation investments. Once it has been assessed as unfunded quality demand, it can then be added to the 2026-2028 register.
The register takes the form of an Excel tool that can be searched and analyzed by region, country, component and program to help potential donors more easily identify areas of need. The Global Fund strongly encourages all donors to consider providing additional contributions to fund programs on the register.