Strategic shifts and adaptations for Grant Cycle 8 (GC8)
In the context of an evolving global health ecosystem and significant constraints in external financing for health, the Global Fund partnership will need to work differently to accelerate progress, raise additional domestic financing for health and ensure a focus on sustainable approaches for delivery of health interventions. Accordingly, the Global Fund is adapting its approach for GC8 to catalyze the greatest impact based on country context, while reinforcing sustainability and effective transitions from external financing.
These strategic adaptations for GC8 include:
- Further prioritizing Global Fund allocations for the lowest income and highest burden settings, where country-level disease burden acutely affects global progress and domestic resources are highly limited;
- Setting grant cycle-specific transition pathways, intentionally focusing on supporting sustainable approaches to program service delivery and providing transition timelines for a sub-set of countries, allowing for predictable financing;
- Optimizing the use of all available funds through rigorous programmatic prioritization, market shaping, integration, community systems financing.
To implement these adaptations, the Global Fund is taking a differentiated approach to supporting countries and communities, based on disease burden and country economic capacity. GC8 grant life cycle tools and support have been adapted to help deliver these strategic adaptations.
Organizing principle for GC8: Differentiated approaches (programmatic, financing and grant design) according to country economic capacity and disease burden
The table below summarizes how the Global Fund partnership will be delivering the strategic adaptations for GC8. The table may be updated and further information included as discussions evolve within the partnership. GC8 Allocation Letters and Global Fund Country Team engagement in country dialogue will provide specific information to guide how these adaptations apply to each country context.
| Income-level, disease burden | Overarching aims | Co-financing* | Focus of funding** | Transition pathways | Grant modalities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LIC, L-LMICs, COEs*** | Promote integrated HIV, TB and malaria services (across the three diseases and within primary health care); enhance system resilience and efficiency, and sustainable planning | Increased government spending on health; gradual, progressive financing of programmatic interventions supported by the Global Fund; increased co-financing of HIV TB, malaria and RSSH, undertaken in alignment with other health sector donors where possible | Scale up integrated HIV, TB, malaria and RSSH investments positioned for long-term domestic uptake; simplification of program interventions | Invest in sustainability pathways and approaches that support long-term, effective transitions from external financing; progressive transition of interventions in line with co-financing commitments | Where possible, streamlined approaches; and integrated funding requests and implementation arrangements |
| Higher absolute burden U-LMICs, UMICs | Drive focused, integrated HIV, TB and malaria and systems investments positioned on path towards domestic sustainability | Accelerated co-financing of specific programmatic interventions supported by the Global Fund, linked to effective transition and sustainability priorities (including social contracting of community and civil society organizations); specific attention to co-financing commitments for interventions that support equitable access for key and vulnerable populations | Investments specifically focused on pathway towards transition, including accelerated alignment and transfer of core program costs to national budgets | Transition timelines of two cycles, in many contexts | Default use of streamlined, management models such as results-based financing/results-based contracting; regionalization of portfolios, where applicable |
| Lower absolute burden U-LMICs, UMICs | Catalyze progress in addressing remaining barriers to domestically funded integrated HIV, TB and malaria responses | Two-three catalytic priorities to support near-term transition and critical barriers to effective transitions | Transition timelines of one cycle, in many contexts | Default use of aligned model, where possible, results-based financing /results-based contracting in many cases; regionalization of portfolio where possible |
In all contexts (including those with specific transition timelines for transition), the Global Fund will additionally support countries to strengthen impact, sustainability and achieve effective transitions from external financing by: strengthening community systems and financing, leveraging blended and alternative financing opportunities (where relevant), and support for PPM/wambo.org use with domestic resources.
*With government progressive financing of key programmatic interventions/core costs.
**Prioritize context-specific, evidence-based interventions addressing key and vulnerable populations and human rights and gender-related barriers to access.
*** In LICs and COEs (especially those affected by acute humanitarian emergencies, conflicts, etc.) the Global Fund will take differentiated approaches to sustainability, focused on reinforcing programmatic impact in complex environments.
LIC: low-income country
L-LMIC: lower-low middle-income country
U-LMIC: upper-low-middle income country
UMIC: upper-middle-income country
COEs: Challenging operating environment [ download in English | Français ]