UNDP

ABSTRACT The South Sudan malaria grant approved in 2020 and due to start in January of this year is still waiting for the choice of a new Principal Recipient to be confirmed. In the meantime, the malaria program is operating under a no-cost extension up to June 2021. The country’s Global Fund grants have been subjected to the Additional Safeguard Policy for several grant cycles, as well as the country being designated as having a Challenging Operating Environment.

ABSTRACT In a routine country audit of Global Fund grants in Angola, the Office of the Inspector General found that the country’s grants were performing poorly. Overall, domestic financing, community engagement, program implementation, as well as data management arrangements, are ineffective, the report said. However, the OIG assessed financial management and assurance arrangements to be partially effective.

ABSTRACT In its second audit of Global Fund grants to the Republic of Sudan, the Office of the Inspector General rated as “ineffective” Sudan’s implementation, financial and assurance arrangements, in part due to missing assets (reported by the Principal Recipient) of $846,000, and due to $2.75-million worth of Global Fund-funded assets that were not locatable, not recorded or not correctly documented. A fuller investigation by the OIG will follow.

ABSTRACT Political instability and continuing economic problems have created a complex environment for programming in Burundi. Malaria and TB/HIV grants recently approved by the Global Fund Board are facing numerous challenges. This article summarizes the comments of the Technical Review Panel and the Grant Approvals Committee when it reviewed Burundi’s funding requests.

ABSTRACT In its second batch of approvals from the 2017-2019 allocations, the Global Fund Board has authorized funding of $1.25 billion for 32 grants to 15 countries. Included in this total were five matching funds requests valued at $22.9 million.

ABSTRACT The Secretariat is reviewing the impact of the new Policy on Sustainability, Transition, and Co-Financing on nine components no longer eligible for funding. In GFO #293, we reported that the Board decided not to fund proposed extensions to two grants in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This article provides more information on this decision.

ABSTRACT The Global Fund Board has declined to approve extensions for a TB and an HIV grant to Bosnia and Hercegovina. No reasons for the decision have been made public.

ABSTRACT UNAIDS, in partnership with WHO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and Expertise France, organized a workshop to bring together consultants who will be involved in preparing funding requests for the Global Fund’s next allocation cycle, and representatives from recipient countries. Differentiated approaches were presented, and particular attention was placed on areas of concern: prevention, testing and prevention of mother-to-child transmission.

ABSTRACT The current conflict in Syria has severely affected implementation of Global Fund grants, forcing the principal recipient, the United Nations Development Programme, to adopt special measures.

ABSTRACT In his third article on the UNDP as principal recipient, Aidspan Senior Editor Karanja Kinyanjui looks at what the UN body has done to build capacity of national systems in countries where it operates as interim PR.