Boosting sexual and reproductive health proposals in the Global Fund's round 7

19 April 2007

In preparation for Round 7 of the Global Fund’s grants, the Alliance and partners have prepared new guidelines to encourage the development of proposals that integrate sexual and reproductive health (SRH) into HIV activities. The guidelines have been published in response to the low number of SRH-related proposals in previous Global Fund rounds.

The five partners, together with other non-governmental organisations, service providers and international agencies, believe that health programming that integrates SRH and HIV services will help governments and the international community reach their targets of comprehensive prevention, treatment, care and support.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has said that it will support SRH integration if the impact on HIV can be demonstrated. At December’s Advocacy Summit on Global Fund Round 7: Integrating of Sexual and Reproductive Health within the HIV and Malaria Components of Country Coordinated Proposals, the Global Fund confirmed that it would fund SRH commodities and consider proposals that include planned and costed technical support and capacity building. If Country Coordinated Mechanisms do not have the capacity to undertake integration, they can request funds through their proposals to the Global Fund to strengthen that capacity.

The report outlines seven areas of prioritised services and/or programmes that could receive financial support from the Global Fund:

  1. Integration of sexually transmitted infection treatment services at the point of service delivery.
  2. Integration of voluntary counselling and testing at the point of service delivery.
  3. Prevention of parent-/mother-to-child HIV transmission.
  4. Provision of antiretroviral treatment and comprehensive care for people living with HIV.
  5. Scaling up of adolescent STI and HIV prevention programmes.
  6. Integration of SRH services for vulnerable populations.
  7. Combating gender-based violence by strengthening the ability of healthcare providers to recognise signs and symptoms of sexual, physical or emotional assault and to provide treatment and referral to services for those in need.

The Guidelines for Integrating Sexual and Reproductive Health into the HIV/AIDS Component of Country Coordinated Proposals to be submitted to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Round 7 and Beyond have been developed by the Alliance in partnership with the Global AIDS Alliance, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Interact Worldwide and Population Action International.