Civil society success on the ground: a new publication from the Alliance and the Global Fund

29 September 2008

The International HIV/AIDS Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have jointly published a report that aims to increase understanding of the interventions that the Global Fund would like to see prioritised in its country proposals. Using a range of case studies, the report illustrates the range of programmes that the Global Fund has prioritised for funding.

In March 2008, the Global Fund launched its eighth funding round with a specific focus on increasing the support that it provides to civil society and community-based organisations – as an acknowledgement of the important role that they play in scaling up services for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria. Round 8 has seen a focus on supporting community systems strengthening and promoting dual track financing. Although new concepts for many, community systems strengthening and dual track financing describe the work already underway in many countries.

The report uses case studies from civil society organisations in Cambodia, India, Mongolia, Peru, Senegal, Somalia, Thailand, Ukraine and Zambia to outline the many different models of community systems strengthening. All nine case studies examine HIV grants, but the examples are also illustrative of tuberculosis and malaria grants. The report also illustrates a range of examples of dual track financing.

The case studies also describe HIV and sexual and reproductive health service integration. A number of other topics are also covered, including the use of civil society organisations as sole principal recipients; attempts to involve the private sector; non-country coordinating mechanism proposals; and the importance of substitution treatment programmes for injecting drug users.