Through regional meetings and workshops, GMS has reached over 300 civil society institutions to enhance their capacity to manage and oversee Global Fund grants.
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When the United States signed on as the largest single donor to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, it also made another important commitment: Up to five percent of the U.S. pledge was to be set aside for future technical assistance to help countries receiving Global Fund grants.
In 2007, the US Government designed a mechanism to supply critically needed technical support to Global Fund grantees through a project called Grant Management Solutions (GMS). Like the Global Fund’s innovative approach to health development, the GMS project provides a unique brand of urgent, short-term technical support to countries experiencing difficulty in managing their Global Fund grants. Through a participatory process that emphasizes transparency and national ownership, GMS brokers relationships to strengthen and extend multi-sector partnerships. This course of action allows grantees multiple options to institute reforms and strengthen systems, and also facilitates open discussions and follow-through on decisions.
How the Grant Management Solutions project works
GMS’s unique form of technical assistance allows countries to ask for exactly the kind of help they need most to succeed and to move to their next disbursement or phase of funding. This support generally falls into the following areas:
- Governance and leadership. GMS works directly with the grantee’s Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM), a national body made up of public and private entities that is responsible for developing Global Fund grant proposals, coordinating grant activities, and providing grant oversight through sound leadership practices.
- Financial and grants management. Each Global Fund grant has a Principal Recipient (PR), an existing institution or organization identified by the CCM through a rigorous procurement process, which is responsible for grant implementation. Working directly with the PR, GMS seeks ways to strengthen financial and management systems and procedures.
- Procurement and supply management (PSM) of pharmaceuticals and commodities. GMS works with the PR to ensure that their procurement and supply management systems are appropriate for the resources available in country. This assistance might range from helping the PR with its PSM planning and forecasting of how many and what kinds of medicines and pharmaceutical supplies the nation needs, to streamlining importation and customs procedures and finding ways to better manage the supply chain.
- Monitoring, evaluation and reporting (M&E). The progress and success of grants is vital to a grantee receiving the next round of funding, which makes comprehensive M&E absolutely essential. GMS assistance may range from Monitoring and Evaluation Systems Strengthening Tool workshops—a planning process now required by the Global Fund—to improving reporting procedures and ensuring adequate M&E staffing.
