Grant Management Solutions

The Principal Recipient (PR) of a Global Fund grant has the responsibility for management of grant funds, implementation of grant activities, and achievement of agreed objectives and targets.

GMS’ missions in this area revolve around building organizational capacity and ensuring that proper management systems are in place and functioning effectively.

Assistance in this domain might include:

1. Assessing the general and financial management systems and provision of recommendations on actions to strengthen the PR, using functional analysis methodology.
   
2. Strengthening the PR’s existing budget and financial tracking system to meet the requirements of both the PR institution and the Global Fund’s Enhanced Financial Reporting.
   
3. Developing program implementation manuals, operations manuals, and staffing plans for managing grants, with clear roles and job descriptions for the Program Management Unit (PMU).
4. Creating a financing plan outlining how funds from the various grants will be used to meet the costs of the restructured PMU.
5. Developing requests for reprogramming of Global Fund grant funds to move from unstructured to detailed management budgets.
6. Rapid assistance to address conditions precedent and time-bound actions for PR management and sub-recipient (SR) participation.
7. Support to new national PRs to meet Global Fund requirements for signature of a new grant. Presignature support often includes PMU design, finalization of detailed work plans and budgets for each PR and SR, finalization of SR selection and orientation, capacity building of PR staff for grants management, reinforcement of financial management procedures, and preparation of grant operations manuals and other documentary requirements. This team may work in collaboration with procurement and supply management (PSM) or monitoring and evaluation (M&E) specialists.
   
8. Preparation of procedures for assessment of SRs, standard sub-granting agreement templates, financial reporting templates and procedures for SRs. Orientation of SRs to new procedures.
9. Support for transfer of a grant at Phase 2 from an international PR to a new national PR, whether public or NGO.
   
10. Support for grant consolidation. As with pre-signature support, grant consolidation is often carried out in collaboration with PSM and M&E consultants. 
    

GMS often works with the PRs to unblock bottlenecks that may have inhibited funds disbursement, such as delays in reporting, inadequate data supporting disbursement requests, or conditions precedent related to management and finance. GMS consultants are expert in developing systems appropriate to the local environment which will enable PRs to strengthen grant implementation.