The Stop TB Department, WHO, the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat, and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria jointly organized workshops on grant negotiation and implementation of Global Fund round 6 TB proposals. TB proposals had high success in being approved by the Global Fund in round 6. These workshops are intended to facilitate the effective implementation of the successful TB proposals.

16-19 January 2007 European, Americas, South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions

30 January - 2 February 2007 African and Eastern Mediterranean Region

There were 57 participants in total, all of whom were involved in the development of successful round 6 TB proposals and/or will be involved in the implementation. Participants included National TB Control Programme Managers and staff, locally based external TB experts from WHO and STB partner organizations (KNCV, Union, Damien Foundation), external TB experts who provide support to specific countries during regular missions, and some Principal Recipients (primarily UNDP).

The Global Fund secretariat presented most of the workshop content. Fund Portfolio Managers were present during all sessions. Communications and relationships with the Global Fund Secretariat were strengthened through informal interactions and specific meetings. Fund Portfolio Managers for all the countries represented at the Workshop met with the respective workshop participants.

Funding for these workshops was provided by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, U.S. Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC) through USAID, WHO, and Stop TB Partners.

The following areas of the Global Fund grant lifecycle were covered:

• The Global Fund overall structure
• Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM) requirements
• Grant lifecycle: Phase 1
• Local fund agent (LFA) role in Global Fund grant process
• Legal overview of grant agreement with principal recipient (PR) and conditions precedent (CPs)
• Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) requirements for the Global Fund
• Procurement and supply management (PSM)
• Making the work plan operational (work plan and budget)
• Grant implementation (fulfilling CPs, progress reports and disbursement requests, annual review and audit)

The following TB-specific sessions were presented by members of the Stop TB Department, WHO, and the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat:

• TB and the Global Fund overview and Stop TB Strategy SDAs
• Green Light Committee (GLC)
• Global Drug Facility (GDF)
• Financial monitoring of grant implementation during phase 1 (Stop TB planning and budgeting tool)
• TBTEAM (TB TEchnical Assistance Mechanism)

As around 12% of the TB proposal budgets were dedicated to Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilization (ACSM) and as capacity to implement these activities remains limited, there was a full session on implementing, monitoring and evaluating ACSM activities.

The Stop TB Department and the Global Fund agreed to propose, although not require, that countries use standard Service Delivery Areas (SDAs) based on the Stop TB Strategy for round 6 TB grants. An analysis of round 6 TB proposals showed that half of the countries used the Stop TB Strategy SDAs that were proposed at the time of proposal development and the remaining countries used those recommended by the Global Fund. These can easily be reconciled and we propose that it is done during the grant negotiation phase (while finalizing the work plan, budget, M&E plan). Using the Stop TB Strategy SDAs to monitor implementation of activities and associated budgets and technical outcomes will:

• facilitate reporting on progress on implementation of the Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015
• allow the Global Fund assess concordance between indicators and disbursement by SDA demonstrating good planning and implementation
• facilitate accurate reporting on expenditures according to activity during the implementation of the grant.