DISCUSSION PAPER: Regional Concept Note Development

Various consortia around the world were engaged in developing regional

concept notes through 2014 into 2015 for submission in January 2015

to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund).

This paper synthesizes lessons from the first set of regional program

proposals since the full launch of the funding model in 2014. ICASO

and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance (the Alliance) have both acted as

observers and participated in various country and regional concept note

development, in particular three regional concept note (RCN) development

processes: in Eastern Africa, Southern Africa, and the Middle East & North

Africa (MENA). The intention of this participatory and observation roles is to

share common and unique lessons learned, and offer recommendations to

improve the process as it progresses. The Alliance was directly involved in the

development of all three RCNs and has provided key contacts, background

and guidance to ICASO, which led the development of this paper.

 

All three RCNs focused on various key populations to address gaps in

country-level programs, strengthen key population networks and improve

the policy and human rights environment for key populations. Each regional

process was convened by the prospective principal recipient (PR), used a

regional steering committee format to guide the development attempts,

recruited consultants to write the concept note (among other items), and

submitted their RCN on time. Key differences lay in the systems that were

used to manage RCN development (a “bid coordinator secretariat” for one, an

“administrative committee” within the regional steering body for another),

the level of human and financial resources brought to bear on the process,

and the outcome of the applications. For instance, the MENA proposal was

withdrawn after an initial rejection, after which they were invited to submit

a new Expression of Interest (EOI) for the next window in 2016. Valuable

lessons were learned in each process. However, it is important to note that

these are not all novel findings; much of what was observed are persistent

challenges that have been identified before, and some recommendations

echo those made before.

 

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