18 March 2005

Dear Communities,


The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria presents its compliments, and has the honor of announcing the Call for Proposals for the Fifth Round. This letter is being sent to all countries for the purposes of transparency and openness of communication.

The Global Fund is a public-private partnership founded at the beginning of 2002 with the goal of attracting, managing and disbursing additional resources that will make a sustainable and significant contribution to the reduction of infections, illness and death, thereby mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in affected countries, and contributing to poverty reduction as part of the Millennium Development Goals.

We wish to call upon your support for the dissemination of information regarding the attached Call for Proposals, Guidelines for Proposals, and Proposal Form. We hope that the information presented in the Call for Proposals for the Fifth Round will reach the widest range of partners, including government organizations, multilateral and bilateral agencies, civil society (including NGOs and faith-based organizations), and the private sector.


The Guidelines and Proposal Form have been revised to incorporate experience gained in previous rounds. We have taken care to ensure that the application form is more user-friendly. R evisions have been introduced within the HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis components for proposals to include collaborative tuberculosis/HIV-related activities where HIV/AIDS drives a tuberculosis epidemic . Other changes include a clarification of health-system strengthening activities (previously the ‘Integrated’ component). Such interventions must be directly linked to the fight against any or all of the three diseases.

As with previous Calls for Proposals Round Five will continue to give priority to applications from countries and regions with the greatest need, based on the highest burdens of diseases and the insufficiency of financial resources in addressing the problems of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

In order to strengthen the overarching principle of the Global Fund to support broad based public-private partnerships, the Global Fund seeks proposals through a Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM). To ensure the widest possible participation of different sectors within CCMs and a wide participation of all sectors during the Call for Proposals and beyond, the Board has introduced new eligibility criteria relevant to the CCM. Your support in assisting the CCM to meet these criteria, where necessary, would be appreciated.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 10 June 2005. All eligible proposals will be evaluated by the Global Fund’s Technical Review Panel, which is scheduled to meet from 25 July to 5 August 2005. The Board expects to make the decisions concerning funding in September 2005.

For ease of reference, please find attached the Call for Proposals, the Guidelines for Proposals, and the Proposal Form. These documents, as well as other relevant information on the Global Fund, are also available in the six UN languages on our website: http://www.theglobalfund.org.

Should you have any questions or require any additional information, please address these to proposals@theglobalfund.org.


Yours sincerely

[Signed]


Richard Feachem
Executive Director
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria