-
e-Forum 2006
 -
Switzerland
Global Fund Secretariat
- Posts 1,065
|
Summary of Online Discussions, March 17 to 24: Potential areas for improvement in working with donors
Summary of Online Discussions, March 17 to 24:
A. From the English Forum
Regarding the Global Fund’s performance in resource mobilization, emerging consensus is that it has been successful in mobilizing tremendous amounts of resources in a relatively short period of time, but the area with the greatest shortcoming has been the private sector.
Areas of weakness and suggestions:
1. Private sector contributions: Efforts to mobilize funds from the private sector have achieved less than optimal results. More could be done on this and related issues:
(a) Motivating the CCM, and improving the working relationship between private partners and others by
(b) Focusing the partnership role of CCMs on Public Private Partnerships i.e. letting PPPs be the main structure of CCMs- (as opposed to multisectoral partnerships ?)
(c) Shedding more light on HIV/AIDS as a workplace issue- more advocacy on this
(d) Building a formal employer–employee relationship amongst CCM members to minimize volunteerism which leads to poor results as members attend to economic needs.
2. Replenishment process:
(a) Beneficiary countries should support the resource mobilization process further, including through efforts to ensure effective and efficient utilization and accounting for funds, and ensuring adequate performance (27% of grantees for phase 2 renewal were inadequate performers ?)
(b) Donors should consider/ be better informed that inadequate institutional and human resource capacities of recipient country health systems in the early programmatic years contribute to the few cases of unsatisfactory performance.
(c) More efforts should be made to ensure the fulfillment of pledges by donors.
(3) Innovative funding sources to complement donor support : a few examples have been provided- both to improve cash and in-kind donations:
( a) consider registering as a charity if necessary to accept donations in some countries,
(b) website sponsoring by private companies which pay per number of clicks
(c) Some advertising and possibly a dedicated website to solicit contributions from the general public
(d) Draw some donations through employer based programs that allow employees to donate to specific charities with matching funds from the employer,
(e) modeling after the Clinton Foundation’s $1 million donors for a particular purpose, which is substantiated and certified annually
(f) Absorbing financing through HR e.g. Borrowing expertise from other sectors to assist in facilitating the Global Fund’s work
(g) Consider an economic ‘Peace Corps’
(h) students repaying loans through work ?
(i) Working with CEOs and celebrities to mobilize funds
(j) Donors to complement their cash pledges with material support e.g. drugs for opportunistic infections, distribution, etc.
(k) Establishing GF Local Community Groups encouraging PPP & joint plans,
(l) License for generic version of drugs (Private sector distribution) and emergency storage (build-up on these expected during the next 3 weeks.)
B. From the Spanish Forum
1.Trust is essential for sustainability. The presentation of effective results, transparency and impact help to convince donors to invest.
•Trust means placing full and absolute freedom and security in the indicated objective. There is mistrust at the moment in the Global Fund processes, since they are so bureaucratic that it is difficult to save lives.
•When the mortality indicators lower for people living with HIV/AIDS and people with TB or malaria, we will have well and truly won trust - not only from donors, Global Fund Managers, Members of the Board, Governments, CCMs, SRs, LFAs, etc., but also from every single person involved.
•Trust is obtained by achieving satisfactory results in accordance with the objectives and indicators previously traced, credibility from the community itself and local institutions.
•Maintain the interest and the cooperation of supportive countries, by not betraying the trust that they place in those involved.
•We must not forget the qualitative aspects: the patients, elderly and children who benefit from these funds and from the trust of donors.
•The best strategy is to support, stimulate and promote a process and a decentralized management model which ensures and facilitates participation and/or direct access for those most affected in the search for and production of innovative responses to the problems facing us. The number of intermediaries and unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles needs to be reduced.
•A warning and rapid response system needs to be created to solve the problems with which countries are faced when tackling the problems financed by the Global Fund, to improve achievements and not lose the trust of the donors.
The first step in gaining the trust of donors is not to lose the trust of existing donors
2.- It is essential to convince those involved in financing of the advantages and productivity of this social investment.
•To do this, we first need to convince them that it is an investment, not an expense. For this, we need to achieve concrete and measurable results.
•Secondly: gaining trust should be through communication and marketing of the idea that people are the most valuable capital, stating that investments in health care considerably reduce human and economic losses.
•Medical and scientific communication and education is a necessity. It is important to make participants aware that they have the possibility to invest, through their political decision or their economic power. They – and those around them – are often unaware of the reality of the problem. For example, there are still a lot of widespread myths about AIDS which are incorrect.
•A more convincing initiative, international or regional, with a specific legal agenda, which is practical, direct and simple, can have an impact. For this divided forces need to be united, and participants linked with the Global Fund need to facilitate a coherent and synergistic impact process.
•We need greater distribution and communication between the different participants around the Global Fund, as well as greater approximation with other networks and structures representing organized social movements such as NGOs, activists and opinion leaders, such as the media, intellectuals, scientists, politicians, etc.
•Inform: If we consider the 41,000,000 deaths through HIV/AIDS in the world and the problem of TB/HIV coinfection, together with the deficient work in public health, there will be no need to convince, but rather we should center on the message of avoiding co-responsibility and on the search for solutions, both at local and international level.
The experience we have is that when donors are educated, convinced and interested, they commit to the cause and collaborate
From the Russian Forum (original phrasing maintained to reflect tone of discussions)
The financial investments of the Fund gave impulse to the development of Pubic Health Systems, as well as the activities aimed at fighting the three diseases. The work of the Global Fund in the sphere of attracting resources has been quite successful during the recent period of time. The allocated resources were sufficient enough to resolve urgent issues and to prepare a basis for further steps. (Moldova).
However, there still exist the following issues in the matters of attracting resources:
1. Lack of coordination among the sponsor organizations. There is no common programme which could deliver the highest possible efficiency. Therefore, the activities of the hugest players, such as Global Fund, Bill Gates Fund, Elton John Fund, Ford Fund, etc., are being duplicated.
Separate regions receive huge investments from different sources, and sometimes they cannot make proper use of these resources.
How to settle the problem:
- The sponsor organizations must elaborate common programs of co-operation in a definite region. They must establish rules of co-operation in a definite region, a definite country. E.g., representatives of different funds must co-ordinate in a strict manner their mutual work, i.e. scope and dimension of their responsibilities.
3. Perspective planning methods aimed at autonomous attraction of resources are not being used, i.e. allocation of money through commercial projects.
The initiative of the French President concerning inclusion of a certain value for HIV/AIDS into the air tickets seems to be quite interesting.
How to settle the problem:
To make investments into commercial projects as one of the potential sources of allocating money in the sphere of HIV/AIDS. This idea may be developed at all levels: governmental, regional. International level is also quite possible with the direct participation of the Global Fund. E.g., certain percentage in the cost of tickets for different means of transport, products, services; lotteries of national and international level, investments into movie projects ensuring fast return of investment capital and revenue, etc. This approach solves different issues at a time, from ensuring re-socialization of definite persons to making contribution to state budgets and assisting NGOs in their activities.
4. The system of allocation and use of local resources in the Grantee countries is not structured to a suitable extent. The states do not quite honestly implement their obligations with respect to the expenses to be made from the national and local budgets. Sometimes the states settle other contiguous problems at the expense of the Global Fund.
How to settle the problem:
- It is necessary to correct the rules. A state must show in a more clear way what exactly it is able and is going to do. This refers not only to the budget resources, but also buildings, equipment, human resources, legislation (e.g., information and communication. Why not include in relevant laws a requirement of an obligatory allocation of time for social advertising).
5. Nothing is being done with respect to allocation of resources via “a man to a man” method.
A definite recipient (hospital, PLWA NGO, a definite person) sometimes require an absolutely definite help, i.e. specialized transport, wheel chairs, etc.
How to settle the problem:
It is necessary to organize an information sharing process covering definite needs. The Global Fund is able to do it and it may act as a guarantee.
6. The state on the municipal and even higher levels is not quite pro-active in the matters of partnership and support of NGOs.
-------------------------
To reply to this week's questions, please browse the below link:
http://forum.theglobalfund.org/en/viewtopic.php?t=110
Thank You all.
|
|