Overview of Grant Cycle 8 transcript

Okay, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Thank you so much for joining us everyone. This is the information session on applying for funding and grant cycle 8 for the global fund. This is our kickoff information session. We're going to be covering the big picture of what to expect for this grant cycle. So, my last time reminding everyone that if you're just joining now, um, and you would like to listen to the audio in English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese, you can do that by going to the bottom of your screen.

There's an interpretation icon. So you can click on that icon, select your language, and you have the option of then muting the original audio if you would like to listen to only your preferred language, um, English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. If you have questions during the information session, please put those into the chat. I can see that there is a hand up but we will not be unmuting participants for this particular information session because of the volume of participants.

So hands up will not be able to be called on but you can put your question into the chat. We will be collecting all the questions um grouping them if we can and then responding in the question and answer session at the end. The presentation itself will probably be less than an hour and so we'll have at least half an hour for those questions and answers. So please put your questions in the chat as we go along. I think we're going to get started.

It's 2:05. Um so again, thank you for joining us for this first information session on grant cycle 8. My name is Lindsay Smith. I'm one of the managers in the access to funding department at the global fund secretariat. So I will be your host uh for this information session. Um and so I'll be presenting the work not just of my team but of the broader secretariat overall. Um giving you a bit of that bigger picture, what to expect for this grant cycle, how it's the same, how it's different from what you may have experienced in the past.

Um and then there'll be an opportunity for you to put your questions into the chat at any point. We'll be grouping those um and then we'll be responding to those at the end of the session in the question and answer period. So we'll go on to the next slide. The agenda that we're going to be covering today um we'll give you the big picture on where are we right now, what has happened um so far to date for grant cycle 8, what can you expect?

Um, we'll give you the overall umbrella of the key milestones in the access to funding process, which will be a reminder to some of you, but we'll be highlighting some of the areas that are different for grant cycle 8. We'll give you a preview of some of the application and guidance materials that you can expect to see online on the global fund website shortly. some logistical information on what you what can you start with now?

What are some of the operational areas that you can actually um be already planning out at this point? Uh and then a preview of some of the upcoming information sessions and resources that will be available for you before we go into the Q&A session. So that's what we can expect to go through together this afternoon. Um so let us just kick off. I've seen lots of um welcomes in the chat. Um so welcome from Geneva to you.

Um thank you for joining us today. The first topic that we're going to be covering are the implications of the replenishment outcome. I'm sure many of you have been eagerly following the replenishment event um that happened on the 21st of November. So just a couple of weeks ago. Um since then we have had a few more pledges following that that pledging event. Um and we're very grateful um to the immense generosity of our donors from around the world in both the public and the private sector that have made substantive contributions to be able to continue the excellent work of this global fund partnership.

So we're grateful and we're proud to be able to then enter into grant cycle 8 um already with pledges above 11 billion um for this upcoming grant cycle. And it's actually today and tomorrow that the audit and finance committee are discussing how much of those pledges to then be able to make available for the sources of funds for the allocation for grant cycle 8. So the actual allocations have not been done. We have not gotten to that stage yet.

Um but where we are today is that we can while we are grateful and acknowledge the um immense um contributions of our donors, we can already see that we actually will have a lower replenishment than what we have had in the past. The impact of this lower replenishment for grant cycle 8 than it has been for grant cycle 7, especially as we consider the additional sources of funds from the CO 19 response mechanism, is that we can anticipate that there will be lower allocations for grant cycle 8 than there have been in the past.

We also will be implementing a change that has been made in our overall policy framework that will actually move funds from the higher inome countries from the upper middle inome countries progressively more towards the lower middle inome countries and the low inome countries and the lower disease burden to the higher disease burden. So what this means is that um there will also be a communication with grant cycle 8 that many countries will have an accelerated transition communication.

We will be um explaining to you in your allocation letters which transition pathway you are on. There will be some portfolios that may receive a final allocation in grant cycle 8. And because eligibility does not guarantee an allocation, there also may be some countries that receive no allocation in grant cycle 8. So while we have uh a substantive source of pledges that have already been made with the global fund replenishment, there will be an adjustment that we all will have to make as we prepare for what these this lower funding scenario means for all of us in the global fund partnership.

Alongside this context, we also of course understand that the global funding landscape is also quite significantly different than it has been in the past funding cycle. The consequence of this is that it is absolutely critical that we are all working together to maximize the outcome of the collective sources of funding um that we are able to work with both the domestic funding, the donor funding um the global fund partnership funding so that um we will be able to maximize the impact of what we have through that prioritization.

We've always talked about prioritization. It becomes ever more essential as we face this new situation of less funds than we've had in the past. Value for money will be a critical determination as we think about where the funding can go um to make the biggest impact as we consider um the allocations for grant cycle 8 in the context of this broader funding situation. The idea of integration of integration both across diseases as well as integration into the primary health care will be absolutely essential not only as a value for money but as an opportunity but also as a way of driving impact of the funds that are available.

We will need to make sure that we are critically assessing any of those barriers to health services that would prevent any of our most at risk populations from having access to those services to make sure that we are driving impact at every opportunity. We want to be equipping our partners in country, our um national u partners for increasing self-reliance, not only if they are on an accelerated transition timeline, but even those who have a transition pathway of two or more funding cycles ahead.

That self-reliance will be a key theme that we'll be coming back to um over the course of grant cycle 8. And one way, of course, to make the funding go even further is expediting access to innovations, which can drive down the disease burden um and allow us to have um even more impact in the future as we decrease the burden of the the diseases that we're collectively working to fight against. So, while we have positive news to start grant cycle 8 that we have had a relatively successful replenishment pledge, we have the sobering reality that the funding is not enough and the funding um will be less than what we've had in the past.

And so, in that context, we do need to prepare for grant cycle 8 differently. So these strategic shifts of shifting the funding from the upper middle income towards the low income um and the lower disease burden to the higher disease burden, these shifts of adopting this transition thinking and transition pathway thinking, these shifts of making sure that we are prioritizing rigorously at every step to make the funding go the furthest it possibly can.

This will all require us um to work a little differently than we have in the past. So as we look ahead to the milestones of the funding cycle itself, um let's start with the the big picture which is the um the idea of where we are in the grant life cycle. We can go on to the next slide. So no surprise, we are currently implementing grants. That is what the global fund does and that is what you as our partners on the ground are doing right now.

So, as you continue implementing your grant cycle 7 grants, you now have the opportunity to be thinking ahead to grant cycle 8 and thinking about that that continuum um and how to build for the grant cycle that will be coming. The first step of this new allocation cycle um is an allocation letter. And so that has not changed. So you will be receiving an allocation letter um if you are designated an allocation. That allocation letter however will be coming a little later than usual.

We often have been able to share this in December um leading up to the next grant cycle. In this case because of the delay to our replenishment timings and the consequent delay in identifying the board's um confirmed sources of funds for the allocation which will not take place until February. The allocation letter will likely go out around the beginning of March. Now, if the board makes a change to the sources of funds in February, it could be middle of March.

So, I can't give you an exact date. Um, but we are working as fast as we possibly can to convert allocation decisions into allocation communication to be able to share that with you as early as we can in 20126. Yet, we know that many of you have grants that are going to be ending at the end of 26 and will need to have new grants that are able to start implementation at the beginning of 2027. So, we can see that there is a compressed period for 2026.

And so, we've been working to streamline that process as much as we can. So, I'll be talking to you about some of the areas that have been streamlined, but some of the elements of the actual stages of the access to funding process um haven't changed. We still expect that you'll be doing a country dialogue for prioritization, which is ever more important. We still expect that you'll be developing and submitting a funding request.

There will be a TRP review of majority of funding requests. The final grants will be submitted to the global fund for review by the grant approvals committee and then board approval before the grants are signed and then into implementation again for that next three-year period. So the first step of this process of how we get to an allocation to be able to communicate to you in that allocation letter is eligibility. Um we're looking at the eligibility determinations right now and eligibility primarily looks at income level and disease burden.

And so this combination of data allows us to then determine if a country component which is HIV, TB or malaria. If a country component is eligible for future funding from the global fund. This eligibility policy has not substantively changed for grant cycle 8 except for the new provision in the eligibility policy which was adopted by the board in 2024 is that country components that have received transition funding or that have voluntarily transitioned are no longer eligible regardless of future disease burden or income.

So this is a definitive um transition process. So once a component has received transition funding, it will no longer be eligible for an allocation in future grant cycles. So after eligibility, then we move into the discussion and the data crunching around the allocation methodology itself. And this is work that will be undertaken in the global fund secretariat in January and February of 2026. We have an approved allocation methodology for grant cycle 8 which is very similar to the allocation approach that has been taken in the past.

I already mentioned the sources of funds for the allocation that is being discussed by the audit and finance committee now and will be approved by the board in February. That is the starting point for both determining the country sources of funds for the allocation as well as the catalytic investment sources of funds. For the country sources of funds for the allocation, there is an agreed global disease split and you can actually see two columns.

Uh on the slide here, the starting column is up to the amounts to 12 billion and any funding beyond 12 billion will have progressive adjustment um to be able to adjust the the share the relative share of the funding that's available. Right now we're in the scenario of likely to be below 12 billion, but there is always the possibility of new funds being added by public or private sector. Um and so we have this global disease split that is the starting point of the allocation um optimization process.

There are additional adjustments before um the final communication to countries about their allocation amounts and that communication to countries will be still split out HIV, TB and malaria. But this amount that is communicated to the country in their allocation letter is able to be adjusted based on discussions in country about where the greatest need is not only between these three diseases but also in resilient and sustainable systems for health.

There is an expectation that from the total amount available for the country allocation that there would be a concrete discussion about how much of each of those uh allocation amounts would be invested in crosscutting uh resilient and sustainable systems for health interventions. This is what's called a program split, which is what happens from the CCM standpoint in a CCM discussion. Um, that's voted on and then if there is an agreement to change the program split in country, that's documented and submitted to the global fund for agreement.

After the allocation methodology itself, go on to the next slide. There is also the discussion about catalytic investments which as you saw is a separate source of funds from the country allocations and these have three different modalities. The matching funds, the catalytic multi-country and the strategic initiatives. The priority areas for grant cycle 8 are the ones that are in these boxes here. They are an evolution of what we have learned from grant cycle 7.

Um, and these different areas here, um, there's currently seven on screen, would be using one or more of the three different catalytic investment modalities. While the secretariat has recommended that a source of funds is set aside for catalytic investments, there is also the possibility of being able to generate additional pledges from private sector contributions. And to date we already have 290 million that has been designated specifically for catalytic investment areas from these private sector contributions for grant cycle 8.

So these are the areas for catalytic investment in grant cycle 8 which we will communicate more about um after the final sources of fund is funds is decided um and the country designations with the amount designations will be communicated as relevant in the allocation letters. Next slide. In these letters, what you can expect, what you have seen in the past is that the global fund will communicate not only the allocation amount that has been designated to an eligible country component, but also the allocation utilization period.

Usually, this is a three-year period. Um, and the sources of funds need to be used within that three-year period. We will also be communicating the application approach. This isn't anything new. Um because in the past you've always had our our communication being this is the application that you need to complete um and the requirements that you need to be able to um deliver on a co-inancing or domestic financing perspective as well.

So this allocation letter will include this information as it has done in the past. And also there is a section and a standard allocation letter which is tailored for each country which is called the aims of the allocation. And in that aims of the allocation section there will be a communication about what the global fund would advise the applicant usually the CCM to consider as they think about using these global funds um financing in the most impactful way for focused portfolios. the funding will be very limited and so you can anticipate that there should only be one or two priority investment areas that would be able to be delivered through the global fund financing for grant cycle 8.

So this is what goes into that section if applicable. Some countries will be also communicated the amount that is available to them with catalytic investments. And as I mentioned earlier, an area that is new for grant cycle 8 is that we will be communicating transition pathways and timelines. Um, which will be a change um, from what we have done in the past, but an important transition as we move into this strategic uh, shift for grant cycle 8 of taking the global fund investment approach um, from a new direction.

After allocation letters go out, um the country dialogue of course um will need to be extremely um robust in order to be able to discuss how this allocation funding should be designated. However, I would already advise you to start thinking about planning your al uh your country dialogue in advance of the allocation letter as well. There are some elements of country dialogue that haven't changed. The expectations that uh the CCM eligibility requirement one and two need to be fulfilled is still exactly the same.

Eligibility requirement one is that um the the dialogue around the development of the funding request needs to be transparent and inclusive and eligibility requirement two is that the principal recipient selection process needs to be transparent and documented according to the CCM's own operational guideline. What is going to be different about the expectations for country dialogue in grant cycle 8 is that this dialogue will need to be integrated for a holistic discussion around how to maximize the impact of the available sources of funds both the global fund financing as well as the other financing that might be available available through domestic or other sources.

It's very important that we don't repeat the approach of country dialogue in the past which has been uh usual for each disease program to have its own dialogue in uh in silos separate from the others. So you would have malaria having a discussion having a discussion and HIV having a discussion and health systems experts having a discussion. um that actually will not help us get to an integrated thinking and a holistic use of the allocation.

So we really encourage you already now to be thinking differently about setting up your meetings and setting up your dialogue um framework and how you plan on facilitating the dialogue for grant cycle 8 to enable these conversations to happen jointly. They'll need to focus on the highest impact and the value for money of all of the investments that are made. You'll have to start with an understanding of the programmatic gaps and the funding landscape.

As I was mentioning about the different sources of funds, those are going to be key cornerstones, key pillars of your country dialogue discussions. And very frankly, the dialogue will need to be tailored to the country context that you're in. If you can um already anticipate that you are in one of the upper middle inome countries with lower disease burden, it is very likely that you may receive a final allocation. If that is going to be the case, you will need to think very carefully about how to set up uh the use of this final allocation to be able to equip um your country to be able to transition effectively from global fund support in the allocation cycle ahead.

Next slide, please. Yeah. So on the point about the the co-inancing and the domestic financing, this is a key element of sustainability and we've talked about this for many grant cycles. Sustainability is not a new concept. Um but as we look ahead to grant cycle 8, this co-inancing discussion will be absolutely critical to support the sustainability and self-reliance of the domestic health program going forward and the effective transitioning from the global fund.

The new sustainability transition and co-inancing policy that was agreed by the board uh in this past year not only has a progressive increase in overall health expenditure expected for the lower income and lower middle inome countries not only has an increase of financing in HIV TB and malaria expected in all countries but importantly has differentiated its approach to expectations on the progressive increase in finance ing key interventions to strengthen country ownership of key priorities.

So what does this mean very pragmatically? This is actually talking about the conversation around co-inancing for grant cycle 8 between country government and between the global fund will very much be looking at the pro programmatic elements that the government actually will be picking up um in grant cycle 8 in anticipation of increasing self reliance going forward. And so that um while it's going to look different depending on what stage the country is at in a development continuum and the the income level overall the expectation of the concrete nature of these discussions and negotiations um are very important because this is going to be different a different discussion um than what has happened in the past.

We will be looking for progressive increases of financing firstline treatment um and in the transition context picking up the relevant costs that have been supported by the global fund in the past to prepare for that transition. Those conversations are not quick. We recognize that which is why it's very important that we're um already beginning those conversations now uh and that concrete co-inancing commitments are being discussed at an early stage in the country dialogue.

So the funding request itself um is the output of that country dialogue and what is not changed is that applicants are expected to develop a funding request package which tells the the global fund tells us um how you propose for the allocation to be best invested. Of course, it needs to be aligned with country processes um including the the national health strategy um and national um disease strategic plans should be informed by the prioritization of the country dialogue um and then it needs to be coming together and so I'm coming back to this point about the holistic element and that integrated discussion because we need to be able to make sure that all the funds are being invested ed in the most impactful way they need to be reviewed together.

So it is a requirement in grant cycle 8 that countries submit the funding requests for all their eligible components at the same time. So the default is all in the same window but we are recommending to you that these are ideally developed as a single multicomponent funding request. So if you think about designing your country dialogue to have as an end result one single multi-country or multicomponent request per country that is going to potentially help you think about how these discussions in the country dialogue should be taking place in a different way than they have been in the past.

While we have had different types of applications, funding request application packages in different grant cycles, for grant cycle 8, there are two primary funding request application packages for countries that are are high impact or core portfolios. You will be expected to develop the full review funding request with the 11 required annexes. And there is a dedicated training about this coming up in January. For the focus portfolios, there is one application package called transition and focused.

Um, and it has nine required annexes that go along with it. These funding requests are quite different. We'll talk about them in just a moment. Um but the high impact in core is a comprehensive look at the overall programming looking at how the global fund um investment the global fund financing complements the national uh investment and the focused portfolios is not only designed for the smaller funding amounts and focused portfolios but also for those that are approaching the transition context in an accelerated way.

Next slide please. For both of those different funding request application approaches, the full review and the transition focused funding request, there will be an option in grant cycle 8 to prepare the materials in two different ways. One is called the classic funding request and one is called the grant ready funding request. This is one of the interventions that we have made to try to preemptively bring forward some of the grant-making negotiations so that we are going to be able to reduce the time that is spent in 2026 to be able to address the compressed time that is available.

This will bring forward the idea of doing early grant design already into the funding request time frame. Now the way this would work is the following. If a CCM considers their principal recipient or principal recipients plural for the next grant cycle, they have an opportunity to discuss that early, could be January, February, even in March. um to be thinking about whether or not they would choose to um nominate an existing PR for grant cycle 8 or whether or not they are going to be changing their principal recipients for grant cycle 8.

If the CCM votes on nominating an existing PR for grant cycle 8 and all of the uh um all of the principal recipients that have been identified for grant cycle 8 are continuing principal recipients then they could use this grant ready funding request submission um modality. What this means is they would invite the principal recipient that they have nominated that is a continuing principal recipient to already develop the grant level performance framework and detailed budget before the funding request is submitted.

And so the CCM would be developing the funding request form, the response to the questions in the funding request narrative form. They would be developing the other required annexes, programmatic gap table, funding landscape table. But instead of having a consolidated budget and a consolidated performance framework, there would be the grant specific performance framework and detailed budget that could be prepared by the principal recipient and then attached to the submission that goes to the global fund.

This is an option. It is not a requirement but we are encouraging the the CCMS in the contexts where it makes sense to consider um that selection of the principal recipient early to be able to involve them in the process early to get to grant ready documents um faster in the year in 2026 especially now for any CCM where the context doesn't lend to inviting the PR to be involved at that level of detail um in the funding request phase or for the CCMS where you want to make a substantive change in your implementation arrangements and you nominate a different principal recipient.

In that case, you would be using the classic funding request approach whereby you would be preparing the funding request uh as you always have done with a consolidated detailed budget and performance framework. So, these are two different routes and you'll be hearing more about this in upcoming trainings. Um, but it's something that you need to start being uh familiar with now so that you can start considering whether or not your principal recipients for grant cycle 8 would be ones that are existing principal recipients um and whether or not you would want to be including them in that funding request development phase.

Next slide, please. After the funding request is submitted to the global fund, then it's reviewed by the independent technical review panel. And as it has done in the past, that independent assessment by the technical review panel will focus on areas that are consistent with the global fund strategy for this time frame. Um, these are the looking at the strategic focus, the technical soundness, the potential for impact, and whether or not it's poised for sustainability.

This comprehensive overview will be predominantly the way that the full review funding requests will be looked at. Um and then the transition and the focused funding requests would have a differentiated lens. But the TRP in its independent capacity um would be considering how that they would make recommendations to the applicant on whether or not the funding request demonstrates that it's ready um for the final grant negotiations or whether or not it needs to be iterated.

The TRP would also be recommending whether or not there are concrete issues or actions that need to be addressed either during grant making or more likely during implementation in order to improve the impact of the investment that the global fund is proposing to make. The TRP also has the responsibility of assessing the prioritized above allocation request. This is one of the documents that's required with the funding request.

Um, and it presents the prioritized areas that the applicant has identified would be wonderful to invest in if there was more funding available. Now, often this funding comes from um the grant making savings and efficiencies, but could also come from additional investments in the unfunded quality demand register that could happen during implementation. Um, and so that's why the PAR is assessed at the time of the funding request submission.

When the funding request moves into the grant making frame, um that is the point of finalizing the negotiations on the the grant specific performance framework and detailed budget. And when those grant documents along with a few other required documents are ready for the global fund review, they are submitted together um and then assessed by the grant approvals committee. Once the grant approvals committee is confident of the dispersement and implementation readiness, they recommend them to the board.

Um, and after the board approval, then the final grants are able to be signed and implementation of this next grant cycle begins. So, that's an overview of the key milestones in the applying for funding stage of the grant life cycle. Um, we're next going to be taking a look very briefly at what's included in the application materials and the guidance materials which will shortly be going online. In the full review funding request which I mentioned is for the high impact and core portfolios. um we have been able to successfully successfully reduce the actual number of requests, questions, details that's required in this funding request by about 60% versus what we had in grant cycle 7.

We heard your feedback. We know that this is incredibly ownorous and yet um very important for that due diligence for us to agree on how the investment would best be able to drive impact. So, the areas are not dissimilar to what you've seen in the past, but the questions are much more direct and should be much easier for you to respond to. There is a short update on country context and priorities, which encourages you to be able to reference national documents.

We're not looking for text here. We're not looking for descriptive 10 pages of background information. We want you to only be referring to what you already have documented that would give the technical review panel in this context an understanding of how things have evolved since the last cycle. Then we're looking at where would the money be invested and how have you come up with this prioritization approach. So what is the rationale?

We need to understand from you how then does this global fund funding complement what is planned from the national health um perspective. So in your national health programs, in your programming for your national health programs, how does the global fund um complement that is a catalyst to then further impact alongside those um those other sources of funds? And then a check on implementation describing how exactly the um the funding would then reach the beneficiary.

Um however, we're no longer asking for the implementation arrangement map at this point in time. We're looking at that in a much simplified way. And you'll see that when you open up the funding request form um which will go online uh we expect today. The annexes that are required for the funding request um there is nothing new here. These are ones that you are familiar with already um and similar to what has been prepared in the past but in some cases significantly simplified.

Um we have really scaled back the scope of what is in the programmatic gap table for example and how the funding landscape table has been designed to really ensure that they are more um comprehensively giving you that complete picture but not overlapping. We've stripped out wherever we can any overlap any duplication of questions. So all of these annexes um will be ones that you uh will be able to go through with us in an upcoming training in January.

So I'm not going to go through the details now. Um a difference for the the next funding request form for the transition um and focused form is that it is not only significantly if we can go on to the next slide please. It's not only significantly shorter than what it was in grant cycle 7 but there is also a significant difference in the questions that we are asking for the um transition and focused funding request than we are in the full review.

There's actually only six questions in the um transition and focused form. These are very focused um and will help us have a very clear picture of where the limited funding will be able to be invested for the most um the most impact in this different type of context where there is no scope of having that comprehensive investment but they will have to be very targeted in order to actually make that catalytic impact. So we have the funding request and rationale.

Um again the domestic picture on where the the domestic health funding financing is going to be invested in and then an implementation section with reduced number of annexes um for this transition and focused applicant. We will be doing an a dedicated training on this route in March after the allocation letters go out because it will be really important for the portfolios that are focused portfolios to understand their transition pathway before we actually do the session to make sure that it is um able to be speaking to the questions that you have coming out of your allocation letter communication.

Okay. Now, the other area that we've heard from you repeatedly that we've listened to is that our applicant guidance has been overwhelming in how thorough it is and how detailed it has been. Um, so we really have made a difference in grant cycle 8 on the applicant investment guidance. We are looking at this applicant guidance from the very beginning. um saying first of all we need to limit the number of core documents and we need to limit the length and the level of detail in the core documents.

So the approach that we've taken for GC8 is that we have these core information notes and technical briefs um that we have been working very diligently with our experts on in the global fund and outside the global fund to complete to be able to publish for you this week. Now these core guidance are the ones that we would expect all applicants, all technical assistance providers um and key partners who are going to be participating in country dialogue to be familiar with.

It's these ones. There is additional supplemental guidance that some of these documents may refer to and so you could explore more detail, more depth if that was an area of interest for you, but it is not required reading. It is only the core guidance that is indicated here. That is the required reading um for preparing for grant cycle 8. Next slide. Okay. So I told you we would get into the operational planning. We've got a few slides here on with this background.

What do you do right now? Um what can you do and how can you be thinking ahead to prepare for what's ahead of us for 2026. So where are we today? We are pretty much on that little black dot on the left hand side in December that says applicant materials published. Um we are expecting the publication to be today. Um so in the next couple of days to make give us a little bit of a buffer here. You can go on to the global fund website.

Um, and I will kindly ask one of my colleagues who is monitoring the chat to include the address of the global fund web page where you would be able to go to then look for the application forms and the applicant investment guidance. We are starting today with this first kickoff info session to give the big picture and then we have several other information sessions that will be offered between now and the end of March.

As I mentioned earlier, the allocation letters are currently um our critical path takes us to the first week of March. Now, if the board makes a change and the sources of funds for the allocation in February, we will have to redo some work and so then the allocation letters would be a little later. So, I cannot give you a precise date today, but I can tell you that we're working to turn that around as fast as we possibly can after the board decisions in February.

And then between the allocation letters and the end of the year, there are three different submission windows for the funding requests for review by the technical review panel. And there are multiple different opportunities to submit the grant documents for review by the grant approvals committee and board approval before the end of the year. The reason why you see that green line of grant making um stretching earlier into the the year is because of this opportunity to have a CCM make the choice between doing a classic funding request where you have the funding request development and then the grant making or whether or not you want to advance some of that grant making with a grant ready funding request and invite a continuing principal recipient to be able to develop the grant specific performance framework and detailed budget to go along with the funding request itself.

Of course, implementation continues. We know that and we know that's the most important way of using the current money that is already in country. So, none of us have forgotten about that and we recognize these additional pieces of applying for funding stages go on top of that implementation of your current grants. Yet, we also kn know that the majority of GC8 grants will be starting in January 27. Um, and so we need to be going through these steps as efficiently as we can to be able to make those timelines work.

Next slide, please. So, I've already alluded to some of the the ways that we would expect country dialogue to be the same, inclusive, transparent, and different, holistic, integrated. Um but here are some other areas that you can already be starting the discussion about now in your country context. How would you think about integration and how where are the opportunities for you to accelerate that discussion around integration and this is integrating services for HIV TB malaria and integration in the context of integrating into the primary health care system.

These discussions take time. Um they can be extremely impactful, but we we shouldn't underestimate that these discussions should be starting soon in order to actually be able to do a step change for the grant cycle 8 grants and think about how that global fund funding um could be used as a catalyst. So this is the second point on the list. Global fund investments are not sustainability. Sustainability are the national investments.

Um, and what's important to do is to think about the global fund investment as a catalyst for that national investment, the national health investment. To be thinking about how those domestic sources of financing can be progressively covering all or most of the first line treatments, diagnostics and service delivery costs. um and how we can then synergize with the other source of funds, whether or not they're domestic or other donors or um development bank agreements to be able to then get to a a an optimally designed prioritized way of investing all the available sources of funds.

As you think about that, the role of implementation arrangements and programming overall is important. How can we simplify that? Where could we cut levels? Where could we cut layers? Um, where would we need to trim in order to be able to fit within the sources of funds both domestically or from the global fund or other sources that may be very different than they have been in the past. Value for money is a key consideration here and so we would encourage you to review the value for money guidance the global fund makes available and to be discussing this in your national context.

The selection of principal recipients as a part of this thinking about simplifying your implementation arrangements and your programming is important and we would encourage you to do this um as soon as is reasonable in your country context. If you're able to confirm uh nominate an existing PR that allows you different options as you prepare for either the classic or the grant ready funding request for GC8. The submission windows for the funding requests themselves, you saw them already on the overview.

Um there are three in 2026 and there will be more in 20127 for those of you who have grants that don't start at the beginning of the funding cycle um but start a little later on. Window one and window two are the windows that you would need to target if you have grants that end in December 2026. So the window one submission of the 8th of June is the first one. It's about 3 months after you're going to be getting your allocation letter.

Um we've had many successful examples of applicants that have been able to develop an excellent funding request in that 3month time frame with some advanced country dialogue discussions which is why we're advising that you start thinking about your planning for country dialogue now even before the allocation letter itself has gone out. Window two submission is the 27th of June. And then the third window of the 5th of October, those would be for grants that would not need to be starting in January 27, but would start later on in 2027.

The submission of the funding requests themselves is going to be a bit different in grant cycle 8. Um, some of you may be familiar already with the partner portal. This is an extension of the global fund grant operating system to an external um framework. And so that grant operating system framework called the partner portal has already been used by principal recipients um and LFAS in country and is now being extended to be used with the CCMS as well.

I believe most CCMs have already had their introduction to the partner portal. There are some CCM functions that are already taking place there as of this year. Um and now for the funding request submission in 2026 and onwards, we're going to be using the partner portal for this as well. The interface will be very simple for the funding request development and submission stage. It will provide details of the required documents.

It will show you which ones have been attached and which ones still need to be attached. And when the documents are finally submitted, there will be um some automated quality assurance screening that happens once that submission happens on the on the global fund side of the partner portal. So this is something new. We'll be talking to you more about this. We'll be having specific clinics with CCMS to be able to walk you through the partner portal interface.

Um and there are some things that you can do now to start preparing for that. So, the first thing to think about is who your current admin focal points are. Already now in December, we would like you to look at those admin focal points in the grant entity data to confirm that they're still valid, that the names, the emails are correct. That's all you need to do right now. But you then should be starting to discuss in that CCM context, who would you like to appoint from your CCM members? um and maybe some consultants or TA providers that may be supporting your funding request development.

Who needs to be set up as someone that can download those documents and attach the completed documents and then who finally is going to be your submitter. You don't need a lot of submitters. You need one maybe two submitters. Um but you may want a few editors. They're going to be able to download the documents and share them by email. You can do all of your work offline. The performance framework and detailed budget for the funding request, the classic funding request are still offline documents that you can complete, you can email, you can look at together before you then finally submit them and attach them.

However, if you're working on a grant ready funding request, there is a difference. And so since you will be asking your principal recipient who already is in the partner portal to develop a grant specific uh performance framework or budget, they would be doing that in the partner portal and it is um an online performance framework. So, there are some differences. Um, but when you decide whether or not you want to pursue that grant ready or the classic funding request submission, um, you can start thinking about who needs to be added in to the grant entity data for editor and submitter access to the funding request module of the partner portal.

And we'll talk more about this in January. Okay. So, what's coming up next? Um, I've referred to January. There are some information sessions that are coming. The first one is going to be an applicant guidance session that was going to give you some of the big picture on the investment guidance for grant cycle 8 and what's changed. And in our investment guidance, we are being more concrete about areas the global fund would consider um being essential and areas that the global fund wants to call out as saying um it would require a lot of justification or maybe even discourage investment in with global fund financing.

Um so we want to be more explicit about that. We want to communicate that for you. Um so not only can you read the information notes but you can also attend the session where this will be presented and ask your questions there. The applying as core and high impact with the full review that session will take place in January and we'll go through more details on that partner portal um as well as the different um questions in the funding request forms and the annexes that need to be completed.

There's another session on applicant guidance focusing on sustainability, transition, co- financing, integration, value for money, some of these other areas that are broader than the specific investment guidance information notes. We'll do a workshop on some of the required annexes that go along with the funding request. um covering the changes to the modular framework for grant cycle 8 that performance framework and detailed budget programmatic gap tables and the funding landscape tables.

And then in March after the final allocation decisions have been made and the allocation letters go out. We've tentatively settled on the 12th of March as the date. We'll have a session on the outcome of the allocation and catalytic investment decisions and then we'll do that session for the focused portfolios after the allocation letters have been received and applicants have a better understanding of their transition pathways.

Final slide for me is just a note on the resources that will be available online because many of the decisions that relate to grant cycle 8 have been made recently or are still being made. There are governance decisions that are still being made. Um, we have not produced an applicant handbook for grant cycle 8. We will be leveraging our website to be able to update you as things evolve as they change. And I would encourage you to um be regularly looking at the website.

We'll have a section on key messages, updates. We'll have that section on applicant guidance and the instructions, information about the submission windows and advice on how you can navigate partner portal will be available. Um and then the country information trackers, the um the the standard ones that we have produced in the past that we will continue to make available to you, those will still be available on the global fund website.

So, I'm expecting our application forms and guidance to go live today or in the next couple of days. Um, so hopefully that will be the first thing that you'll be able to take a look at and then come to our future info sessions with more of your questions if you have them. Okay, so I've covered the key information. I know it's been a lot and it's big picture. I'm sure you have questions. So, what you can do now is you can put your questions in the chat if you haven't already been indicating them.

Um questions can be received in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese. And then my colleagues will be putting those together into the slides. What we'll be doing next is I'll read the question out loud so that the interpreters are able to um then convey that in all languages and then either I will respond or some will invite someone else to respond. Um so thank you so far for your attention. We've got another half hour of our session and hopefully we can get through as many of your questions as possible.

Okay, so the first question um and let me just make a point actually that these slides are available on the global fund website in a PDF form in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. So for the simplicity of me communicating to you right now in English, they have been in English on the screen, but we have the different language versions available for you in a PDF. So you are able to access those slides now. Um, and so one of the first questions relates to something on the slide that maybe I didn't explain well enough, which was the little eight in the octagon.

Um, so the question is, what does the eight in the octagon with a little tiny eight indicate in the slides? Um, does it indicate that something is new for grant cycle 8? Yes. Yes, that's exactly what it indicates. Thank you for picking up on that. Um, what I've gone through today has been a combination of reinforcing what you know already, what has been true in the past and remains true and what is new, what is an introduction for grant cycle 8 that is going to be different or um, something that you would have to adapt to.

And so that little octagon on the slides that you can see in your PDFs um, just highlights the areas that are different for grant cycle 8. So question two, in grant cycle 8, will alternative funding sources be revealed through an innovative manner? Um, I would love that. I think we would all love for new funding sources to be revealed. Um certainly what I can tell you right now is that the global fund the way that we operate in terms of overall allocation funding is that the public sector contributions are required to go into that overall sources of funds for the allocation.

Private sector contributions can either go into the overall sources of funding or can be dedicated to one or more catalytic investment areas. Uh and so what I can tell you right now is that we have enough money for country allocations and we have enough money to start off our catalytic investment priority areas. And when more money is available when we have new sources of private sector contributions for catalytic um or additional public or private sector that go to the country funding.

There could also be the option of the global fund doing a round of portfolio optimization in grant cycle 8, but that has not been confirmed yet. Um, so the the available sources are being discussed now at the audit and finance committee and then at the global fund board in February. Um, and that will be what we are able to use for the basis of the allocation communication that goes out in the allocation letter. So the question three is what is the allocation amount for grant cycle 8.

So the individual country allocation amounts have not been calculated yet. That will um the allocation optimization model will be kicked off in January and as I explained be communicated in the allocation letter. What we anticipate as the sources of funds for the allocation takes the pledges that have been received to date um with a consideration for areas like risk, operational expenses, the amount that is needs to be dedicated to um catalytic versus country allocations etc. um and we expect that to be somewhere in the range of 11.1 billion.

So just for for perspective in grant cycle 7 the sources of funds was um 13.128 billion um and so 11 billion is less than grant cycle 7 started with midcycle in June of this year we did a reduction of a further bit more than a billion on the country allocation amounts um and so even compared to the reduced allocation funding that are currently in the grant cycle 7 grants. The amount that is likely going to be available for grant cycle 8 will be less than that.

So that's why we started off this conversation today with a reality check of we all need to adapt to this situation where the allocations are going to very likely be lower than what they have been in the past. And so, how do we think differently about the way that we prioritize um and approach value for money and integration as tools um to be more effective with the way that we're investing? Question four, with a handful of major donors still outstanding, is there a hard deadline for these donors to commit in order for their pledges to be factored into calculations for the March allocation letters?

So, these um pending decisions, pending pledges, there are a few left. Yes. Um, some have indicated that they should be able to make those commitments soon, others in January, but certainly we would need to have those commitments before the board meeting um that starts on the 10th of February, in order for us to be able to integrate them into the allocation decisions that would then be communicated in the allocation letters.

However, the doors remain open. If there are pledges that are received after that board meeting and after the allocation letters go out, I guarantee you we will put them to good use. Those funds would then be immediately converted into an opportunity um to be able to invest them and invest them well. And whether or not that's through portfolio allocation, portfolio optimization designations, or whether or not that's integrated into an additional allocation, um we would make sure that the funding would be um very quickly converted into good use.

Given the question number five, given the compressed timelines, are there recommendations that the global fund will be issuing on which windows countries should aim for? For example, should countries that historically applied in windows 1 and two, should they aim for window one to avoid a lapse in global fund funding? How and when will we discover whether our funding request needs to be in the first window or the second window?

Okay, really great question and it's not a straightforward answer, but you're I think you're already thinking along the same lines I am, which is that indeed you need to work backwards. So, if you know already that your grant is going to be ending in December 26 and that you need a new grant signed ready for the start of implementation in January 27, then you do need to be aiming for window one or window 2. And if you've come to window one in the past, it would be great for you to target window one in grant cycle 8 as well.

But if you're working on getting grant ready documents ready for your funding request and you're bringing forward some of those grant negotiations and already getting to a very solid PF and DB on a grant basis, window two is also fine because you just then would need to finalize those grant negotiations and you could then submit in time for the gak review, the board approval and have your grant signed within that time frame.

On average, as we look back even in grant cycle 7, it was about the average was about seven months from funding request submission to board approval. So this time frame is not impossible by any stretch. We actually had very successful applicants who were able to manage that whole process in 4 months. So, we know it can be done and we know it can be done well with quality funding requests and quality grants and hopefully the tools that we've given you with the options of what makes sense for your country um with the options of doing a classic funding request and then doing grant making as a second step or doing the grant ready funding request and starting those grant negotiations early.

Hopefully, these options give you more flexibility to do what makes sense in your country context. So question six, what is the timeline for funding request admission with allocation letters expect to come in March? So we just talked about this um funding request admission, there are three windows for 2026 and then there will be more in 2027. So you'll need to work backwards from when your grant ends to then agree within your CCM which window you're targeting um and then how do you want to plan your dialogue to be able to prepare for that submission.

Question seven, could you tell us which countries are eligible to apply for funding? So, I am very close to being able to tell you which countries are eligible. We have the eligibility list drafted um for 2026, which is the starting point to the allocation methodology. But I need to emphasize something. Just because a country component is eligible does not guarantee that it will receive an allocation. And I think that's really important for all of us to keep in mind.

There have been situations in the past where a country that has been eligible has not received allocation funding. And if a country does not receive an allocation and does not receive an allocation letter, they are not able to independently apply for global fund financing. It's possible that countries who um are not eligible could join with eligible countries in a multi-grant um so a multi-country proposal for catalytic investments once we know what those ones are and which areas would be part of those different um catalytic investment priorities.

So that is a possibility. Um, but I can't tell you today which countries will receive an allocation, but we will be publishing the eligibility list in January. Question eight, will all countries regardless of disease burden and income group receive transition pathways and timelines? The answer to that question is most countries, if not all, will receive some visibility on transition pathways and timelines. Some countries will receive a specific communication in their allocation letter that says this is your final allocation and which case grant cycle 8 would be the last allocation for that country.

In other cases, we may give visibility on you are on a mediumterm transition acceleration path and so you could anticipate having two more allocation cycles and other countries potentially three. So there will be a deliberate communication around transition pathways and timelines in the allocation letters. um the countries that are higher income level and lower disease burden will be quicker to transition. Number nine, where can we access the high and low burden thresholds and definitions to determine how each country is classified?

Those definitions are included in the eligibility policy. And so the policy itself gives a guidance on how those um thresholds are determined. In the case of disease burden, it's high or not high. Um and the data is received from our technical partners. Um in the case of income categorization, we take information from uh an external source, but we look at it over the last 3 years and then use the thresholds from the um World Bank external source to then determine the income categorization.

So the definitions are available in the eligibility policy and the actual determinations will be available for uh in January. in the eligibility list. Are there more questions? Oh, okay. We're starting at one again. Okay. One, please provide more details on the integrated country dialogue. Okay. So what I'm going to tell you right now is integrated country dialogue means that we're no longer thinking of this is my HIV allocation and I'm going to talk to other HIV people about how HIV is going to spend the HIV money.

That doesn't exist anymore. What we need to be thinking about is how we approach country dialogue as a this is a country's allocation funding that is available. The preliminary designation of HIV TB malaria is an output of the allocation methodology but is the starting point for the conversation in country around program split. Which amount of the funds needs to be designated to health systems? Which amount of the funds potentially needs to then be shifted in between the diseases depending on the country context or do you keep the proposed split from the global fund and then select a proportionate amount from each for health systems.

TCMs approach this in different ways, but those conversations need to be not about splitting the money, but about how the money overall can be used for the most impactful programming that is going to make the biggest difference in terms of reducing disease burden so that there is less of a mortgage that needs to be carried forward in the future with the expectation that health financing will continue to be challenging uh in the years ahead.

Question two, single multi-country request means one request that includes three diseases and RSSH in one combined request. Yes, bingo. Um the idea that the requirement is that all the funding needs to come together for review but ideally it is developed and your dialogue leads into this single multicmponent request I think is what you mean here. um so that the diseases that you're eligible for and your health system investment is all presented in one one request in one way um so that it is not here's what we want to do in HIV here's what we want to do in TB here's what we want to do in malaria and they're separate we are going to be asking and you'll see this in the funding request forms where are the opportunities for integration what have you already done what are the priorities for integration for grant cycle 8 and where will you get to in the future because we know that integration can be a really important tool um as I mentioned earlier not only for value for money but also for impact um and so that's integration across the diseases and integration into the primary health care system number three we haven't seen any mention of the allocation of funds for RSSH but only for the three diseases is the country allowed to allocate these funds as it could do in previous allocations. 100% yes.

So our policy for the allocation methodology only has HIV TB malaria in it. So the global disease split only has those three diseases but the output is a country allocation and the expectation is the country needs to be looking at this as a single allocation and have that integrated dialogue and a combined request. Health systems investment is an essential part of that. And so in your program split confirmation in the high impact and core countries especially, we are going to be asking you as you did in the last cycle to designate how much of that funding from your allocation of the three diseases is going to be invested in RSSH. um and then how much of that health system amount um will be contributing then back to the diseases and on a on a um on a cross disease on a cross cutting basis.

So the um the intention is that we maintain or increase our investment in health systems because we know that this is the foundation for what will actually drive more effectiveness for the HIV, TB and malaria programming, especially as we look at this as a primary healthcare investment um and not just a standalone investment. Question four. Does a single multicomponent request mean there will be one PR? I think that's what it's saying.

If in a country there are two PRs, does this mean one PR must submit the application? So, really good question. And I think the single multicomponent request is about the funding request. And within the funding request, it could either be a classic funding request, which would have one performance framework and one detailed budget for the whole funding request. Or if a CCM chooses to nominate a continuing PR and invites them to do the grant making in advance, then each PR would develop their own grants specific performance framework and detailed budget that would then be submitted to the CCM for review.

And when the CCM is happy that all the grants are submitted and look good, they submit it all as a package to the global fund. So in no case does one PR do the work of the other PRs. Each if in the case of a grant ready funding request, each PR would do their own performance framework and detailed budget and submit it to the CCM. Question five. In challenging in challenging operating environment countries where the global fund selects the PR, this would be ASP.

Would the PR use the grant ready or classic funding request and when would global fund need to decide on the PR? Okay. So for ASP countries, it is true that the global fund um makes the primary decision on the the key implement the principal recipient and I think it would be the global fund in consultation with the CCM that would decide whether or not it is an appropriate context in which the PR would be invited to do a grant ready PF and detailed budget at the time of the funding request or not.

This is not going to be something that the global fund would decide in isolation. So this is an important discussion that the global fund and the CCM would need to have together even in challenging operating environments even in ASP countries. Question six. If the CCM decides to have a mix of existing PRs and a new PR, would this use the grant ready funding request or the classic? If any of the principal recipients are new, then a classic funding request needs to be used.

And so I think that's it's a great question and it's one of those nuances of okay so if I've got four PRs and I as a CCM we decide that three of them will continue but we need one new one then the default decision is it's a classic funding request and the performance framework and detailed budget would need to correspond to the total funding request itself and not the grant specific level. Number seven are grant ready funding requests going to be reviewed by the TRP?

The answer is yes. So in some cases the TRP will receive the classic funding request and in other cases the TRP would receive the funding request form and all the other annexes and multiple grants specific performance framework and detailed budget um which will be even more granular than what they have seen in the past but more concrete. Um and so there are obviously um advantages to that in a different challenge but the TRP will be equipped to do that.

Question eight, I would like some clarification. Will there be a single performance framework and a single budget for each disease or will everything be integrated into a single PF and budget? This is a choice of a country to be able to determine themselves whether or not they will have one principal recipient for all of the global fund financing. some countries do this or whether or not they will have different principal recipients which could be split by disease component or could be split across disease components.

Um so there are so many different permutations of how this can be done. That is a discussion that the CCM needs to have about implementation arrangements. We encourage all CCMs to start those discussions now and to be thinking about how to simplify the implementation arrangements. Whether or not that's reducing the number of principal recipients or whether or not that's looking at how um a different combination or reduction of subreipients could be more effective.

So the the actual submission for the funding request itself is going to be a bit different than what you end up with with your implementation arrangements. Um but this is an important discussion for CCMs to begin at this stage. Number nine, my understanding was that before it was considered a potential conflict of interest for the PRs to be involved early on. Could you clarify if that's no longer a concern? Okay. So what's important is that the principal recipient should not be asked to be consulting um on areas if they're not confirmed as the principal recipient for the next funding cycle.

So if the CCM is able to start those discussions early about whether or not they want to adapt their implementation arrangements, whether or not they're going to keep existing principal recipients or they're going to be looking for new ones. And if they get to a stage of saying yes, we want to nominate an existing principal recipient to continue in grant cycle 8. Once that nomination, that vote has happened, then that principal recipient is an appropriate consultant for grant cycle 8, but they are a consultant.

It is the the CCM that is the decision maker on the funding request submission. So while the principal recipient could be negotiating a grant level PF and detailed budget with the the country team for example the global fund country team it would be the CCM that would need to make the final decision on whether or not that grant matches up with the priorities that they have discussed in their dialogue and what is documented in the funding request form itself.

So this is very tricky and needs to be balanced. But the principal recipient is not the decision maker on what is submitted to the global fund at the funding request stage. It is the CCM. Are there other questions? Yes. Starting at one again for ASP countries. When will the PR know about the decision on the PR selection? When will countries know the outcome of assessments? So I don't have a date for you. Um as I mentioned on the question in the previous slide um discussions around implementation arrangements even in ASP countries um between the global fund and the CCM will be important and will not be um unilateral without any discussion in advance.

So I can tell you that we can get back to you and in the next conversation that we have together in January on the core and the high impact um application with the full review we can specifically have a slide on um how any of these process steps would apply in the case of ASP countries. So let us come back to you with more details um and a bit more of a an estimate on the sequence of timing of when that would happen.

Question two, based on the compressed timeline, at which stage would you recommend CCMs are making decisions about PRs before or after the allocation communications in March? Is there a more concrete cutoff for what early nomination of PRs means for being eligible for grant ready? For example, 3 months before submission or two months also acceptable. Really great question. So, I will give you the um rule of thumb. I'm not sure if that expression exists in our translated interpretation, [laughter] but the rule of thumb is that if a CCM is aiming for window one and they have not been able to make a decision about their CCM by about their their principal recipient selection and have that vote by about February, then they should move into the classic funding request.

Um, but if they're aiming for window two and they want to do more of that grant making negotiation upfront, then they have plenty of time. You know, that submission isn't due until the end of July. Roughly, we would estimate, you know, based on our experience, it's about 3 months um to get a funding request ready. And so early selection, early nomination of a principal recipient could take place before the allocation letter goes out, but I wouldn't advise it necessarily unless it's very clear in that country context.

You could have a situation whereby even if the funding was significantly cut, you have one principal recipient. So then if you only have one principal recipient and they're well performing and the CCM decides that that is still going to be their one principal recipient for grant cycle 8, you could most certainly have that vote in January or February. You don't need an allocation amount to make that decision. In countries that have much more complex implementation arrangements and may have to make very tough prioritization decisions and in fact scale back whole areas of their programming. you would need the allocation information to be able to make that determination on principal recipients.

So there isn't a black and white answer on how early is advised. It will depend on the country context. Um it's possible to do before the allocation goes out if that makes sense in the country context. In many cases, it would be something that I would encourage a CCM to plan the meeting for, you know, in March so that they could already be thinking about it in advance, have the data on performance available and understand once the allocation amount has made available to them, how that would match up with their implementation arrangements for GC8.

Question three, and I'm realizing we've only got three minutes left, so I'll answer the questions on the page quickly. Um, and then if there are follow-up questions that we need to respond to um with an FAQ, we'll publish that online. Um, question three, thank you for clarifying when we can involve the PR in preparation of the funding application in case it's the same or continuing PR. Once the CCM votes on whether or not to nominate a PR to continue, that PR could be um a great resource for the CCM to be very concrete about the preparations of the funding request and the future grants.

Question four, it was mentioned that for the classic approach, the detailed budget and performance framework would remain offline files, but the grant ready approach would have the annexes in the portal. In the grant ready approach, will there be offline Excel files that will be uploaded or necessary to work on the annexes in a web-based interface? Yeah, good question. Um, we'll get into those details in January, but yes, for the classic there will be an offline PF detailed budget.

For the grant ready, if it's a continuing PR, they already have access to the grant making partner portal. They will be doing the PF in an online form. in the portal. The detailed budget can still be done in Excel offline. To complete the detailed budget though, they would probably need to do the HPMT. The HPMT is no longer a requirement for the funding request phase, but is often used to prefill some elements of the detailed budget.

So, that also is only available to be done online. So there are different different permutations here and I realize it's complex and I'm very sorry as we are migrating to using an an interface um and balancing that with different capacity levels in different countries um we're trying to find a really good way of approaching what is possible to do offline what is really needed to be done online um and so we'll discuss more about this in January in the session on high impacting core portfolios So question five, what benchmarks or recommendations will be provided for countries regarding progressive increases in financing?

Matt, are you still online? Are you able to answer this? >> Yeah, I'm here, Lindsay. >> Thanks. Go ahead. >> Um, so as Lindsay was talking about, there's two real strong focus areas for co-inancing in this next coming grant cycle. The first one is around um progressive expenditure on health overall for low-income countries and lower middle- inome countries. And when we think about benchmarks for that, that's really about seeing increased financing of the health sector overall.

That can be either in terms of absolute increases or it can be in terms of the percentage of government expenditure that is dedicated to the health center, health health sector. So those are the kind of benchmarks we focus on when we think about that requirement. For the other requirement Lindsay was talking about is that the new co-inancing policy really focuses heavily on progressive uptake of specific programmatic interventions across all countries in the portfolio.

And we think about benchmarks for that requirement. It's really about looking at what is currently funded with domestic financing, what is funded uh with global fund grant financing, and finding the optimal balance of those two things and seeing a progressive uptake of those specific costs over time. Lindsay talked about this in her response. She talked about in some contexts that's going to be gradual. It's going to be a bit slower, particularly in lower income, lower middle- inome contexts. in other contexts in higher income portfolios we really need to see accelerated uptake of those costs when it comes to um especially as we work to prepare for transition.

So I'll hold it there Lindsay and I hope that helps. >> Thanks so much. You actually want to respond to the next question as well Matt around sustainability under GC8 constraints. What strategies are in place to ensure program sustainability and minimize future funding gap? Sure. Lindsay, you've been talking a lot about the increased emphasis on sustainability throughout the webinar. Um, and this will be a major focus of of GCA.

It's hard to talk about strategies because they're really going to be country context specific. Um, sometimes when people ask this question, we want to find the answer for all countries, but it really depends on country context. But there's probably going to be some themes that will be really relevant across the portfolio. One will be around program optimization. Really thinking about how we can be implementing programs as efficiently as possible in reduced envelopes that we have.

Another is around um the uptake of critical costs. Um if you look at the portfolio, we still see places where a significant amount of the most critical interventions are still supported by external financing and we need to see gradual uptake of those costs. So that's another uh strategy that I think is relevant everywhere. We also want to see increased implementation through national systems as much as we possibly can see which is a theme that I think is going to be relevant across the portfolio.

So it's really hard when guidance comes out around sustainability. There'll be a whole variety of approaches that are highlighted which I would encourage everyone to look at. And I think the key is really thinking about which of those approaches, which of those strategies fit with the particular country context. >> Thanks very much. And then um the last question we'll answer quickly now is just related to the transition pathways.

Um the areas that the global fund is looking at and Matt's involved in this pro um process as well um has to do with the time frame um and it could be a matter of a final allocation or a communication that a country is going to look at um an even shorter period of time than a final allocation or it could be two cycles or it could be longer than that. Um but these are the different variables that we are considering as we look at eligibility allocation decisions um and delivering on that strategic shift of moving the funding from the lowest burden to the highest burden um and from the higher income to the lower income.

Um so as we make that shift these are the the consequences of making those significant moves. Is there anything that you wanted to add on that Matt? No, I think the only thing I'll add uh Lindsay is that really what this is about is being as transparent, honest, and predictable as we can possibly be. One of the things we often hear from countries is that as we think about transition, um the more we can know about timelines for external financing and global fund financing, the better we can plan in advance and quite frankly, the better we can shape the investments uh through the grants to support that transition process.

And so the idea of providing these timelines is really to help increase that predictability um support us to shape the investments in the best possible way and support with that advanced planning. So that's the only thing I would add. >> Thanks. So guys, we're out of time and I'm just looking um at a note that one of my colleagues put into my chat which says, "Yeah, there's three more slides of questions." So clearly there are lots of questions out there um that we need to to find a good time to answer.

We'll do some Q&A that we'll post onto the global fund website. Um we'll cover off as many of these questions as we can in the next session on applying as core and high impact. Um so thank you for your patience and your time and your attention. Um and as we have new information available, we will be using our website um to provide updates for you. So as I understand it, um David, correct me if I'm wrong, but we have the slides available in PDF form already on the global fund website. now.

So you can go on to the website to look at those slides yourself, download them in your preferred language option. Um and then we will see you again in the next information session. And Jin