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RBM Partnership - Supporting Malaria
Proposals to the Global Fund
Since 2002, approximately US$ 1.7 billion has been
granted for malaria control in sub-Saharan Africa
by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
TB, and Malaria. However, in the last (Round 6) funding cycle, only 32 percent
of all submitted proposals for malaria control were successful in reviews
by the Technical Review Panel, an independent group of experts assembled to
assess the proposals.
Success rates of malaria proposals from African countries were even lower.
The failure to secure reliable funding for those countries with the highest
disease burden continues to hinder country efforts to scale up malaria
control.
In 2006, the Global Fund challenged the Roll Back Malaria (RBM)
Partnership Board to collectively mobilize goal-oriented,
highly-focused technical assistance for malaria-endemic countries in order
to increase the acceptance rate of malaria grant proposals. In response,
the RBM Partnership launched a strategic campaign to ensure the quality of Round 7 proposals was significantly
improved. Nineteen countries were systematically identified and prioritized
to receive a package of comprehensive assistance. Training workshops
were held in Kenya and Cameroon
to assist applicant countries with proposal preparation and consultants,
both national and international, were mobilized, along with intensive
support from RBM partner organizations. As part of this process, more than
120 participants from these 19 countries took part in "mock" review panels
and further consultations with leading public health experts prior to the
submission deadline.
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This was the global malaria community's first
coordinated push to assist countries to develop quality proposals and
resulted in an unprecedented, country-led effort to secure malaria control
funding across the African continent. With the Technical Review Panel for
the Round 7 funding cycle
taking place at the end of August 2007, countries and their partners aim to
have at least 60 percent of
these proposals approved.
Malaria control in Africa
is at a critical juncture. Progress is being made and technologies to
control the disease exist. But if resources are not available to build on
the current successes and sustain the momentum to fight malaria, African
countries run the risk of losing even more people to this preventable and
treatable disease.
The RBM Partnership stepped up to the Global Fund's challenge and have
established a "current-best-effort" among countries to produce
the most technically-sound set of malaria proposal ever submitted. Now,
funding hinges on the independent technical and administrative reviews and
on the existence of adequate resources within the Global Fund. The lives of
at least one million people a year depend on it.
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