There are a number of EECA countries eligible for the Global Fund’s funding within the GC7 which are currently at the Grant Making stage of the Global Fund’s Grant Life Cycle (Armenia (HIV, TB), Kosovo (HIV, TB), Montenegro (HIV)) or will be at this stage in early 2025 (Georgia (HIV, TB), Kazakhstan (TB) and Serbia (HIV)). While community engagement is visible in the initial stages of the country dialogue process including community consultations and funding request development, it is observed that community engagement at the Grant Making stage is limited and the opportunities for such engagement as well as the Grant Making process itself is unclear for the civil society and communities’ representatives.

To further strengthen community engagement at this stage of Global Fund’s Grant Life Cycle, EECA Learning Hub in collaboration with TBEC, a Component 2 partner of the Global Fund’s Community Engagement Strategic Initiative (CE SI), are aimed to organize a webinar to raise awareness among communities and civil society in the region on available guidance, opportunities and best practices of community engagement during the Grant Making and share the lessons learned.

Objectives:

The webinar aims to support the meaningful engagement of civil society and community representatives during the Grant Making stage of the Global Fund’s Grant Life Cycle in EECA region by:

• Improving their understanding of the Global Fund’s minimum expectations for community engagement across different grant cycle stages with an emphasis on Grant Making one.
• Improving their understanding of the roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders (CCMs, CTs, PRs, SRs, LFAs etc.) during Grant Making.
• Identifying opportunities available for communities to be meaningfully engaged at Grant Making stage.
• Identifying potential bottle necks and challenges community partners may face when engaging in Grant Making.
• Learning from the best practices and lessons learned from community partners in the EECA region on how to address these bottle necks and challenges.

Target audience: civil society and community representatives engaged in Global Fund related processes in EECA region.

Speakers

• Svetlana Dupriez, Lead, GAC Secretariat, A2F Department, Global Fund’s Secretariat.
• Gayane Arustamyan, Technical Advisor, CRG Investment Support, Community Rights and Gender Department, Global Fund’s Secretariat
• Oxana Rucsineanu, ANB de TB din RM “SMIT” (Moldova)
• Anya Sarang, independent consultant

Facilitation – representative of the EECA Regional Platform

Webinar’s agenda:

• Welcome, brief overview of the session’s objectives and agenda
• Global Fund’s expectations for Community Engagement:
  • Funding request development and grant making process: brief overview of the key stages
  • Roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders (including CCM, TRP, LFA) during the Grant Making
  • Overview of the Global Fund’s minimum expectations for community engagement (especially at Grant Making stage)
  • Entry points for community engagement during Grant Making
• Community engagement during the Grant Making – example from Moldova (GC7, TB grant): overview of the process, challenges and bottle necks experienced by communities and civil society, lessons learnt and recommendations
• Community engagement during Grant Making – example from Tajikistan (GC7, HIV grant): overview of the process, challenges and bottle necks experienced by communities and civil society, lessons learnt and recommendations
• Moderated discussion

Webinar materials