THE GLOBAL FUND’S COMMUNITY, RIGHTS AND GENDER (CRG) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME. The case of Georgia (2021)

At the end of 2019, the Global Fund informed the Georgian Government of the allocation of resources for the 2020-2022 period in the amount of USD17,556,486 to increase and sustain the national response to the HIV and TB epidemics. According to Global Fund rules, a funding request has to be prepared with the meaningful involvement of all stakeholders and beneficiaries, particularly the inclusion of representatives of key populations.

In early 2021, the Georgian Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM) took the initiative to request technical assistance (TA) available within the Global Fund’s Community, Rights and Gender (CRG) TA Program to review achievements and set the programmatic priorities for the new funding period. As a part of the TA request development process, the CCM conducted individual and group online meetings with the organisations to collect information on priorities for the CRG TA; and developed a draft and circulated the document among participants to collect suggestions, comments and recommendations. Suggestions were incorporated into the final version of the document. Civil society organisations (CSOs)/CBOs played an active role in the development of the TA request, defined the key TA objectives and ensured the engagement of representatives of all KPs in the consultation process.

In February 2021, the request for TA was submitted by the CCM on behalf of, and in consultation with, CSOs/CBOs led by or working with key populations, people living with HIV or affected by TB.

In March 2021, the request for TA was approved by the Global Fund, all planned activities were conducted and completed by the end of August 2021. Total TA budget was USD14.885. Technical assistance provider was ECOM.

Georgia submitted the new HIV/TB funding request to the Global Fund in February 2022 and currently the grantmaking process is underway. The submitted document reflected the results of cooperation between different stakeholders, CSOs and CBOs mobilized within the framework of CRG TA.