5% Initiative Funding Call on the Prevention and Treatment of three Pandemics (HIV, TB and Malaria) for People in Vulnerable Situations

Deadline: 1 July 2019

The 5% Initiative has launched a Call for Proposals entitled “Mothers, children and adolescents: developing strategies to improve integration of HIV, TB and malaria prevention, screening and management into health systems”.

The purpose of this call for proposals is to ensure universal access to the prevention and treatment of the three pandemics (HIV, TB and malaria) for people in vulnerable situations, or those at risk of infection or disease, is an essential element of the Global Fund’s strategy to end HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Pregnant women, newborns, children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable groups for these diseases.

This CFP aims to support operational research projects aimed at testing innovative strategies to improve the access, quality and efficiency of integrated services for prevention, early detection, care and support for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria for women, children and adolescents.

Research Proposals

These are broken down into four (4) complementary and non-exclusive themes, focusing first on each of these populations and then on the integrative aspect in the health system, with emphasis on the community health component.

• Pregnant Women and Newborn Infants
  • Develop and test HIV, TB and malaria screening strategies for pregnant women and newborns in maternal and child health services for appropriate (preventive, therapeutic or curative) management, by facilitating their integration at decentralized level, particularly in very remote areas.
• Children
  • Develop and test strategies to improve screening and access to care for children (care, support and treatment) for the three diseases – especially through community-based approaches – and identify factors that promote or impede the link with starting and continuing treatment.
  • Develop and test service delivery models to improve the health status of children along the HIV/TB/malaria care continuum (screening and access to care), in particular through the integration of all care within the platform dedicated to maternal and child health.
• Adolescents
  • Develop and test effective follow-up strategies to improve adolescent adherence and retention, and identify factors affecting their success by minimizing disruptions in access to education and care.
• Health Systems
  • Identify family-centered community strategies for detection of HIV, TB and malaria to facilitate early entry and retention in the care continuum.
  • Develop and test strategies to strengthen collaboration between health centers and the community providing primary health care services to mothers, children and adolescents to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

Implementing this type of research requires close collaboration between all partners, researchers, managers and staff of health programs and services, civil society and local communities. The aim is to ensure that the best strategies are identified to improve access to prevention, diagnosis and care for patients and their families, and that they are put into practice in health policies and systems based on reliable data that respects the values, preferences and rights of patients.

NB: In this document they refer to tuberculosis to mean both active and latent TB.

Eligibility Criteria

Projects that do not meet all of the eligibility criteria will be deemed ineligible and will be rejected.

Expertise France will check that each submitted project meets all of the following eligibility criteria:

• Duration
  • Duration Project duration must be between 24 and 36 months.
• Grants Amount and Eligible Countries
  • The 5% Initiative will cover 50% to 100% of the total project budget and grants will range from €250,000 to €1 million (€1,000,000).
  • It is mandatory for organizations with an annual budget of over €5 million to present co-funding in the project budget. Including co-funding will be judged favorably for other organizations.
  • Projects may be implemented in one or more countries. Projects may not exceed 5 implementing countries, unless they are supported by a pre-existing subregional network or organization. Regional proposals must be clearly justified and will receive special attention from the evaluators if the project is eligible.
• Status and Partnerships
  • To qualify for a grant, applicants must:
    • Be a legal entity that has its head office in an eligible country or in France (i.e. be legally registered in an eligible country or in France) and
    • Include at least one partner from each beneficiary country and
    • Not have any statutory provisions that would not permit Expertise France or any external auditor appointed by Expertise France to carry out on-the-spot checks and inspections and to have relevant rights to access the sites and premises where the project will be carried out, including access to computer systems, and all documents and computerized data concerning the technical and financial management of the project.
  • Local organizations in eligible countries may submit a project as lead applicant.
  • International organizations may be expertise providers, but cannot be project leads or receive funding. This provision does not apply to regional organizations.
  • For this call for proposals, each organization can only apply once as lead applicant. An organization can nevertheless participate in several projects as a partner.
  • Implementing projects in partnership implies that the lead applicant’s partners are involved in the project design and are responsible for the implementation of activities and they are responsible for a proportion of the budget.
• Eligible Countries
  • The countries eligible for this call are: Albania, Armenia, Benin, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Comoros, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Dominica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Gabon, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Kosovo, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania, Moldova, Montenegro, Mozambique, Niger, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Republic of Mauritius, Romania, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, St Lucia, Senegal, Serbia, Chad, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Ukraine, Vanuatu, Vietnam
  • The projects presented can be carried out for beneficiaries exclusively in one or more of these countries, and only on eligible Global Fund focus areas (HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis).
• Management Capacity
  • The lead applicant has sufficient management capacity to manage the requested budget.
  • The capacity to manage the budget will be determined based on, among other things, a presentation of the organization, its most recent validated annual budget and audit report, its 2019 projected budget, and a description of the team currently in charge of administrative and financial management within the organization.
  • The average annual cost of the project must not exceed 70% of the lead applicant’s annual budget12. For example, for an organization with an annual budget of 400,000 Euros, the total amount for the project should not exceed 280,000 Euros on average per year, for a total of 840,000 Euros over 36 months.
• Principal Researcher
  • Projects led by organizations in the North must have two principal researchers, one from the North and one from the recipient country.
• Completeness
  • All the documents and information requested in section 8 must be submitted. Incomplete applications will be rejected outright. Missing documents will not be requested retrospectively from applicants.
  • Only projects meeting all of these eligibility criteria will be considered eligible and move on to the next stage.

Assessment Criteria

Only eligible projects will be assessed.

The following areas will be essential whether projects are selected for funding:

• Project quality
• Global Fund
• Partnerships and capacity building
• Priorities and national recommendations
• Multisectoral and multidisciplinary approach
• Dissemination of results and impact
• Gender and operational research
• Project governance

Documents Required

Proposals must be written in French or English and include the following documents:

• Application form
• Gantt Chart
• Budget
  • Detailed budget in Euros
  • Narrative budget
• Risk management table
• Partner summary table
• Copy of the original statutes or articles of association of the lead applicant
• Last approved annual budget for 2017 or 2018
• The lead applicant organization’s projected budget for 2019
• The last annual activity report
• The last validated audit report
• Letters of commitment for each of the partner organizations involved in implementing the project
• CVs of the members of the proposed project implementation team.
• Written commitment from the scientific coordinators for the project.
• Support letter(s) from the CCM(s) in the countries concerned

How to Apply

• All proposal files must be uploaded to the Expertise France Cloud.
• Applicants will be required to apply for a Cloud access link between May 15th and June 21st by sending an email with the subject line “Link request + calls for proposals number” to the following address given on the website.

For more information, please visit https://www.initiative5pour100.fr/en/partnerships-and-expertise/calls-for-proposals/