Health System Strengthening Projects Focused on Human Resources

Deadline: 21-Jan-2025

L’Initiative has launched the Health System Strengthening Projects designed to support next phase projects that build on previous Initiative funding, to further strengthen health systems, with an emphasis on human resources.

As part of the funding cycle, L’Initiative prioritizes the empowerment of health systems by investing in healthcare human resources. Skilled and well-organized human resources are essential for creating high-performing, effective health systems capable of addressing HIV, tuberculosis, and AIDS.

Aims

This call is focused exclusively on the series of projects aimed at strengthening the role of key and vulnerable populations. L’Initiative intends to continue its support to interventions and approaches that have demonstrated effectiveness and for which a next phase grant would enable the results achieved to be deepened or scaled up.
Supported projects may fall into one or more of these categories. Next phase projects are those that are supported for a second phase or more, that focus on:
- Integration by national policies (strategic plan, health program, integration into the health system); and/ or by funding from the Global Fund or other donors.
- Activities being replicated and adapted for other beneficiaries and/or expansion to other regions/districts/cities.
- Going more in depth with the approach developed.
- Trans Transferring to a local lead implementer.
- Continuation project.

Focus

Proposed interventions will focus in particular on:
- Strengthening human resources for health through:
  - Interventions to strengthen initial and ongoing training for human resources for health as a key catalyst to ensure effective provision to the population, i.e. having sufficient numbers of health personnel that are sufficiently competent and qualified to meet needs.
    - Promoting training that provides certificates and diplomas, including for community health workers.
    - Promoting gender mainstreaming as a major determinant of health in the training curricula for health professionals.
    - Promoting training that follows international guidelines.
    - Promoting the availability and quality of educational infrastructure and equipment.
    - Professional, teaching and interpersonal skills of trainers.
    - Management and accreditation of programs.
    - Geographic spread of training programs and internships to ensure a good distribution of health professionals.
  - Interventions to support policies, programs and to strengthen and manage human resources for health, aimed in particular at:
    - Geographic planning and distribution of human resources for health based on demographic and health data.
    - Programs to structure and forecast plan professions.
    - More efficient distribution of tasks.
    - Occupational health.
    - Regulating health professionals in the public, private, for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.
    - Recruitment and professional integration methods for young graduates.
    - Quality and practice checks.
    - Health professional status, particularly community health professionals.
    - Financing and remuneration of health personnel and benefits allowing for their retention in the system, good living conditions and a safe professional environment conducive to delivering quality care, as well as local support/mentoring, etc.
    - Gender mainstreaming and diversity in human resources for health policies, procedures and interventions.
    - Integration of mental health into health services.
- Strengthening national systems for procurement and supply management (PSM) systems for drugs and health products, as well as strengthening pharmaceutical governance including linkages with national and regional drug agencies.
- Projects that align HIV, tuberculosis and malaria control programs with sexual and reproductive health, maternal, child and adolescent health programs and integrated service delivery platforms at all levels of the health system, including at the community level.
- Strengthening health information systems, with particular focus on the production and use of safe, quality, timely, transparent and interoperable health data, respecting human rights and in accordance with the 14 ethical principles for the primary and secondary use of health data adopted and promoted in global health by the European Union.

Funding Information

The total requested grant amount must cover at least 50% of the project budget and be between €650,000 and €3,500,000.

Duration

Project duration must be between 36 and 48 months.

Eligibility Criteria

It must be submitted submitted by a lead applicant, in collaboration with “implementing partners” or “associate stakeholders:
- The “lead applicant” is the organization that submits the letter of intent and completes the full proposal if they are pre-selected. Lead applicants are the sole recipients of L’Initiative grants and shall be individually responsible vis-à-vis Expertise France for implementation of the Project.
- The project lead applicant must be legally registered and have a board of directors/management committee and a registered headquarters in an eligible country or in France. International organizations, with the exception of regional non-state organizations, may not be the lead applicant or an implementing partner of projects. However, they can be associated stakeholders that do not receive any delegated budget.
- The lead applicant must have been legally registered for at least 3 years at the time of project submission.
- Lead applicants and implementing partners must not have any statutory provisions that prevent Expertise France, or any external auditor appointed by Expertise France, to carry out on-the-spot checks and inspections and have relevant rights to access the project sites and premises where the project will be carried out, including access to all documents and electronic data relating to the technical and financial management of the project.
Be implemented in one or more of the 38 eligible countries listed below:
- Algeria, Benin, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritius, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra, Leone, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Ukraine, Vietnam.

For more information, visit L’Initiative.