Confronting the COVID-19 pandemic together and ensuring the sustainability of our support to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria
After recalling the safety and security of all teams, both at headquarters and in the field, for Expertise France and its partners, in the face of a health crisis on the scale of that of COVID-19, the following flexibilities and opportunities are proposed. The 5% Initiative intends to contribute fully to the efforts of the Expertise France agency, which itself contributes to the response against COVID-19 by the French team, in close cooperation with AFD, the MEAE, civil society organizations, the scientific and medical research community, and the French Red Cross.
We are well aware that some activities will slow down or shift and that others will not be able to take place, which will have an impact on projects and technical assistance missions. And that at the same time, the context of the COVID-19 pandemic needs to be taken into account in order to sustain activities to the extent possible.
Technical support missions
Implementation of technical assistance missions in support of access to Global Fund financing and the implementation of Global Fund-financed activities.
For the Expertise Channel, circumstances require us to drastically review the way we work. Priority will be given to continuing support, where possible, to eligible countries preparing their new funding requests. Support for reprogramming offered by the Global Fund on the response to COVID-19 will also be considered. Other technical assistance missions are suspended for the time being. Please contact your project officer at L’Initiative for more information.
Funding projects
Support for catalytic activities in eligible countries, with the aim of improving the health environment, policies, or practices.
For the Projects Channel, we have provided the following possibilities for current project partners (i.e., contractually linked to Expertise France under L’Initiative):
Each project partner will be able to benefit from the measures relating to extensions and suspensions of activities provided for in our contracts. Simply make a request to your project officer; amendments will potentially be required on a case-by-case basis. The whole team is at your disposal (working from home) and don’t worry, we will show all the necessary flexibility.
A reprogramming for ongoing projects, with a COVID-19 orientation, for activities of prevention, upgrading of care, ensuring continuity of care and access to treatment, training of care personnel, and finally, the purchase of necessary equipment (GHA, gloves, masks, etc.) is open. Up to 10% of the grant can be reprogrammed to be allocated to COVID-19 activities related to the activities already planned in the projects. Amendments will be required on a case-by-case basis, but activities resulting from reprogramming may start as soon as the Initiative’s written agreement is obtained, even before the amendment is signed, in exceptional circumstances.
Finally, in the event that reprogramming is not sufficient, L’Initiative opens up the opportunity for additional funding to increase the resources of the stakeholders and partners that we already support. Starting from a short application (forms to be requested from your project officers), it is possible to request additional funding (top-up) of up to 15% of the current grant. This additional funding will be used to finance activities in the fight against COVID-19 only in connection with the activities carried out by the project leader in the three diseases (HIV, TB, and malaria) or in the strengthening of health systems in the eligible countries of the 5% Initiative. This additional funding will be subject to an accelerated review with two submissions per week possible. They will all have to be validated by the steering committee of the 5% Initiative and will be subject to an amendment.
